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.

Steven Wilson was the passenger of a Jeep Grand Cherokee and was insured by State Farm.  The car was involved in an injury car accident on August 29, 2009. Unfortunately, the driver of the other vehicle who was at fault was uninsured.  Wilson had significant medical bills due to the accident. Some of these medical bills were paid by the Medicare (This is the practice in Kentucky after the PIP benefits are exhausted. The payment creates a statutory lien requiring the recipient of the Medicare benefits to repay Medicare. This is called a super lien because the attorney and the insurance company are also liable if payment is not made). The State Farm insurance policy available to Wilson was an uninsured motorist policy. The policy limits were only $50,000.

State Farm asked permission to discuss the lien with the Medicare. This was refused by Wilson.  Wilson then demanded the insurance settlement be deposited in an attorney escrow account.  State Farm suggested including Medicare as a payee on the settlement check which was also rejected by Wilson.  Eventually, State Farm issued separate checks to Medicare and Wilson while waiting for Medicare’s determination of the value of its lien.

Dealing with Medicare is frustrating for accident victims as well as their personal injury attorney. They are typically slow in responding to lien amounts which will hold up finalizing a personal injury settlement.  Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to speed up the process. Patience is the key.

In Wilson v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company Co, Steven Wilson claims State Farm acted in bad faith by delaying payment of the policy limits more than 30 days.  According to the Courts opinion State Farm learned the value of the Medicare lien after two months when they paid both the Medicare and Wilson.

Judge John G. Heyburn, II signed a Memorandum Opinion and Order on June 14, 2011 granting State Farm’s motion for summary judgment and dismissing the complaint with prejudice.  Wilson’s motion for summary judgment was also denied.  The Court concluded that delay or withholding of payment until a determination is made with respect to Medicare’s conditional payment amount alone does not constitute bad faith.  State Farm had the willingness to settle its accounts. The fact that they attempted to determine the amount to be paid to Medicare was considered a reasonable precaution to protect itself from overpayment.

Under Kentucky law in order to withhold payment on an insurance claim the insurance company must:

1. Have an obligation to pay the claim;
2. Not have a reasonable basis for failing to pay the claim; and
3. Know that it lacked a reasonable basis to delay payment or act in a reckless disregard to the existence of the basis.

Although I understand the Court’s ruling, I see this opinion being used to delay payments in accident cases. This will allow the insurance company to hold onto the settlement amount and earn interest while the injured accident victim struggles to make ends meet. Surely there is a better way.

If you are the victim of a Kentucky automobile accident and haven’t seen the WHAS 11 I- Team investigation that aired last night about runners snagging clients for chiropractors and personal injury attorneys you should check this out.  After watching this story it’s no wonder that chiropractors and personal injury attorneys as a group seem to have a bad name.                                                

This investigation focused mainly on the chiropractors. There was a follow up that aired on the late news that focused on an investigation on the cash advance companies that have jumped into marketing for auto accident victims several years ago. You have seen the ads on T.V.  They will give you a loan, find you a doctor and then find you an attorney. You will get cash for going to the doctor. Your chiropractor collects the PIP money, which is up to $10,000.00. The personal injury attorney gets a fee for handling your car wreck case. This is if you’ve been in an auto accident. They then charge you a huge sum of money for the interest to do this.  The question comes as to who the attorney’s loyalties lie with.

As the old Osmond’s song goes “One bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch…”  In the same way I hope you understand that all attorneys and chiropractors aren’t bad. Unfortunately, the few chiropractors and attorneys that are paying runners money to go get them clients make the whole profession look bad.  Nobody that is involved in representing auto accident victims deny that this has been going on for quite awhile.

I have had clients contact me and tell me that they have been called by a representative of the insurance company that told them that they needed to go to a specific doctor and attorney for their claim.  Clients have brought me letters from attorneys. They have told me that they have been given a card at the accident scene and told to go see a certain chiropractor. That they went and something didn’t feel right.

As I told them, I will tell you this is simply not how it is done.  No attorney or chiropractor or any professional should be actively soliciting clients by making phone calls or knocking on doors or showing up at accident scenes.  This is unethical in the legal profession and I abhor the practice.  

Likewise, there are many good chiropractors that care about their patients and are interested in getting them well. I know several chiropractors that treat me. I trust them with my children.  

