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Drunk Driving
Victims FAQs
Irresponsible
drivers who cause serious injury while Driving
Under the Influence (DUI) may face felony
charges in Washington State. Brett & Coats PLLC is proud represent blameless drivers,
passengers and families as they seek justice
against those who choose to drive while
intoxicated. Brett & Coats PLLC has been
helping Washington State and Canadian victims of
personal injury win substantial settlements and
awards for more than 33 years.
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How do I
successfully pursue personal injury DUI
insurance claim?
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What types of money damages can I recover?
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How much is my injury claim worth?
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What should I do immediately to help preserve
my claim?
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How should I select a lawyer to represent me?
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How much will it cost to hire a lawyer?
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How does the insurance claim process work?
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What can I do if the person who caused the
injury is uninsured?
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How can I deal with my immediate medical
bills?
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How long do I have to file a claim?
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What if I have a preexisting medical
condition?
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Who is held responsible for a drunk driving
(DUI) injury?
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What types of money damages are allowed for
wrongful death?
1.
How do I successfully pursue personal injury DUI
insurance claim?
Four requirements
must be met to receive compensation in your
driving-while-under-the-influence-related
personal injury insurance claim:
- You must prove
that the accident occurred due to the
reckless or negligent actions of another
party,
- You must prove
that you were injured,
- You must
establish that your injury was caused by the
accident and not by a preexisting condition
or unrelated event, and
- You must
establish that the party who injured you was
insured.
An insurance
company will only pay for a personal injury
accident claim if you prove that your injury
occurred because of another's reckless or
negligent actions. Obviously, a party who drives
while intoxicated fails in their duty to act
with reasonable care. Inflicting serious injury
while driving while under the influence is
considered a felony in Washington State, and an
alcohol or drug impaired driver who causes an
accident can be sued for negligence by the
victim or a family member of a deceased victim.
More than one
person or entity may have been partially at
fault in your accident, and you may have even
been partially at fault. In these situations,
the court distributes the fault among all of
these entities. Generally, if the other person
bore 80% of the fault and you were responsible
for the remaining 20%, you will recover only 80%
of your total damages. If several people were at
fault, there are special rules on "joint
and several liability" that govern the
portion of the total damages that are paid by
each person or entity at fault. If you face a
situation where several people or entities may
have been negligent, your best course of action
is to consult with an experienced personal
injury lawyer who can help to prove your claim.
At Brett & Coats PLLC, we offer a free
case evaluation to determine the likelihood of a
recovery and the likely range of any recovery.
Contact us for your free case evaluation.
If you have been
injured through the fault of another, your
lawyer should immediately obtain all records,
witness statements and photographic evidence so
that the issue of fault is immediately laid to
rest. Your attorney must act promptly since
memories fade, conditions change and witnesses
move. Without proof of fault you cannot support
a claim for your injuries.
In order to prove
who was at fault for an accident, your attorney
should also obtain all investigative records
from the Washington State Patrol and any other
police agency involved, including witness and
investigating officer interviews. In more
complicated cases, your lawyer may hire licensed
engineers to reconstruct the collision, or civil
engineers to evaluate the effect of the highway
design, or mechanical engineers to evaluate any
equipment malfunction.
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2.
What types of money damages can I recover?
You are entitled
to be compensated for your losses if you were
injured because of another party's negligence or
careless actions. The justice system's goal is
to attempt to restore you to your position prior
to your injury. While the justice system
recognizes that money cannot undo the accident
that caused your injury, it works to provide
fair financial damages to compensate for the
injury. There are six main categories of damages
you may be entitled to:
- Property
Damages - You are entitled to repair or
replacement of any property damaged in the
accident. For example, damage to your car,
your clothes, your eyeglasses or other
personal property. For more information on
Property Damages click here
- Medical
Expenses - All costs incurred for health
care should be repaid to you including
ambulance bills, hospital bills and charges
for surgical, medical or chiropractic care.
