No-Fault insurance, it’s a confusing term.  The Kentucky legislator put this law in place to make sure that your medical bills get paid.  It means that no matter whose fault the accident is your medical bills are going to be paid.  Whether you caused the accident or you didn’t cause the accident, you are entitled to what are called No-Fault benefits. Under most situations the minimum amount of $10,000.00 is available to a car accident victim.  Those benefits are paid by your own personal car insurance company.  This is to make sure that you don’t have to get permission from the at fault insurance company to go to the doctor.  You don’t have to go to their doctor.  You can choose your own.  When the case is settled your insurance company has the right to subrogate or collect what they have paid less on intercompany deductible.  Your insurance company will collect most of what they paid back from the at fault insurance company.

Most insurance policies the basic amount in Kentucky of PIP is $10,000.00 and that doesn’t go very far.  That’s a problem.  You really need to ask your insurance agent if you can raise your personal injury protection.  There is something called added reparations benefit.  You can raise your PIP limits up to $90,000.00 in added reparations benefits which go toward the medical bills.  I strongly recommend – especially if you don’t have health insurance – to call your insurance agent and get added reparations benefits and it won’t cost near as much as you think it will.

I was recently asked a question by a concerned mother whose daughter was in a real bad car accident.  She was driving a friend’s vehicle, but unfortunately she did not have a valid Kentucky driver’s license.  She broke her neck, broke her back, broke her arm and had five staples in her head.  Altogether she was in the hospital for about a month.  The insurance company stopped paying for her medical bills. Now she is getting all these medical bills mailed to her. Can her daughter get the remaining medical bills paid? Can she recover for her injuries even though she didn’t have a valid Kentucky driver’s license? Does she have any legal leg to stand on?  Is there anything she can do, as far as getting these medical bills paid?  Can she sue insurance company to finish paying these bills?

Let’s get to the bare bones of the law and what needs to be done. The first thing you need to realize is that you’re only entitled to $10,000.00 of medical payments under Kentucky PIP or No-Fault law. These are benefits that are paid under your cars’ Basic Reparations Benefits. Once these benefits are exhausted there’s no more money that you can get from your PIP to pay your medical bills as they are occurring.

Your next step would be to turn the remaining unpaid medical bills over to your personal health insurance. Hopefully, you have health insurance. Why should your health insurance company pay the medical bills when the injuries were caused by someone else’s negligence? This keeps the bill collectors from calling and gets the bills paid! Don’t worry; your health insurance will be reimbursed when the case is over. That is part of the damages collected from the at-fault party that caused the injuries. The bottom line is let the health insurance company pay those bills.

If you don’t have health insurance there is nothing immediate that can be done to get those medical bills paid.  The at-fault party would have to pay the medical bills when the case is settled.  That’s part of the damages that you would claim, but there’s nothing to force them pay it right now.  This is where a personal injury attorney is extremely helpful.

I would get an attorney involved in your case to look at the options with the medical bills.  A lot of times an attorney can write guarantee letters to the health care providers. This can help stop the harassing phone calls.  That would mean that you would have to pay the medical bills from the proceeds of the accident case.

The final issue in this question was the daughter did not have a valid Kentucky drivers’ license. Kentucky is a comparative fault state. This means that an injured party can still collect if they were partially to blame for their injuries. This will affect your settlement by lowering the settlement by the percentage amount you caused your injuries.  This means your wrong doing can affect your recovery.  If a jury decides that not having a valid drivers’ license was a factor that contributed to the accident, your recovery could be lowered.

The bottom line is there should be a recovery of the medical bills and a dollar amount for pain and suffering, but an experienced Kentucky personal injury attorney should review the case to make the determination.

You have just been in a car accident. You may not think that you’re injured.  You may not have any immediate pain, so why go to the doctor? Two weeks down the road you may start to feel a little bit of pain in your neck.

• What do you do then?
• Can you go to the doctor?
• Will your medical bills be paid?
• Can you still collect for your pain and suffering?

When you’ve been in a car wreck you are in shock. You are running on adrenaline right after the accident.  This masks any pain that you may be feeling.  You don’t always know whether or not you are hurt.  There are many people that don’t feel the pain until the next day, or even a week, or ten days after an automobile accident.

One of the tactics that insurance companies and insurance defense attorneys use is focusing and talking about that gap in treatment or the accident victim’s delay in seeking treatment.  They use argue that you weren’t really injured.  They say that if the pain was that bad why didn’t you go to the doctor immediately?  If the pain was that bad why did you wait the seven, eight or ten days?

