Crashed this morning

[hedmisten]

Glad you are safe.

OT: Where did you get those lower fairings?

 

[casual_lee]

Well I would hope that the settlement I would receive with a lawyer would be the original settlement + his cut + some more, which would be the only reason to get a lawyer.

casual_lee -- why do you think we have a case against the PD? Because they didn't come to the scene?

yes, if you called the police to report a traffic accident, they should be there regardless if the parties involved were injured or not.

 

[fast blue one]

Glad you're OK. Makes me doubly grateful that I got off so lightly in my prang this morning.

 

[sasper]

Finally chatted with a lawyer today and the first thing I will say is that I WISH I HAD CONTACTED ONE IMMEDIATELY. All of the bull**** that I've had to put up with insurance, health insurance, doctors offices, etc. would have been eliminated and taken care of by a lawyer. Avoiding that headache alone would have made a lawyer worth it.

I'm meeting with him tomorrow to discuss everything. I'm also starting physical therapy tomorrow! My back is feeling better than before, but I'm still getting uncomfortable spasms throughout the day.

 

[Cali rider]

Finally chatted with a lawyer today and the first thing I will say is that I WISH I HAD CONTACTED ONE IMMEDIATELY. All of the bull**** that I've had to put up with insurance, health insurance, doctors offices, etc. would have been eliminated and taken care of by a lawyer. Avoiding that headache alone would have made a lawyer worth it.

I'm meeting with him tomorrow to discuss everything. I'm also starting physical therapy tomorrow! My back is feeling better than before, but I'm still getting uncomfortable spasms throughout the day.

Glad to see that things are going your way, Steve. BTW, I am still interested in buying this when everything is settled.

 

[rsw81]

Glad to see that things are going your way, Steve. BTW, I am still interested in buying this when everything is settled.

Glad to hear you are doing well Steve.

THREAD JACK: Mine is for sale for $2000 if anyone wants it.:spank:

 

[Imperitas]

I am an adjuster for an insurance company that will remain nameless. I have worked for 2 different carriers.

Let me fill you in on some things as well as some others on the board.

The doctor likely recommended you to the lawyer because he will likely get a kickback from him or her for the referral. Lawyers also tend to have certain doctors they refer you to as well. Pretty much all your personal injury lawyers will have a group of doctors and chiro's all their patients go to. It's a big circle.

The lawyer is going to take at least 33% of your settlement. What they do is refer you to certain doctors and attempt to rack up as much money for your "accident related" treatment as possible.

Long story short. Most insurance companies use some type of program that adjusters will input your type of injuries and the related tx (this is very simplified as to what actually gets done) and the program will flag tx that shouldn't have been called for, double billings for the same procedures, treatment passed when you should of likely have been healed, and compare your claim to similar claims in that area and what they settled for.

The program will say the claim is worth say $6,000 - 8200 including your medical bills and p&s - as an example. If your bills were 6k than the adjuster has 2k to negotiate your settlement for pain and suffering.

Guess what? Your claim will still settle at $6,000 - 8200 with or without your attorney. Guess what? Your attorney just took 33% of your settlement.

I will admit that your attorney may squeeze out an extra few hundred dollars or even 500 (but will still be in the 6-8200 range). But you still loose as you already lost 33% of your settlement.

The attorney (most bigger ones) do nothing with your case until it finally comes the time to negotiate the settlement. Everything else is typically handled by a case worker or a paralegal.

Most insurance companies will offer you a fair settlement. They will low ball you to begin with but this is just negotiation like anything else. The problem comes in because people think they won the lottery because they were injured in a accident. Most people don't realize that they don't have a 100,000 injury claim, they have a 1,000 one. That's when they run to the attorney.

Anyway, I quit my rant. My advice is to work with the insurance company directly to negotiate the claim and then if you feel you're being treated unfairly, consider the attorney.

Based on what you have described, I would estimate your pain and suffering settlement in the 2-3k (with negotiation) range + your bills. Not going to the hospital by ems from the scene really hurts your case and especially, if you rode away. Sounds like you only have soft-tissue injuries so a couple grand to you and your bills would probaly be fair.