Depending upon the type of insurance
coverage you or the other party purchased,
you may be entitled to payment of these
bills regardless of who caused the accident.
For more information on Medical Expenses to
date click here.
- Future Medical
Expenses - You are entitled to a sum of
money that will enable you to pay for future
medical care of injuries or disabilities
caused by the accident. For example, you may
be entitled to future surgical care or
future in-home nursing care if you are
disabled. For more information on Future
Medical Expenses click here
- Lost Income -
Even if you are self-employed or work on
commission, you are entitled to be paid for
the income lost because of your injury.
These damages are meant to cover lost wages
from your job while in the hospital, lost
income while recuperating and visiting the
doctor and for continued therapy visits
after your return to work.For more
information on Lost Income click here
- Lost Future
Earning Capacity - If you are partially or
completely disabled from employment because
of your injury, you are entitled to a sum of
money that will compensate you for the lost
capacity to earn income in the future.For
more information on Lost Future Earning
Capacity click here.
- General
Damages for Pain and Suffering - You are
entitled to be compensated in dollars for
the pain, suffering, disfigurement and
disability you have experienced as a result
of the injury. An experienced attorney can
help to assess the dollar amount of the loss
based on their experience in other similar
cases as well as their understanding of the
local justice system. Your lawyer will be
invaluable in working with the insurance
company and substantiating your claim.For
more information on General Damages for Pain
and Suffering click here.
Additional
information on Property Damages
You are entitled
to have personal property damages paid by the
insurance company of the person who caused the
injury. If the personal property was damaged
beyond repair, you are entitled to the
difference between the fair cash market value of
the damaged property immediately before it was
damaged and its salvage value. If the personal
property is repairable, you are entitled to
recover the lesser of the cost of repairs plus
any diminished value after the repairs, or the
difference between the fair cash market value
before the damage and the salvage value. In
either case, you are entitled to a sum to
compensate you for loss of use of the property
during the time reasonably required for repair
or replacement.
Often if your
only losses are to personal property and you
were not injured in the accident, you can
negotiate a settlement directly with the
insurance adjuster without the help of a lawyer.
(Back to question 2)
Additional
Information on Medical Expenses
As a personal
injury victim, you are entitled to any medical
expenses incurred as a result of your
DUI-related personal injury. These expenses will
be paid by the insurance company of the party at
fault for causing your injury. To acquire these
sums, your attorney will collect all of your
medical records from health care providers,
including bills. This documentation is then
provided to the insurance company to prove that
the expense was incurred and that the treatment
was required because of the accident. The
insurance company may attempt to argue that you
had a preexisting condition that dictated the
treatment or that another injury required the
treatment. In order to protect you against this
ploy, a skilled attorney will obtain a complete
history of medical care predating the accident,
including a written statement from the attending
physician confirming that in their professional
opinion the need for treatment was more than
likely attributable to the accident.
Recovering
compensation for medical expenses from an
insurance company is similar to filing for an
income tax refund from the government - you need
to collect all of your receipts and accurately
fill out the required paperwork. Brett & Coats attorneys and paralegals are trained to
handle the paper process in a timely, proactive
manner.
(Back to question 2)
Additional
Information on Future Medical Care
You are entitled
to compensation to pay for future medical care
related to your injury. The insurance company
will require an accurate, detailed estimate from
the physician or health care workers who will
provide your future health care services.
Your attorney
will obtain your complete written medical
records from all health care providers so that
the insurance company (and you) can see the
doctor's diagnosis and recommended treatment for
your injury. Your lawyer will meet regularly
with physicians to review the records and help
them to address the insurance company's
requirements in order to pay for future medical
care.
It is important
to remember that there is a one-time lump-sum
payment for future medical care paid at
settlement. Once a claim is settled, it is not
generally possible to reopen the claim.
At Brett & Coats, PLLC, we are careful to
avoid settlement until we know all of our
client's future medical needs.
