“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.

         Bicycle accidents and pedestrian accidents that happen in Kentucky pose different questions and different answers for the accident victims. Bicycle accident victims and pedestrian accident victims come into my office after being hit by a car and have suffered serious injuries. They wonder if they have a case. They’ve been hurt and they want to recover for their injuries.

        What happens if the car that hit them did not have insurance? Can the bicyclist or pedestrian be compensated for injuries they suffered in the accident through no fault of their own? There can be a recovery even if that person didn’t have insurance or they don’t have assets sufficient to pay for the injuries that they caused by their negligent actions.

As a personal injury attorney, I will look at the insurance policy of the person on the bicycle or the pedestrian to see if they have what is called your uninsured motorist coverage (UIM). This is coverage on your own car. UIM will pay for your pain and suffering in a pedestrian or bicycle accident if for some reason the car that hit you did not have insurance. Most people have no idea that their own car insurance will give those benefits under this situation.

You need to make sure that you have this coverage on your own car insurance policy, make sure that if you are hurt in an accident like this that you will be covered!

Your PIP will also pay for the first $10,000.00 of your medical bills. This happens even though you were no where close to your car.

I had a client a few years ago that was on a moped and on her way to work. She was injured by a car that ran her off the road and then took off. We never found the car and have no idea who the person was that hit her. She had very serious injuries. Her leg was broke and required two surgeries, pins and rods were inserted. There was a year of recovery. We were able to get a recovery for her by looking to the UIM on her car. This was from her own car insurance company, even though she was not driving that car at the time and she was on a moped.

You need to look seriously toward your insurance company in these situations. Give your personal injury attorney something to work with. If you are not sure if you have this coverage call your insurance agent and ask. For more information on Uninsured Motorist Coverage follow this link to get a free copy of my book “What You Don’t Know About Buying Car Insurance Can Hurt You.”

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.

When a client comes into my office on an initial consultation, one of the questions that are almost always asked is “How much is my accident case worth?”  As a personal injury attorney I dislike talking about money at this point in time. It is too early. I have to look my potential client in the eye and say “I have no idea.”

         At this point in time there is no way to know.  At the beginning of the case there are too many questions that are left to be answered. To give an accurate assessment of what that value of a personal injury case is you must:

·        Have insurance information

·        Assess the strength of liability

·        Review and analyze all medical records

·        Know what the injuries are

·        How the accident has affected the client

·        The permanency of any injury 

Once you have finished treating and we know what the extent of your injuries are and whether or not you are going to recover or have permanent injuries that is the time to assess the value of your accident case.  You almost never can assess the value of it at the beginning of the case.  You need to wait to the end to find out what the real long-term consequences of the accident are on your life.

At that point in time a personal injury attorney will use their experience to put a value on your pain and suffering, medical bills and loss of power to labor and earn money. A valuable tool that is used is trial experience. I also use The Kentucky Trial Court Review which is put out every year by Shannon Ragland. Since 1990 Shannon has been summarizing every civil jury trial that has been tried in Kentucky. These summaries of verdicts are an invaluable tool that I use to help asses the true value of a case, which is an accident victim’s pain and suffering. By comparing a case with similar fact situations I can get an idea as to what a jury has awarded under similar circumstances.

Insurance companies have tried to systematize placing a value on a car accident case by using programs such as COLOSSUS. This computer program is used by part of the insurance industry in an effort to minimize settlement values in personal injury cases. These computer programs are used to make settlement offers uniform and to ultimately increase the insurance companies profits. The insurance adjuster simply enters the data into the program. The program then gives the adjuster a range that a case can be settled in. This is one of the many reasons your attorney needs your entire medical history and all of the facts about your automobile accident case.  By making sure the adjuster receives all the appropriate information that is used in the computer program and outlining that data, your attorney can increase the odds that the settlement offer is as high as possible.

        Placing a value on a case is not a science. Many times it is a gut feeling that only experience can truly give you.