Wife and 3 year old were on the interstate in slowing traffic and were slammed into by a driver who told cops "he must have turned his head for a second". Crunched the rear end of our 2010 minivan. Cops showed up and everything was towed away. We received a rental car the same day paid for by the other drivers insurance. Repair estimates came back at about $7200. The other drivers insurance acknowledged he was at fault. Our vehicle is worth about $13k so that's about 55%. Our little one banged her head in the car seat but we got her checked out and she seems ok. My wife has had neck and back pain since and had a week of non-stop headaches a few days after the accident. She saw an orthopedic and the X-ray shows no structural damage but wanted us to check back in 4-5 weeks. We spoke with our insurance and they said our Medpay would cover up to $5k and in our state they would choose not to recoup that from the other driver's insurance so essentially the other driver is off the hook for the first $5k in medical.

Ironically enough, we had our vehicles hit by a drunk driver over Memorial Day....an 18yr kid with three 15 yr old girls in the car at 4am while the cars were were sitting in the driveway. One car was totaled and the other (same vehicle as above) had $4k in damage. This is the SAME insurance company by the way...it's on of the big ones. I dealt with them directly and they paid for everything they needed to in my estimation. The diminished value was a little lower than I would have liked but it is what it is.

So in this case we will have obviously a big repair bill and I've been told that if we are at 60% repair value then they will discuss just reimbursing for the vehicle. We owe about $10k so we would have to go and buy a new car which is a PIA also.

My question is whether we need an atty to help with the car and also help make sure any future medical is covered. I know an attorney is going to likely work on a contingency fee type basis and cost somewhere around 33% of anything recovered so if I could go about it without an attorney I'd prefer it, but it's not my expertise. I handled the previous settlement with the same insurance company but it was fairly cut and dry - car repair, property damage repair, rental car and diminished value. There was no personal injury involved.

Cliffs:

1. Wife rear ended hard on interstate - suffered some upper back and neck injury from accident. Child ok.

2. Car damage is $7k, roughly 55% of value of vehicle.

3. Insurance acknowledged other driver was at fault, they'd cover repairs, rental car and any medical...but our own auto insurance Medpay covers first $5k with no reimbursement (per our state).

4. Concerns mainly about future lingering medical from back/neck/headaches and also that the car really needs to be replaced instead of repaired.

5. Debating whether or not to contact accident attorney.

Thanks in advance -

IT

OP,

Has the other driver's insurance company contacted you directly?

No downside to getting an initial consult or two.

Yes, A claim has been opened and adjuster assigned. I spoke with her directly last week. She indicated that she took a statement from their driver and then indicated they would be covering our rental car, repairs, any medical etc.

Our vehicle was towed to repair location and we were just contacted yesterday with repair estimate from insurance representative.

Get a lawyer.

Do not talk with either your own insurance company or the other driver's until you have met with an attorney.

Both your wife and child have suffered injuries with your wife continuing to be affected by the accident.

Both insurance companies are going to act like your friend right now because the other driver is 100% responsible for the accident because he hit another vehicle from behind. They do not have your best interests in mind. They simply want to limit their financial exposure.

The sooner you meet with a good lawyer, the sooner you begin to protect yourself in this situation.

Guy took your wife from behind. I wouldn't stand for that

You need an attorney. At the very least, the accident removed your ability to understand what irony is.

^^ lol was thinking the same thing

What this thread needs is 100+ "Better Call Saul!" posts, and no "irony" derails.

Seriously, OP, this is no DIY job. If your wife or child had a toothache, you wouldn't try to handle it yourself to avoid being overcharged by a dentist. You know that you don't know how to fix a bad tooth, you let a trained professional handle it for you. If this accident injured your wife seriously enough that she still felt even the slightest discomfort the next day, you owe it to her to make sure she is taken care of for as long as she needs.

You *know* this. Right?

This x 1,000

Better Call Saul!

+1

If your wife is injured, you can get money if she is unable to work and/or unable to do housework... in addition to whatever you get for the medical bills and the car repair bills.

Plus if your wife is too banged up to have sex with you, I'm pretty sure you can get some bonus money for that.

Start documenting your expenses for call girls and hookers now, this will be an important part of your damages later in the lawsuit.

Time to get paid baby!

Injuries make it an easy call. Get an attorney.

I know an attorney that always adds a claim for the spouse. He's generally pretty shady. Is it common?

I agree with you OP that you should look at this accident differently to your previous one with the personal injury involved. Even if you don't retain an attorney to act for you, it would be of enormous benefit to you to meet with one to discuss a strategy moving forward to be able to secure the compensation that you need to deal with the future medical costs involved for your wife.

Thanks all....I've reached out to a couple attorneys nearby to talk about the next step.

I'll definitely hold off speaking with either insurance company until we know more.

Thanks for all the insight-

My wife doesn't need a reason to say no lol

get archie bunker lawyers imo rebinovitz rebinovitz and rebinovitz.

What state are you in OP? Makes a huge difference depending on the laws.

Fwiw I am an insurance adjuster. Sometimes a lawyer will gain you something. Most of the time, you're just pissing money away.

You will be astonished at how horribly worse the injuries are once your wife visits a personal injury specialists doctors and who will just love for you to walk in the door.

Making ambulance chasers happy is a ****ty reason to do anything.

Contact your company, go over your concerns, if you are still not satisfied, then go see the lawyer.

See the lawyer first.

In my post poker world I work for an insurance company.

There is absolutely no reason you can't talk to your own insurance company. You aren't going to lose anything.

When it comes to getting an ATTY I think there's a dividing line where you should and shouldn't do it. If the injuries are largely soft tissue, and you aren't going to be having any surgery or major medical tests done then I wouldn't retain one. He's going to take a pretty big portion of your settlement in exchange for putting your paperwork in order.

Edit: I also want to point out, not that you feel this way, but just for informational purposes. Getting an attorney isn't going to give you any kind of leverage in your negotiation. They have entire departments with claim reps that do nothing but handle attorney repped files. You are basically paying entirely for their experience in the field. You case isn't going to go to court. So just keep in mind what you are paying for.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you have an attorney the process of being paid out for the injuries is likely to take way way longer. The attorney will want you to go to every single chiro session or doctor visit he possibly can. If you settle it yourself, you can usually get those things included and then just stop going when you feel better.

I would also make it 100% absolutely clear that the ATTY is not handling you for your vehicle. The ATTY has virtually no impact on the numbers they run for you and has no ability to make them increase the offer. All they will do is take a % of your vehicle settlement for no reason. You spoke about your vehicle being totaled vs not being totaled above....the attorney has no impact on that whatsoever. It's a math problem that the insurance company does.