(Back to question 2)
Additional
Information on Lost Income
If you have been
injured through the fault of another, you are
entitled to recover all the lost income caused
by the injury, including lost wages from your
job while in the hospital, lost income while
recuperating, doctor visits and any continued
therapy visits after your return to work.
Medical proof of your inability to work and the
amount of pay that will be lost due to the
injury must be calculated. If you are a wage
earner who lost a specific number of hours of
work, you are entitled to receive your hourly
wage for each hour lost. However, if you work on
commission (like a realtor), or if you are
self-employed (like a fisherman), your lawyer
must reconstruct your financial losses by
reviewing business, tax and accounting records
from prior years to determine your future wages.
Your lawyer will
obtain your complete written medical records
from all health care providers to confirm the
doctor's opinion regarding your medical
situation. Your attorney will also meet
regularly with doctors to review the records and
help them to address the specific requirements
imposed by the insurance companies before they
are willing to concede that a client has been
unable to work because of the injury.
(Back to question 2)
Additional
Information on Future Lost Income
You are entitled
to compensation for the loss of future income or
future loss of earning capacity. In order to
receive an award, you must provide medical proof
that your injury will inhibit your ability to
earn income in the future. You must also
demonstrate the amount of income you will lose.
Projecting the amount of future income lost can
be a simple or complicated process depending on
your type of employment. While this can be
difficult, the Brett & Coats, PLLC team is
experienced in economic reconstruction and
projection.
To prove that you
are unable to work or cannot work at the same
level of earnings you enjoyed before the injury,
your attorney will obtain a written statement
from a doctor describing your medical condition
and prognosis. This documentation is then
reviewed by a vocational rehabilitation
specialist who can better assess your ability to
perform in the work force with the medical
condition. The specialist's review often
requires extensive physical, mental and
psychological testing. Once the vocational
specialist establishes a level of employment
ability, an economist will be consulted to
estimate the difference between the anticipated
future earnings prior to the accident and the
earnings you can now expect in the future as a
result of total or partial disability. This
difference is the loss of future earnings or
loss of future earning capacity.
If you were
partially or completely disabled as a result of
an injury caused by someone else, the loss of
future income or an inability to work at the
same level can have a significant impact on your
capacity to support yourself and your family.
Talk with an experienced legal professional at
Brett & Coats PLLC before you attempt to
negotiate a settlement with an insurance
adjuster whose goal is to minimize the insurance
company's payout.
(Back to question 2)
Additional
Information on General Damages for Pain and
Suffering
The law is clear
regarding a victim's right to recover money
damages for pain, suffering, disability and
disfigurement. However, it is more difficult to
estimate the amount of money required to
compensate a victim for their loss. This
difficulty is compounded by the need to prove
the calculation to an insurance company or a
court. While medical expenses or lost wages can
be substantiated through bills or pay stubs, how
is a value assigned to pain? How do we measure
what pain is worth? Since we can't ask
volunteers to describe how much money they would
be willing to accept to be seriously injured in
an accident with a drunken driver, instead we
estimate the money value in a pain and suffering
claim by analyzing damage awards made in similar
cases. At Brett & Coats PLLC, we have
access to state, regional and national
publications, as well as computerized data banks
to identify similar cases and project a solid
estimate of the range of awards made for similar
losses. These comparisons help us to secure the
most fair settlement amount with the insurance
company. In situations where the insurance
company refuses to pay a fair settlement, our
attorneys have the skill to present real human
losses to a jury in a compelling way. Because
our experienced personal injury attorneys are
always prepared to take a claim to trial (and
the insurance companies know it), we can usually
obtain a favorable settlement that includes an
appropriate amount for general damages in an out
of court settlement.
(Back to question 2)
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3.
How much is my injury claim worth?
There are two
ways to estimate the monetary settlement value
of a claim, and our attorneys recommend that
both be used to achieve success in a DUI
personal injury accident claim.
To find a total
claim value, add up the amounts you are entitled
to for property damage, medical expenses to
date, future medical expenses, lost earnings to
date, future lost earnings, and general damages
for pain and suffering. Since damages such as
general damages for pain and suffering are
difficult to evaluate, the second method of
assigning a monetary settlement value is used.