It is the same thing with the loan companies.  There are some bad ones out there that were described in the report. There are some that do not solicit clients. These loan companies do a service for an injured car accident victim that is hurt and unable to work by giving them a cash advance.  They charge a high interest rate and do so in a fair manner. They will negotiate claims and balances due in circumstances that warrant it. Sometimes they are the only avenue to keep an injured automobile accident victim in their home. I don’t like the interest rate, but it may be the only way out.

If you were contacted by one of these ambulance chasing runners, simply tell them that you are going to find your own attorney. Personal injury attorneys are mysterious to most people. What do they really do for a car accident victim? I have seen firsthand what happens when people don’t get proper representation.  As a victim of an auto accident in Kentucky you need to know what a personal injury attorney will do for you and how a good personal injury attorney can help your case.  Here is a link to a previous blog that I did “WhatDoes  a Personal Injury Attorney Do?”  

Don’t listen to these runners. Don’t fall in for the offer of fast cash.  It is not worth it and it is definitely not in your best interest.  I had a potential client in my office today that said he wanted to settle fast.  I told him I was not the attorney for him. That he needed to make sure as to what his injuries were. He needed to wait to get the proper treatment.  Once you settle a case it is over and you can never come back and reopen it again.  It is final.  Your injuries may not be final.  My guess is he was not hurt. I sent him on his way. I am sure he will find another attorney to represent him. Find the right attorney for you.  Know what you are looking for and be a well-informed consumer and don’t take advice and a referral from somebody at an accident scene. 

On the same day that there was an article in the Courier-Journal talking about the Kentucky Bar Association and their concern over lawyers using Facebook. Perhaps their efforts would be better served by concentrating on the problem with runners being paid to get cases for attorneys. It’s just a thought!

“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.

I read an interesting case from the Kentucky Court of Appeals.  Unfortunately this case is listed as not to be published. I guess that is what our Courts do when they don’t want to set a precedent (in other words they might change their mind).

The case got me thinking about what is an uninsured vehicle if you have been injured in a Kentucky car accident. The case explored the question as to what is the definition of an uninsured vehicle under the Uninsured Motorist Coverage in your Kentucky car insurance policy. Uninsured Motorist Coverage is the part of your insurance policy that will cover you if you are the victim of a Kentucky car accident and the person that caused the accident does not have car insurance. 

Unfortunately, there is no universal definition of what an uninsured vehicle is. In other words what type of vehicle that doesn’t have insurance and causes an accident will trigger your uninsured motorist coverage? Every insurance policy has its’ own definition and speaks for itself.  To know exactly what an uninsured vehicle is and what is covered you must review your personal insurance policy. 

If you are like me and most people this is only done after-the-fact. You have been involved in a Kentucky automobile accident and look at your car insurance policy to see if you are covered. Do the facts of the auto accident fit the definitions in your car insurance policy?

 In the unpublished Court of Appeals case involved all terrain vehicles (ATVs). One ATV was struck by another ATV on a public road in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.  The question the Court of Appeals struggled with was whether the ATV was a covered vehicle within the meaning of the insurance policy’s definition of an uninsured vehicle in the Uninsured Motorist portion of the policy. 

The Court pointed out that an ATV was not considered a motor vehicle for purposes of the Motor Vehicle Reparations Act.  This is the PIP or Personal Injury Protection statute. This was an important fact because medical bills were not paid or considered covered. 

Some of the included in a definition of an uninsured auto that  are commonly included in car insurance policies:

• An auto that is insured.
• An auto owned or operated by a self-insurer.  This means somebody that does not carry insurance but has enough money to pay for any claim.
• Any car owned by the United States of America.
• A land motor vehicle or trailer operated on rails.
• Farm-type tractor equipment designed for off-road use.

            The ATV was not found to be excluded and not included in any definition and therefore no coverage was found. I think an ATV should be considered a vehicle, but I realize that an insurance policy is a contract between you and the insurance company. If you own an ATV, moped or ride a bicycle pull your car insurance policy out and take a look at it. Find out if you have coverage if you are in a Kentucky car accident and are hit by an uninsured car.

