Insurance companies, contrary to what you might expect, are not always interested in settling personal injury claims very quickly. Sometimes they like to string out the process in the hopes of frustrating the claimant into dropping the claim. On the other hand, you and your Westlake Village injury lawyer have a vested interest in settling your claim as quickly as possible.

Tension

This creates a tension between you and the insurance company that, unfortunately, makes it difficult to predict how long any given case will take to settle. Even the best Westlake Village injury attorney will not necessarily know how long it will take the insurance company to get to your case and then come up with a reasonable settlement figure.

Settlement Talks

When it comes to initiating settlement talks, your Westlake Village injury lawyer needs a starting point. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to decide on a starting point early in the claim process. Usually a claimant has to wait until they have mostly healed from their injuries before their Westlake Village injury attorney can begin the calculations for a starting settlement demand.

This is because factors such as the total cost of your medical bills and whether any future medical treatment will be necessary are critical factors in determining the value of your case. Your Westlake Village injury lawyer cannot put a dollar figure on your injuries if not even you know how much they will end up costing.

For Legal Assistance

Get the best help that you can to pursue a personal injury claim. Call Westlake Village injury lawyer Gary Mitchell at 888-452-1846.

Many people involved in injury lawsuits worry about the hospital and doctor bills that are piling up while their case is being resolved. Talk to a Westlake Village personal injury lawyer about delayed bill payment and what it might mean for you.

Waiting for Payment

Your Westlake Village personal injury lawyer knows that doctors, hospitals, and other medical institutions will often wait to be paid. This is especially the case if they are aware that you have no method of presently paying the bills. But you need to make your providers aware that you are attempting to receive a settlement or court verdict in your favor. Make sure they also know you have no other means to resolve the bills, such as insurance or savings.

A Westlake Village Personal Injury Attorney Discusses Outstanding Bills

In general, your Westlake Village personal injury lawyer will withhold compensation and pay your outstanding bills with it. Many medical facilities make you sign a form that essentially allows your attorney to do this. Once bills are paid and your attorney’s fees are settled, the remainder of the compensation is yours to do with as you wish.

For Assistance from a Westlake Village Personal Injury Lawyer

If you have questions about how medical bills may affect your case, or need assistance with a personal injury you suffered due to someone else’s negligence, speak with an attorney. Westlake Village personal injury attorney Gary Mitchell will meet with you to discuss your claim. Call 888-452-1846 to arrange a free initial consultation.

One of the most frequent questions asked of a Westlake Village personal injury lawyer concerns keeping track of medical bills. This is an important factor in a personal injury lawsuit and a client should maintain an accurately detailed list of medical costs.

Keeping Records of Medical Costs

Your Westlake Village personal injury attorney will advise you to do the following in order to keep a record of the medical expenses:

1) Each time you visit a physician or medical facility, request a medical bill. Keep an accurate record of your medical appointments. Make certain to receive a bill for every visit whether it is to see a physician, to have physical therapy, enter a hospital, or any other medical location for any reason.

2) Retain the records of prescriptions as well as the bills. Any prescription linked to your injuries is relevant to your case and if you’re buying medicine to treat an injury, saving a copy of the receipts is imperative information for your attorney.

3) Maintain a chart of the bills for medical visits, prescriptions, the dates of the visits, purchases, and how they were paid for (via insurer, out of pocket or other means). This will provide your Westlake Village personal injury attorney with a list of costs.

4) Provide your attorney with a copy of every bill you received due to your injury whether it’s medical, prescription or anything else. It is vital to have the correct amount of money the injuries cost to receive the correct amount in a settlement. Your lawyer should be given copies of the bills by the healthcare providers, but it is helpful to compare these records with the records you will keep to ensure a settlement for the highest possible amount.

5) Even if the bills are paid through insurance, keep a record of them. No matter how the bills were paid—through work coverage or any other insurer—keep your own copies and give them to your Westlake Village personal injury lawyer.

Speak to an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer

If you or a loved one have questions regarding a personal injury lawsuit, how to keep a record of medical expenses and their importance, Westlake Village personal injury lawyer Gary Mitchell can assist you. Contact Gary Mitchell at 888-452-1846 about your personal injury lawsuit today.