Your attorney will review state, regional and
national publications and computerized databases
to find similar claims with similar injuries and
similar liability patterns to develop a
statistical analysis of your claim's value.
If you have been
seriously injured through someone else's fault,
you should not attempt to estimate the value of
your claim without professional assistance. At
Brett & Coats PLLC, we offer a free case
evaluation to determine the likelihood of a
recovery and the likely range of any recovery.
Contact us for your free case evaluation.
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4.
What should I do immediately to help preserve my
claim?
The answer to
this question is not: "Get a lawyer
quickly" or "be your own lawyer".
Instead, work to keep your claim alive until you
can select a proven personal injury attorney. To
support your claim before you meet with an
attorney, it is important to preserve evidence
and protect your negotiating position. By
documenting your accident and injuries, you are
substantiating your claim and providing your
chosen attorney with a head start on your legal
strategy.
The first step in
preserving evidence is to obtain the name,
address, phone number and insurance information
from the party that caused the accident. Take
photographs of the accident scene, pictures of
the damaged automobiles, photographs of your
injury, and photographs of yourself during your
recovery period. Do not attempt to interview
witnesses to the accident. Instead, record their
names, addresses and phone numbers so that if
there is a later dispute you will have objective
bystanders to support your version of events.
Also, be sure to keep a daily journal beginning
with the date of the accident to document all
physical and mental injuries, as well as your
perspective of the accident. Bring all of this
to your lawyer once you have selected one.
Next, preserve
your negotiating position. Do not sign anything
presented by the insurance adjuster. Do not give
a written or oral statement to an insurance
adjuster. Do not attempt to negotiate a
settlement with an insurance adjuster who works
to minimize payouts. While you are in the
process of preserving evidence and protecting
your negotiating position, you can also invest
the time to find a first-class personal injury
lawyer.
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5.
How should I select a lawyer to represent me?
When you select a
lawyer to represent you in a personal injury
claim, consider three factors:
Does
this lawyer have a reputation for excellent
legal ability and high ethical standards? The
Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory is a
twenty-four volume set listing almost all of the
lawyers in the United States and rating their
legal ability as A (very high to preeminent), B
(high to very high), C (fair to high) or no
rating. A rating of V is given for high-ethical
standards. At Brett & Coats PLLC, we are
proud of our Martindale Hubbell AV rating, the
highest available. The Martindale-Hubbell
directory is also available online at www.martindale.com.
But you don't have to rely solely on a
publication. You can ask people in our community
who have experienced the legal system, talk with
someone who works in the courthouse, or discuss
your situation with someone experienced in
personal injury accident claims. Ask a number of
people to see if any particular name keeps
coming up. Also, look at the Brett & Coats PLLC attorney
profiles to see that our firm's attorneys
are well qualified to handle your DUI-related
personal injury claim. For example, Dean Brett
has repeatedly been selected as a
"Superlawyer" by Washington Law
& Politics Magazine, and has been
selected as a Fellow of the American College of
Trial Lawyers. Dean Brett has served on the Board of
Governors of the Washington State Trial Lawyers
Association, the state-wide group dedicated to
fighting for victims of negligence.
Does
this lawyer have experience handling my
particular type of personal injury case? If you
have been injured by another party's negligence,
a divorce attorney or a lawyer who works in
estate planning cannot provide the best
representation. You need to hire an experienced
personal injury lawyer with the credentials to
effectively represent your interests. Relatively
few lawyers devote most of their practice to
representing individuals with claims for
personal injury or wrongful death. Before you
hire a lawyer, you should know how many times
the attorney has actually gone to court on a
personal injury claim. You should also know
whether that attorney has ever obtained a
verdict or settlement in a personal injury case
of over a million dollars, or over $100,000, or
even over $50,000. Don't allow the lawyer to
answer your questions with generalizations. Ask
for specific cases with specific results.