Anytime you have a question like this that you have to address in a trial it can have an effect on what happens in your case.   Accident victims should go to the doctor and get checked out immediately following an accident just to make sure that they are not injured.

If you have car insurance, or you’re a passenger in a vehicle, in Kentucky you have Personal Injury Protection, or No Fault Benefits.  There is a minimum of $10,000.00 that will go towards your medical bills and/or lost wages.  Any medical treatment you receive will not come out of your personal pocket as long as there’s insurance there. There is no reason not to seek immediate medical attention following a car accident.

“The other driver lied about what happened?”  I hear this statement from auto accident victims quite often. They have been in a Kentucky automobile accident and have been injured. They have gone to the police station and picked up an accident report. The accident report contains an unpleasant surprise. The police officer says that fault cannot be determined.   Both drivers have said that they had the green light.

What the accident victim is really asking is: “Can I still collect if the other driver is lying about how the accident happened?”  In these intersection cases, where both drivers say they had the green light (which the last time I checked it was impossible), how do you determine who caused the Kentucky car accident. 

If you had the green light and this happens to you, what are your options?  The first thing a personal injury attorney looks at is the police report. You want to make sure that the accident did occur. Is there any indicators or facts that indicate the other driver may have provided false information or lied? Is there an indication as to who the police officer believes? 

The next thing a personal injury attorney looks for is witnesses.  In this type of car accident case it is very important to have an independent witness, someone who has no relationship to you. This is extremely important and will control the outcome if the case goes to trial. 

The plaintiff or the accident victim brings the case to court and it is their burden of proof. The plaintiff must show that the other party caused the accident. Without an independent witness this is extremely difficult.  In a jury trial your testimony against the other party’s testimony is insufficient to win with certainty.  The next best witness is a passenger in the car that can confirms your version of how the car wreck happened. 

If there are no witnesses available, the final avenue is to check traffic signal patterns to see if they will confirm that you did have the green light on a particular cycle on this date.  This can be very difficult to obtain. 

The most important step a Kentucky car accident victim can take in intersection cases is to document everything you can at the scene of the accident.  Get the name and address and telephone number of every potential witness.  Take pictures of the vehicles in their actual position in the roadway.  If you do this, you have a fighting chance. 

Even if you can’t prove that the other driver caused the car accident you can still collect for your medical bills under your own car insurance policy. These No-Fault or PIP benefits are paid for treatment for injuries from the car wreck no matter whose fault it is. The real question is whether or not you can collect for pain and suffering.  To do this you need to act fast to have a fighting chance in an intersection accident case.

You were rear ended in a Kentucky car accident last night while sitting at a red light waiting for the light to change and listening to Toby Keith. BAM! It was like a fire cracker going off. You thought you were okay, but when you get out of bed you realize that something isn’t right. Your back and neck hurts and your head is killing you. What do you do? You told the police officer that you weren’t hurt. Can you still go to a doctor? The answer is absolutely yes.            

As a personal injury attorney accident victims ask me one of these questions:

• Can I choose my own doctor?
• Do I have to go to a doctor the insurance company tells me to go to?
• Do I have to go to a doctor that I’m referred to by my family doctor?

The answer is you can go to whomever you want. You can go when you start experiencing pain. You can choose any doctor to go to to be treated for your Kentucky injury claim as long as you have No Fault Benefits or PIP benefits on your car insurance policy.  You can go to a chiropractor if you choose.  You can go to your family doctor if you choose.  You can go to the emergency room if you choose.  You can go to an orthopedic doctor. And it can be the doctor of your choice!  You do not have to take a referral from your family doctor and your medical bills from the Kentucky car accident will be paid for up to $10,000.00 under the basic PIP insurance on a Kentucky auto insurance policy.

If you have been in a Kentucky automobile accident and an insurance adjustor has told you that you have to go to their doctor, which is not the case.  If they have said it is too late to go to the doctor it is not the case. You can go to whatever doctor you choose whenever you choose and those bills will be paid under your PIP insurance.

Kentucky is a No-Fault Insurance state. What does this mean? There are a lot of Kentucky accident victims who hear this term and believe that this means that it doesn’t matter who caused a automobile accident. People come into my office all the time and are confused by the term No-Fault. They believe that anyone who is injured in a Kentucky automobile accident can recover for their pain and suffering. Some people believe that no matter whose fault the accident is they are going to get paid for their injuries. This is not what it means at all.

What No-Fault means is that no matter whose fault the accident is your own personal car insurance will pay for your medical treatment for injuries from the car accident.  This means that even if the car accident was your fault you can go to the doctor. You can receive medical care and treatment for your injuries. This is where the term No-Fault comes from.

