Tag: claim

4 Things You Can’t Claim on the Witness Stand

1. You were not allowed to say how your insurance unfairly treated you even if this was the reason you did not seek treatment for your injuries in the first place.

2. You can’t say that the insurance adjuster was unfair in dealing with your case and was not even offering a settlement that would cover only your medical bills and not to mention any pain an suffering or loss of wages.

3. Unless presented to the court prior to a certain date, you are not allowed to say the exact total of your recently incurred medical expenses. You were only allowed to claim what had been presented to the court by your lawyer and if they are not advising you correctly this is the reason for a lower settlement amount. The jury can only reward you money for the recovered damages that they are aware of. In my personal experienced over $20,000 worth of medical expenses were not properly presented before trail.

4. You are not allowed to account for what any doctors told you. The opposing counsel will object stating that you are not an expert witness. To get around this, just re-word your testimony by instead of saying “the doctor said” to “after the wreck I had …”.

What is a Loss of Consortium and Services Claim?

Well, did you know that if you are suing for a personal injury loss then your spouse can also file a claim due to their loss because of your loss. This is what a Loss of Consortium and Services Claim is. So lets say your husband is in a wreck and he is not able to mow the yard or repair the car for you, then you are able to say that I have a loss of life because now you have to mow the yard and repair the car. Or basically you have to pick up all the slack.

You can even make a claim for the intimate loss in your relationship as well if you are willing to go into details which can be very uncomfortable when you are deposed or on the witness stand.

What is An Uninsured Motorist Claim?

If you caused an accident and didn’t have insurance the other driver will be able to file an uninsured motorist claim (UMC). Their insurance company will pay for all the things yours would have.  Then the other driver’s insurance company will turn the matter over to their subrogation department. The Subrogation department will contact you about paying them back. Do not ignore them because they can have your drivers license suspended, sue you or turn you over to collections.

However, this department will be willing to set up an interest free payment plan for you to repay them for all they paid their driver. Most likely they will want at least around $ 100 per month until the debt is paid in full. If you miss payments they suspend your license, sue you or turn you over to collections. The other thing you can do is see if the subro dept will accept a lesser lump sum. For example: you owe them lets say $ 10,000 they may be willing to take 7,000 if you pay it as a lump sum. They would rather get a little less all at once than collect the full $ 10,000 100 dollars at a time. Can you dispute the amount they want? No not really. They paid it you owe it. ** This is not legal advice ***