Remember, when you talk to a lawyer you are
interviewing him or her for a job working for
you. Look at their resume. You may also be
interested in looking at our results case
results.
Does
this attorney inspire trust and confidence? You
should hire a lawyer in whom you feel
comfortable placing your trust and confidence.
Remember, the lawyer is going to be employed by
you, to represent you. You need someone easy to
talk to, someone who will explain and advise on
your situation. The best way to determine your
comfort level is to personally meet the lawyer.
If you want to take things a step at a time,
talk to the lawyer on the phone and test your
comfort level prior to scheduling an
appointment. At Brett & Coats PLLC, we
offer a free case evaluation to help determine
the likelihood of a successful claim and the
likely range of any financial recovery. This is
an excellent opportunity to decide if you are
comfortable placing your trust and confidence in
a personal injury lawyer at Brett & Coats PLLC. Contact us
for your free case evaluation.
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6.
How much will it cost to hire a lawyer?
At Brett & Coats PLLC, our clients have a choice in how
they pay for legal services. We can charge on an
hourly basis or on a contingency fee.
If you choose to
hire us on an hourly basis, we will track the
time our lawyers and paralegals spend on your
case and bill you monthly. Our hourly rates
range from $225 for lead trial attorneys to $185
for associate trial lawyers and $80 for
paralegals. On hourly billings, there are two
basic rules: all fees and costs must be paid
monthly and our firm is paid regardless of
whether your claim is won or lost.
With a
contingency fee arrangement, we are paid
one-third of any recovery by settlement or
judgment. If there is no recovery, you owe us
nothing for our legal services. However, you
must pay your own costs, such as the charges
doctors make for providing records and reports,
out of the money you receive when the case is
settled.
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7.
How does the insurance claim process work?
Insurance
companies are in business to make a profit.
Generally, the insurance company's profit is the
difference between it collects in premiums and
what it pays out in claims. Therefore, the
insurance adjuster's job is to settle your claim
for as little as possible to maximize the
company's profit. Your lawyer's job is to settle
your claim for its maximum value.
We know how to
work with insurance companies. Insurance
companies have developed a huge bureaucracy to
scrutinize, criticize, evaluate and ultimately
pay insurance claims. The insurance adjuster's
job is to identify false or fraudulent claims
and to refuse to pay undocumented claims. The
insurance adjuster is trying to build a file, to
critically evaluate your claim, and to pay as
little as possible to settle your claim as soon
as possible. Remember, the insurance adjuster
reports to a supervisor. If the adjuster has a
thin, small file on a claim that was settled for
$10,000, the supervisor is likely to say
"You paid too much. This file does not
support a $10,000 payment." Conversely, if
the adjuster settles a claim for $100,000 and
gives the supervisor a thick and well-documented
file that includes complete witness statements,
complete medical opinion letters, and
comprehensive records of all medical care, wage
losses, and other expenses, the supervisor is
more likely to say, "That's fine, the claim
was worth $100,000". Your attorney's role
is to help the insurance adjuster build a file
that supports a full and fair claim settlement.
Your lawyer's
goal should be to maximize your financial
recovery from your injury. Your attorney should
have a reputation for honest dealing; for a fair
but firm settlement posture; for refusing to
settle for a penny less than the claim is worth;
and for being prepared to take each claim to
trial to get a full and fair recovery, if
necessary.
There are
basically five steps the insurance adjuster must
take in handling a personal injury claim:
1.
Collecting Information
2. Setting Reserves
3. Evaluating Damages
4. Negotiating Settlement
5. Defending in Trial if Necessary
Collecting
Information. Since the adjuster must collect
information needed to understand your claim,
your lawyer should provide all the required
information to validate the claim to the
adjuster and their company. Sometimes insurance
adjusters are so busy looking for damaging
information about you or your claim that they
miss favorable information. Your attorney should
collect and highlight that favorable information
- witness statements, photographs of the
collision and your injury, opinion letters from
experts in medicine, accident reconstruction and
economic loss. When your attorney presents the
claim to the adjuster, he is more likely to
understand the significance of your claim.