The deposition will be your first chance to tell your story. Your Westlake Village personal injury lawyer will give you all of the details about your deposition and what to expect.

Why Do I Need to Be Deposed?
The deposition serves as a chance for you to explain exactly what happened to you. Any time someone is involved in a lawsuit, the opposing side may request a deposition and the law requires that you comply. Your Westlake Village personal injury lawyer will explain the types of questions the opposing attorney will ask you, which are meant to garner any relevant background information. The better you do in your deposition, the more likely it is that a settlement will be reached rather than taking the case to trial. However, your Westlake Village personal injury lawyer will warn you not to offer any false information during deposition, as it can be used against you later at trial.

Who Will See My Deposition Answers?
Your attorney will let you know of anyone that will be present during the deposition. There will be attorneys from each side and a court reporter creating a transcript of the deposition. The transcript is available to each attorney and may be used if your case goes to trial.

Will I Be the Only One Deposed?
Your Westlake Village personal injury lawyer will decide if it necessary to depose the other side, as there are times that it will not be necessary or would be better not to do so. This is a decision, among several other important decisions, that is best left to your Westlake Village personal injury lawyer. For additional information about how an attorney can help, contact Gary Mitchell today at 888-452-1846 for immediate assistance.

An accurate, comprehensive record of all of your medical expenses is a vital part of your personal injury case. It provides you and your Westlake Village personal injury attorney with proof positive of all the money you have had to spend as a result of the hurt you sustained, and it can affect the amount of your settlement.

Whom Should I Request Statements from?
Whenever you go to see your physician, a hospital or medical center, or keep an appointment with your therapy specialist, you must require that they present you with an invoice.

Does This Include My Medications?
Absolutely. Keep the receipts for all medications prescribed for you as treatment for your injuries and any applicable fees from your pharmacist. On another list, document each relevant visit or purchase, the total fees for all services and medicines and whether the fees were paid by your insurance or out of your own pocket. This provides a tangible record of everything you have had to spend because you were hurt.

Don’t Forget Your Westlake Village Personal Injury Attorney
When it comes time for your case to settle, your attorney will require a copy of each receipt or statement and your comprehensive list of all relevant expenses if your case is to be properly resolved. Without this information, your settlement could be much smaller than is actually justified.

What if My Insurance Paid the Bill?
Whether the expenses were defrayed by your health carrier or the company you work for, it is still vital that you keep all the documentation and forward a complete set to your attorney.

Contact Your Westlake Village Personal Injury Attorney Today
If you are the victim of a personal injury, don’t wait. Call Gary Mitchell at 888-452-1846 for the help you need.

Although a Westlake Village personal injury attorney will use the legal system to help claimants receive the benefits they deserve, insurance companies tend to use a number of disreputable practices to avoid settling personal injury claims.  The following are some stonewalling tactics used by insurance companies:

• Delaying benefits
• Coercing or blackmailing claimants, especially those who are financially vulnerable
• Paying out benefits only after theclaimant agrees to settle all parts

Delaying Benefits

• Insurance companies often delay benefits or drag out a claim for months or even years in order to discourage the claimant from pursuing a settlement.
• If a settlement lingers for an extended period of time, claimants tend to become disheartened and exasperated, and are therefore less likely to follow up on their personal injury settlements.
• In the event that an insurance company does stonewall your claim, your Westlake Village personal injury attorney can pursue disciplinary action against the company on your behalf.

Coercing or Blackmailing Claimants

• Insurance companies will do almost anything to avoid settling your personal injury claim, including blackmail.
• For example, the insurance company may realize that you desperately need settlement money to pay for living expenses such as food, mortgage payments, and automobile repairs, and will ultimately bargain with you to settle your claim immediately, but at a low amount.

Paying Only After a Claimant’s Personal Insurance Settles

• If a claimant has personal medical insurance, some claims representatives of insincere insurance companies may refuse to reimburse the claimant until his or her own personal insurance pays to the fullest extent possible.

Contact Us

If you have suffered a personal injury, don’t be taken advantage of by these deceitful insurance practices.  Call Westlake Village personal injury attorneyGary Mitchell today at (888) 452-1846.