My settlement range is based on my experience in my area of the country. Settlements can vary greatly from one area to the next.

My 2 cents.

 

[FZTofer]

Glad your ok bro, hope you can get your bike back in working order and keep on rockin :rockon:

 

[sasper]

Really appreciate the post, Imperitas. I definitely know there are "kick-backs" going on with the doctor, lawyer, and physical therapist. It's funny how quick the lawyer was to tell me that I should cancel my scheduled physical therapy sessions and call another doctor in my area . I'm still torn on what to do, as your post has re-iterated what I had thought all along in terms of the settlement, equations for determining it, and what I think my "fair settlement" would be. I'm not looking to get rich here -- just get my damage covered and a fair payment for the annoyance, pain, and change in my lifestyle that I have suffered over the last month.

I think I am going to cancel on the lawyer tomorrow and try to handle things on my own. My case has been transferred to a new bodily injury adjuster and I just received their information tonight. Once we get to the point of settlement, I will revisit the lawyer if I think I am being treated unfairly.

Again, thanks for the post. If an Admin is reading this, give the man some credits!

 

[sasper]

Glad to see that things are going your way, Steve. BTW, I am still interested in buying this when everything is settled.

Good to know! I was wondering about that today...

 

[sasper]

Glad to hear you are doing well Steve.

THREAD JACK: Mine is for sale for $2000 if anyone wants it.:spank:

How are you doing man? Hopefully you are able to put clothes on now

And feel free to thread-jack! Our 2 bikes together make 1 great bike... wait no they don't. Just 2 bikes with the same busted parts, but yours is way worse

 

[Cali rider]

I am an adjuster for an insurance company that will remain nameless. I have worked for 2 different carriers.

Let me fill you in on some things as well as some others on the board...[SIZE=\"4\"]Snipped the details[/SIZE]..

Thanks for this very enlightening post. I didn't realize it was so structured as far as compensation values are estimated, it seems so obvious now.

 

[Cali rider]

Glad to hear you are doing well Steve.

THREAD JACK: Mine is for sale for $2000 if anyone wants it.:spank:

Dude, your bike is a wreck!!!

 

[rsw81]

Dude, your bike is a wreck!!!

This coming from the guy convincing me to keep the bike and fix it myself.:thumbup:

Haha... it was a joke in the first place. No one would spend 2k on my bike. I think it's rediculous that the insurance company wants that much for it in the first place.

 

[sasper]

Well it looks like the settlement check is in the mail for the repairs to my bike. They also included the cost of my gear! Definitely happy with the outcome of that.

Cali rider has first dibs on the bike. If he isn't going to take it, I'll post here and throw it in the Classifieds for everyone to take a look.

I'm still going to physical therapy for my back but only expect to be doing that for another week or so. I'm feeling 100% better besides some spasms which we are working on. I've started lifting and running again and am looking forward to getting the settlement check for the bodily injury portion of the accident. It will be nice to have everything settled and handled soon!

 

[Gopher]

I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say congrats on getting the settlement! And hope the back heals up good and proper...


But out of curiosity... will you be jumping straight back on a bike and buy another FZ6?

 

[sasper]

I'd love to get another bike right now. However, the timing is pretty bad. My contract is up in Santa Monica mid-December and I'll be going back to Chicago at that point. So no real reason for me to get another bike right now.

But, I could be getting a full-time position in Santa Monica and if that happened, I'd definitely get another bike. I don't think it'd be an FZ6, even though I did love it. I have a few ideas...

 

[nimzotech]

Track Bike makeover?

 

[sasper]

Ask Cali rider. I think he's buying it off me. And the bike wasn't totaled... it's just begging for a naked conversion!

 

[rsw81]

Ask Cali rider. I think he's buying it off me. And the bike wasn't totaled... it's just begging for a naked conversion!

I was on the phone with Calirider the other day. I'm pretty sure he still wants to do this, you just need to contact him.