Setting
Reserves. When a claim comes in, the company
must set reserves, an accounting entry, to
assure government regulators that the company
has adequate money to pay the claim. If initial
reserves are set too low, when the time comes to
settle the claim, the adjuster will sometimes be
too limited in the amount of money he can offer
in settlement. Your attorney must get the
appropriate information to the adjuster as soon
as possible to assist the company in setting
high enough reserves that the ultimate
settlement can be for the full claim value.
Evaluating
Damages. Since the adjusters must evaluate the
claim value, your attorney should provide them
with all relevant information, including
comparable cases from state, regional and
national publications and computerized
databases, and our own evaluation of the claim's
value to assist the adjuster in coming to a full
and fair evaluation.
Negotiating
Settlement. There is an old saying, "A
lawyer who represents himself, has a fool for a
client." Likewise, a personal injury victim
who attempts to negotiate a settlement with a
professional insurance adjuster is likely to
recover far less than the claim's true value. Do
not attempt to negotiate a settlement of your
personal injury claim without professional
advice.
Defending
in Trial if Necessary. If a settlement cannot be
negotiated, the insurance company must defend
its position in court. To improve your chances
for compensation at trial, your attorney must
have a quality reputation, proven credentials, a
fair but firm settlement posture that refuses to
settle for less than a full claim value, and the
ability and resources to prepare for an
aggressive litigation of your claim.
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8.
What can I do if the person who caused the
injury is uninsured?
If you are
uncertain as to whether the party at fault for
the accident has sufficient insurance, contact a
lawyer immediately to help you gain this
critical information.
Brett & Coats PLLC attorneys have represented many
individuals who have been injured by an
uninsured or underinsured party who cannot pay a
full and fair claim. While these cases can be
difficult, do not give-up until you investigate
other potential sources of compensation for your
injuries. Other possibilities include
underinsured motorists coverage, the Crime
Victim's Compensation Act, and "joint and
several" liability of insured individuals
whose negligence combined with that of the
uninsured party to cause your injuries. Although
a lawyer cannot guarantee that he or she can
find coverage and obtain a recovery for you, an
effective attorney is obliged to explore all of
the alternatives and advise you of their
availability in your situation.
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9.
How can I deal with my immediate medical bills?
To ensure that
you continue to receive the highest quality
medical care and to protect your credit, it is
important to immediately pay medical bills. As a
part of our representation in your personal
injury claim, Brett & Coats PLLC will
manage payment of your medical bills. Your
priorities are to find the best medical care,
follow your doctor's advice, strive to reach the
best possible medical recovery, and send all
your bills to the Brett & Coats PLLC
office. In turn, we will coordinate the
paperwork to obtain payment of those medical
bills through your own medical coverage; the
insurance coverage of any parties involved in
the accident; state and federal medical payment
programs; or by arranging with your health care
providers to hold collection until you receive
your settlement.
Your good health
is too important to sacrifice quality medical
care because of financial considerations. Take
care of your health first and your Brett & Coats PLLC attorney will coordinate payment of
your medical care as part of our service in your
personal injury claim.
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10.
How long do I have to file a claim?
If your injury
occurred more than one year ago, you may have a
statute of limitations problem. The statute of
limitations requires that a claim be filed
within a certain period of time after the
accident or you will forever lose the right to
do so. Depending on the manner in which you were
injured, the statute of limitations could be
three years, two years or less from the date of
injury. Do not delay in contacting a Brett & Coats PLLC attorney. We offer a free case
evaluation to determine the likelihood of a
recovery and the likely range of any recovery.
Contact us today.
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11.
What if I have a preexisting medical condition?