            As a personal injury attorney I have seen policies where coverage has been found for Mopeds and bicycles.  It is extremely important to review your policy if you are in this type of situation.  Don’t trust the insurance company’s interpretation; always bring it to a qualified personal injury attorney to help you make the determination as to whether or not you can be compensated for injuries suffered in a Kentucky motor vehicle accident under the Uninsured Motorist portion of your policy.

Did you know that there are time limits for you being able to file your Kentucky accident case?  If you’ve been injured in a car accident, a bicycle accident or a loved one has died in a fatal truck accident there is a time limit called the Statute of Limitations.  This is the time-frame that you have to file your lawsuit in court or to settle your accident case with the insurance company. If it is not accomplished in the time set out you forever waive the right to bring a lawsuit and collect damages from the person who injured you. 

In Kentucky, the Statute of Limitations for injuries suffered in a motor vehicle accident is two years from the date of the accident or two years from the date the last no-fault PIP payment for your medical bills is paid by your insurance company.  This time frame cannot exceed four years.

Statutes of Limitation are different in every state. They can even vary depending on the type of accident you were in or who you are bringing the lawsuit against. In Kentucky the Statute of Limitations is different for different types of claims. For many claims, such as auto defects or product liability claims, the Statute of Limitations is one year. There can also be a question as to when the statute begins to run. It is always best to consult an experienced personal injury attorney that concentrates in that area of law. If you guess you could be wrong.

I had to give this bad news to a young lady that called me last week. She had been in an accident when she was seventeen. I determined from speaking with her that the Statute of Limitations for this accident was one year. The accident happened in 2008. The time had run. I thought I might save it because she was a minor at the time the accident happened. Generally you have one year after you turn eighteen to bring most accident cases in Kentucky. Unfortunately it had been nineteen months since she turned 18. Even though she was severely injured there was nothing I could do. I felt bad giving her this news. If only she had called a personal injury attorney sooner.

The bottom line is if you’ve been in an accident, you need to be aware of these time-frames because if you do not act within that time, you will not be able to recover no matter how severe your injuries are.

            There is a call that no parent ever wants to receive.  Unfortunately, I did receive that call a couple weeks ago. 

I was in a deposition with a client on their Kentucky car accident case when my cell phone vibrated.  I recognized the number. It was my 16?year-old daughter who had just got her Kentucky driver’s license a month and a half before.  I let the call go to voice mail, but she immediately called me back.  This is our signal that it is an emergency and she HAS to speak with me immediately.  

I asked to take a break from the deposition so I could return my daughter’s call.  On the other side of the line I heard in half understandable words, “Dad I’ve just been in a wreck.”  I said, “Calm down.  Are you all right?”  She responded “The car, the car, the car.” I told her “I don’t care about the car.  Are you all right?” 

As I deciphered my daughter’s words in between the sobs I discovered that her neck was hurting from the automobile accident. She was driving to study for finals with three of her friends. She stopped at a light. Friend #1 stopped behind her. Friend #2 stopped behind Friend #1.  At that point in time Friend #2 was rear-ended by a blue minivan.  This set off a chain reaction that ended up with my daughter getting hit in the rear; the car in the middle was sandwiched and got the worst impact in this car accident. 

Then here’s what happened that made it all the worse.  The van took off.  It was a hit-and-run accident.  None of the girls thought quick enough to even try to get the license plate or a good description.  After all they are 16 and new to driving. The police responded to the scene and did an investigation but there was little they could do with no information. 

Luckily my daughter was okay and her friends appear to have no medical issues after a few weeks of treatment. You have to be extremely careful what you write about your Kentucky personal injury case, whether it is in a blog or on Facebook. That allows me to talk about it at this time and make my point. You should always be alert and try to keep your head after an accident.  Document as much as you can at the automobile accident scene. Take pictures of everything at the scene, including cars and skid marks. Give all information that you can to the police. 

Uninsured drivers are everywhere. If my daughter would have been seriously injured, we have Uninsured Motorist Coverage which would have paid for any pain and suffering.  Thankfully we also had PIP insurance which will pay for any and all medical bills. In fact was have Added Reparations Benefits which will pay medical bills up to $50,000.00. 

I hope none of you ever receive this call but if you do, the most important thing is to make sure that your child stays calm in this traumatic situation.  If anyone reading this would like a copy of the free brochure I offer, “What to do if You’re in an Automobile Accident”, please go to my website. You can download a copy there or if you send me an email I will be more than happy to mail you a copy free of charge.