You don’t have to worry about how you are going to pay for your medical care. Your medical bills will be paid. You can go to the doctor of your choice. You don’t have to worry about the insurance company of the person that caused the accident agreeing to the treatment. There is no pre-authorization that a doctor needs to get before they can treat you for your injuries.

The name of the No-Fault Statute is actually the Motor Vehicle Reparations Act. You can find it at KRS 304.39 et seq if you really want to read the statute. It is not the most entertaining reading I have ever done by any stretch of the imagination, but it does contain the rules that cover how insurance company handle medical care and the payment for that care in auto accident cases in Kentucky.

The purpose of the No-Fault Act, as it is called, is to make sure that people that are injured in accidents are able to get the treatment they need.  This helps to give you peace of mind. It has nothing to do at all with whether or not the accident was your fault and whether you can collect for what is commonly called pain and suffering. There must be an at-fault party to sue for you to have a personal injury case and collect for your pain and suffering. No-Fault only deals with the payment of medical bills. It has nothing to do with a pain and suffering settlement.

The bottom line is if medical care is related to injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident in Kentucky they will be paid by your No-Fault benefits.

Kentucky car accident victims always want to know how their medical bills are going to be paid.  They have been in an accident, they’re injured, and they’re not able to work.  Many people nowadays don’t have health insurance. The assumption that is made is “If I don’t have health insurance I will have to pay the medical bills for treatment from a car accident out of my own pocket”.

In Kentucky your own insurance company will pay those medical bills.  You have what is called PIP benefits. This is short for Personal Injury Protection. You may also hear these benefits referred to as No-Fault Benefits or Basic Reparations Benefits. It’s something you pay for under your automobile insurance policy. The first $10,000.00 of your medical treatment will be paid for by your insurance company.  You fill out a PIP application  that is sent to you by your insurance company. This triggers the payment to your doctor automatically from that point on until those $10,000.00 of benefits are exhausted. 

Once the PIP Benefits are exhausted you will send your medical bills to your health insurance company. Any additional treatment will be paid by your health insurance carrier. You are personally responsible for any co-pays or deductibles. Any money you pay out of your pocket should be reimbursed by the at-fault party’s insurance company at the time your personal injury case is settled. 

You might be concerned that hey, why should my car insurance company pay for this if the accident wasn’t my fault?  This is done so that you can immediately go to the doctor of your choice. Well at the end of the case they will get reimbursed by the at-fault party’s insurance company minus a $1,000.00 inner company deductible, so your insurance company will not be on the hook for those benefits.

There is nothing worse then being injured in a Kentucky car accident. You are in pain. You look for a lawyer to guide you and help you deal with the insurance company. You want to get a fair settlement and the best legal advice. Your lawyer sends you to a doctor for treatment. They even arrange for you to fly to another state for surgery. You settle your case and get your settlement money, after your attorney and doctors are paid. This is the way it suppose to go, isn’t it? I would say yes unless you are Sharon Langford.         

We have all seen the billboards and the television commercials about the “aggressive attorneys” formally “Winters, Yonkers and Rousselle” now “Winters and Yonkers”.  Whether you are a fan of this type of legal advertising or not, you have to admit that it works because everyone in Louisville, Kentucky knows the name of this Florida based law firm.  The firm has recently been sued in Jefferson Circuit Court by a former client, Sharon Langford.

            Ms. Langford was injured in a car accident in June of 2008.  She alleges that she was not told that her personal health insurance would potentially pay for her medical bills after her PIP benefits were exhausted. PIP benefits are also known as No-Fault Benefits or Personal Injury Protection. She was referred to a medical care clinic called First Physicians Rehabilitation Inc. by the law firm according to the lawsuit. She was told they would take care of injuries suffered in a car accident.  It is reported that the medical facility did not accept health insurance only PIP car insurance. 

Later when Langford needed surgery the firm flew her to another clinic in Florida.  In the lawsuit Langford states that she discovered later that both clinics were owned by Gary Kompothecras, a chiropractor, who also owns the Hepley advertisement referral service 1?800?ASK?GARY.  Langford also alleges in her lawsuit that the relationship between the law firm and the clinic cost her money.  Her attorney, Sam Carl, states that medical bills paid after PIP totaled over $64,000.00.  Health insurance would have paid a portion of this leaving additional money to Langford after settlement of the lawsuit. You can read the courier journal article that I linked above with further details. 