If another party
is to blame for your injuries, you are entitled
to be compensated for only the injuries suffered
in the accident. If the insurance company
suspects that your injury existed prior to the
accident or that you were injured in an
unrelated event, they may refuse to pay your
claim. To prevent this situation, we obtain your
entire medical history so that we can identify
what has been reported in the records, and we
can then reassure the insurance company that no
preexisting or unrelated injury exists. The
proof of a causal link between the accident and
the injury may seem simple, but your lawyer must
work hard to eliminate the insurance company's
natural skepticism which can lead to non-payment
of your claim.
Special rules
govern compensation for aggravation of
preexisting injuries. If your accident has been
caused by the negligence of another party and
you have been injured in an area where a
pre-existing infirmity exists, you are in the
complicated situation that requires expert legal
help. If prior to the accident you had a
pre-existing bodily condition that was causing
pain or disability and then the accident further
exacerbated the pain or disability, you are
entitled to compensation for the aggravation of
that condition.
If you had a
pre-existing condition or disability prior to
the accident and it made you more vulnerable to
injury than a normally healthy person, you are
also entitled to compensation for those injuries
and damages caused by the accident. You are not
entitled to compensation for an injury sustained
in a subsequent accident that is a normal
consequence of an impaired physical condition
caused by the original injury and which would
not have occurred had the plaintiff's physical
condition not been impaired.
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12.
Who is held responsible for a drunk driving
(DUI) injury?
Anyone driving under the influence of alcohol or
another substance, which causes an accident, is
considered negligent. The driver convicted of
DUI or DWI has the liability to pay for all
damages, but may not be the only person
considered negligent or liable. Those who
provided the alcohol may also be considered
negligent and liable for damages. Many states
have laws which impose liability on bars, clubs,
restaurants, or hotels which supply liquor
improperly.
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13.
What types of money damages are allowed for
wrongful death?
Four interrelated statutes govern calculation of
recoverable damages when a person dies as a
result of someone's reckless or negligent
actions. While none of the statutes can ever
replace the husband or wife or child who was
lost, a successful claim can help the survivors
in many ways. Your attorney will coordinate the
criminal prosecution of the party at fault and
arrange for grief counseling. Of course, our
most important form of support to grieving
families is securing monetary compensation for
their loss. Money cannot relieve the grief over
the loss of a loved one, but it can help to
relieve financial burdens.
If the person who
died was a minor (under 18) or a child on whom
one or both parents were dependent for support,
or a viable fetus, damages are defined to
include "loss of love and companionship of
the child and for injury to or destruction of
the parent-child relationship in such amount as,
under all the circumstances of the case, may be
just." This broad language has been
interpreted to include parental grief, mental
anguish and suffering. Significantly,
computation of damages is not limited to the
lost child's minority. In addition, medical,
hospital, medication and related expenses and
loss of services and support are recoverable.
A second statute
also allows damages to be recovered on behalf of
..."The wife, husband, child or
children" of the deceased. Adult decedents
who are single and without children do not
qualify here. But for decedents with a surviving
spouse or child, "the jury may give such
damages as, under all circumstances of the case,
may to them be just." Whether an adult who
dies has dependents dramatically affects
verdicts and settlements in death claims.
A third statute
allows recovery for decedents even if they were
unmarried without dependents; the recovery is to
their estate and includes the present value of
their future net earnings had they lived a
normal life expectancy. Usually proof of loss
must be made through the calculations of an
economist
A fourth statute
is useful to help survivors who may not qualify
for help under other statutes. Care must be
taken to avoid duplication of claims made under
other statutes. The claim may be brought on
behalf of the husband or wife, children, and
under special circumstances, certain other
family members.
Developing a
successful legal strategy in a wrongful death
claim is best left in the hands of an
experienced attorney. At Brett & Coats PLLC, we offer a free case evaluation to
determine the likelihood of a recovery and the
likely range of any recovery.
Contact us for
your free case evaluation.
The information contained on this Website is
offered as a service to educate the public and
encourage accident victims to seek legal advice.
The following information should not be
considered as legal advice or applied to an
individual legal situation. For expert counsel
on your legal situation, consult with an
experienced Brett & Coats PLLC personal
injury attorney.
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