Although most adjusters do not use cheap tactics to deliberately delay claims, there are some that will use any method possible to stall a claimant’s case until they get desperate enough to accept a much lower settlement. This is exactly why you need to hire a Thousand Oaks injury lawyer who will aggressively fight for your rights and aim to prevent the insurance adjuster from stalling the settlement of your personal injury claim.

Your Thousand Oaks injury lawyer will use the following approaches to avoid the delay of your claim.

Ask As Many Questions As Necessary

The more assertive your Thousand Oaks injury lawyer is in asking the insurance adjuster what he or she needs to settle your claim, the less opportunity the adjuster will have to delay the claims process.

Give Aggressive Deadlines

Your Thousand Oaks injury lawyer should give the insurance adjuster deadlines with regards to certain important items. Although this is not always an effective method, it does provide a record that can be used during trial or to go to higher authority.

Threaten Legal Action

If all else fails, your Thousand Oaks injury lawyer can threaten the adjuster with a lawsuit. Or, in some cases, there may be no choice but to file a suit.

Call Us

For more information about avoiding the cheap tactics used by insurance adjusters to delay the settlement of your personal injury claim, call (888) 452-1846 to schedule a complimentary consultation with Thousand Oaks injury lawyer Gary Mitchell.

Just like Thousand Oaks injury attorneys, adjusters discuss their cases with other adjusters and their supervisors.  While some cases are discussed in committees, not every case will receive “round table” discussion.  If an adjuster mentions a case is being evaluated by a claims committee, he or she often means it is simply being discussed by themselves and a supervisor.

Adjusters receive all types of claims that range from catastrophic to frivolous and are therefore seldom impressed by claims that low back pain or neck problems are ruining your life.  However, they are impressed by hard numbers such as the amount of your medical bills, the number of physical therapy or chiropractic treatments you’ve undergone, and how much loss of income you can document.  Statements such as how a sprained ankle caused you to cry at night or how back pain prevented you from washing dishes for eight weeks will have little or no effect.

Settlement

When negotiating a settlement, an insurance adjuster does not usually have a great amount of time to spend reviewing cases on a daily basis.  However, an adjuster will typically spend more than just a few minutes per case and if the claim is particularly difficult they will spend considerably more time.

An adjuster will have to obtain authority from either a claims manager or a supervisor to settle a case.  If a large national company is involved, authority is given to increase the settlement in small increments, usually from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.  Therefore, you can most likely believe an adjuster who tells you he or she needs to obtain authority to move from $16,000 to $19,000.

If you would like to visit with a competent and knowledgeable Thousand Oaks injury attorney regarding your personal injury claim, please contact Gary Mitchell by calling 888-452-1846.

A Thousand Oaks injury lawyer job is to help battered victims receive reparations for their injuries, but he or she can only do so if the plaintiff is credible.  Read on to discover several warning signs of plaintiff fraud.

Fictitious Medical Provider Information

Insurance adjusters might be concerned about medical record falsification if:

• The place of business shown on paperwork does not recognize the noted physician;
• The medical facility switches names or locations often;
• The claimant attempts to process bills for fraudulent or needless procedures, or he or she cannot describe the medical condition that prompted services; or
• The claimant cannot supply a plausible reference to the doctor or lawyer utilized.

Abnormal Treatment

Although standards of medical care differ widely between carriers, insurance adjusters may become suspicious of medical treatments that surpass the “normal standard” of care for each particular carrier. Adjusters may also refer cases for particular investigation if they become suspicious that the same doctor and Thousand Oaks injury lawyer are handling the same cases too frequently.

Medical Overcompensation

If medical bills and property damage are not proportional, insurance companies will frequently scrutinize the incident. For instance, if a driver was injured in a small bumper-to-bumper car accident and later bills the insurance company for $10,000 worth of spinal treatments, it may appear as though the medical bills are disproportionate to the minor injuries.

All in all, insurance adjusters and Thousand Oaks injury lawyers may be hesitant to assist a client who displays any these warning signs for medical fraud. Do you know if your claim will raise red flags for insurance adjusters? If you are an honest plaintiff seeking fair and experienced representation for your personal injury claim, call Gary Mitchell today at (888) 452-1846.