The question that comes to mind is whether or not the referrals to and between the medical clinic and the law office should be disclosed to clients.  It is alleged that this is a requirement.  I would argue that a client should be referred to the best doctor available and not a doctor that is only referring business to the law firm.  I often refer clients to doctors. Those clients would otherwise have no idea where to go.  I give them the name of several doctors based on their needs.  Many family doctors do not want to handle lawsuits or auto accident suits nor do they understand how to bill car insurance for payment for their medical services. 

The question always comes down to what is best for the client.  Any relationship between a doctor and a lawyer should be disclosed to the client. I will watch with interest Sam Carl’s case to see what direction it does go.  It’s safe to say it should be educational for Kentucky auto accident victims and give them the knowledge they need to ask questions of their attorneys as to the relationship between the attorney and the doctor.

Kentucky is a PIP state for automobile accidents. PIP is short for Personal Injury Protection. You may also hear these benefits referred to as Basic Reparation Benefits or No-Fault Benefits. I am not going into great details hear as to how these benefits work. Here is the nut shell. You have $10,000.00 of benefits that will pay your first $10,000.00 of medical bills and or lost wages.

Those of you that know me have heard me say that this is simply not enough for most accidents. I urge everyone to I run into (just figuratively) to purchase additional benefits called Added Reparation Benefits. For a small increase in your premium you can dramatically increase the coverage that is available to you.

With all of the talk about health care reform I have been looking at what is going on north of the border in Canada. In Ontario government is making plans to reduce their medical rehabilitation benefit from $100,000.00 to $50,000.00 for non- catastrophically injured people.  This is part their no-fault benefits. While I am urging people to increase their benefits in Kentucky the Canadian government is forcing everyone to take a reduction in these benefits. This will significantly alter the quality of care victims of automobile accidents will receive.

Interestingly enough it will increase the attorney fee collected. I am sure that most Personal Injury lawyers in Ontario don’t care about this change because of this.

I ran across an interview done by Brenda Hollingsworth, an Ottawa personal injury attorney, which was a breath of fresh air. Brenda is speaking out against the decrease in medical rehabilitation benefits that will be available to seriously injured car accident victims starting in the summer of 2010. In the video, Brenda talked about how injured car accident victims will run out of their Ontario rehabilitation funds long before the ten-years they are supposed to last. The 50% reductions in benefits will have catastrophic affects on many families.  

Brenda believes this change will increase the number of lawsuits required because injured people will have to sue the drivers who hit them to ensure they can pay for physiotherapy, medication and other medical needs.

I salute Brenda for standing up for the victims of auto accidents. In Kentucky we already have a low amount of PIP benefits that is required. Do yourself a favor and call your insurance agent and raise your coverage today!

I received a phone call yesterday from a potential client that I just shook my head after I hung up the phone. I was asked this question:

How do I get my $10,000.00? I was in a car wreck yesterday
and I need my money.

This question disturbed me so I inquired further and asked how the accident happened and what the injuries were. The reply was that there was no injury they just wanted their car wreck money.    I get a similar question from someone just about every week. The motive is usually not as clearly for money. It is usually just a lack of understanding of the Kentucky PIP statute and how it actually applies to a Kentucky car accident.

There are bus ads and television commercials you see everyday telling you that if you have been in a car accident you are entitled to $10,000.00. These ads are not lies but they do not tell you the whole truth. They make you believe that there is this magical pot of money waiting for you if you have been involved in a Kentucky car accident.

There is $10,000.00 of benefits available but it is not just because you have been in a car accident. They are there if you have been hurt! Not just because you were in a wreck. A car accident is not hitting the lottery. It is not a way to pay off your bills and put your kids through college. There is not a client I represent who wouldn’t give the money back if they could only be the way they were before the accident.

There are several names for this $10,000.00. It is called:

• PIP Benefits

• No-Fault Benefits

• Basic Reparation Benefits

• Added Reparation Benefits (If you are lucky and have a good insurance agent that has advised you of the availability of these in Kentucky)

The Kentucky No-Fault Statute was enacted by our legislature to make sure that motor vehicle accident victims would receive the medical care they need without being hassled by the insurance company of the car that hit them. I will not go into all of the different benefits here, as I  have written many blogs and a book that thoroughly covers this subject. Basically you are entitled to have your first $10,000.00 of medical bills and or loss wages paid(at a maximum of $200.00 per week). This is money to ensure you get the treatment and care that you need paid by your own insurance company. It doesn’t matter whether the accident was your fault or not. You can still go to the doctor. It is not a windfall, it is a method to ensure accident victims get the treatment and medical care they need.

The next time you see one of the commercials offering $10,000.00 for your car accident you can say I know what that money is really for. There is no give away or lottery. This is money to make sure the injured accident victim gets the medical treatment they need.