Should Kentucky car accident victims use their personal health insurance to pay their medical bills for the treatment they receive for injuries they sustained in an automobile accident?  This is a question frequently asked by clients.

·         Do I Give my health insurance card to my doctors?

·         Why should my car insurance pay for my medical bills from an automobile accident that wasn’t my fault?

·         Isn’t it the at-fault cars’ insurance company that should have to pay?

In other words should they use their health insurance to pay for their treatment from a car accident?  The answer is no and yes. Why No? Your first and primary insurance in a car accident in Kentucky is your Personal Injury Protection or PIP benefits.  Your own car insurance will pay the first $10,000.00 of medical bills for treatment from a car accident under most circumstances. 

The “yes” comes after this $10,000.00 amount is fully paid or exhausted. You can then use your health insurance. Your health insurance will pay the medical bills from this point on.  The confusing part and what some consider the bad part about this is there’s something called subrogation. Ninety percent of all health insurance plans require you to reimburse the health insurance carrier for anything they pay toward the treatment of injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Federal ERISA laws cover this area. It is a very specialized area of law and would require pages to fully explain. Your health insurance company generally entitled to reimbursement, and they can recover what was paid out under most circumstances.

If there is a requirement to pay your health insurance company why should use your health insurance to pay the bills from your car wreck case? The answer is twofold. One is to make sure that you get the treatment you need. The second is that they pay at a reduced rate, which ultimately saves you money. Realize that you will have to reimburse them out of the proceeds of your accident case, but only what is paid.

There are some good points for the Kentucky accident victim. When a health insurance company pays a bill they will pay the provider the agreed upon price for any treatment. In other words, they will pay only a portion of the charge. You only have to reimburse the health insurance company what they have paid, not the total amount of the bill. Usually this amount will be discounted even further at the time of payment by you.

You are also responsible to pay any co-pays or deductibles to the health care provider, unless you can work out other arrangements with your doctor. You will eventually be reimbursed but that may be several months or even years later when your accident case is settled.

The bottom line is you should use your health insurance to pay your medical bills once your PIP benefits have been exhausted. Your health insurance is secondary insurance. This allows you to get the treatment you need without being hassled by bill collectors for payment.

Kentucky car accident victims often have the question as to whether or not they’re going to be paid for the time they are unable to work as a result of the injuries they sustain in an automobile accident. That is whether or not they can collect their lost wages.  If the accident wasn’t their fault, the answer is yes, but that is a qualified yes. This would be the same answer even if the accident was their fault.

The first item I look at is what you can qualify for automatically. I will assume that you don’t have any disability benefits that you qualify for.  Under the Kentucky PIP law, you can collect 80 percent of your lost wages up to a maximum of $200.00 per week. This is what is called Basic Reparation Benefits.  I know $200.00 a week isn’t a lot of money.  It’s not going to pay for your mortgage.  It’s not going to pay for your car payment.  It’s not going to put groceries and food in your family’s mouths, but unfortunately that is what the law is in Kentucky if you have Basic Reparations Benefits. 

The remainder of your lost wages will be paid for at the end of the case by the at-fault insurance company. This is when your Kentucky car accident case is settled. Anything that is not paid by PIP will be paid or reimbursed at the end of the case. Unfortunately, this doesn’t do you a lot of good while you’re trying to pay your bills. 

The best advice that I can give you is if you have not been in an accident. This is preventative. There is nothing that can be done to change your insurance coverage after you have been in the accident to increase your benefits. Talk to your insurance agent and purchase what is called Added Reparations Benefits.  You may be able to raise that weekly lost-wage payment up to $1,000.00 a week with very little additional premium. 

You should also talk to your employer or an independent insurance agent about getting a disability policy that will pay for lost wages no matter how you’re injured; whether you’re in an automobile accident or injured falling at home. 

The Kentucky No-Fault Statute was not enacted as a disability policy for Kentucky automobile accident victims. It was only put in place to supplement your wage loss. The At-Fault party is responsible when the case is settled, but this can be years after the accident. Take matters into your own hands now so you are not wondering how you are going to pay your bills should you be injured in a car accident.