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I understand that as a personal injury lawyer, it is common knowledge to me that you don't have to own health insurance to get medical care for many accidents. I forget that not everyone knows this. It irks me to hear PI Lawyers on TV and radio hawking their services and telling people they don't have to pay for anything up front, or that the don't need health insurance to get treatment. It irks me because these lawyers make it sound like they are offering something special that no other person can provide, when all PI lawyers can do these things.

If you are injured in a car wreck, for example, you can see a doctor without health insurance in a number of ways. If you have Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage on your automobile, the doctor will bill your PIP. If you don't have PIP coverage, the lawyer can issue a letter of protection to many doctors that will allow you to treat on credit. The doctor will be paid from the proceeds of the case settlement.

There is a common mistake that many make though, thinking that the insurance for the person who hit them will pay for the medical care as they go. Usually this isn't true. In the rare cases where I've seen it happen, it was usually because the insurance company was tricking the injured person, or planning to cut them off quickly.

If you are hurt, due to another person's negligence and do not have health insurance, don't give up! Call a lawyer and find out what your rights are, what sources are available to you, and get help. Nobody should suffer needless pain because of another person's negligence, and not get help.

I have been getting a very large number of searches on the topic of attorney letters of protection. Enough that I felt the need to address them more. The original post is located at http://www.shtexaslawyer.com/blog/admin.php?ctrl=items&blog=1&p=75.

A letter of protection works like a credit account. To my knowledge, only lawyers can issue a letter of protection. The letter of protection creates a lien on the case for the benefit of the doctor. What it promises is that if the doctor will not seek to collect his fees now, the doctor will be paid out of the proceeds of the final settlement of the case. These letters are crucial to injured people without health insurance, personal injury protection coverage, or medical payments coverage. In those circumstances the injured person has to pay the doctor up front in cash or with a credit card, unless they have a lawyer who can issue a letter of protection.

A letter of protection does not make a bill go away. The bill remains the responsibility of the client. The letter does bind the attorney to satisfy the bill before the client can be paid. A letter of protection does not bind the health care provider to any reductions, nor does it make the doctors payment contingent on the outcome of the case. If the case does not work out where the doctor can be paid in full, the client remains responsible for the balance of the bill.

Not all health care providers will accept a letter of protection. Hospitals, care-flight, ambulance services and surgeons are examples of health care businesses that usually will not accept a letter of protection. The collection agencies for these entities often do accept a letter of protection before they put any marks on a patient's credit history.

I can't help but wonder how many people searching this topic are looking to understand what a letter of protection is, and how many are trying to figure out how to get one. If you are injured, do not have insurance to cover treatment, and are seeking to get a letter of protection to go forward with treatment, you need a lawyer!

What is my case worth? I hear it all the time. I hear it from people who have cases near the end of negotiations. I hear it from people as soon as they have an accident. I even hear it from people just making up imagined "what if" stories of accidents that never happened.

What is your case worth?
Honest answer?

Nobody knows. Honestly, there is no way to know what a particular case case is worth. Every case is very different from the next. There are far too many variables to be positive what any one case is worth. Attorneys can know what their average cases earn, but if you ask them what an "average case" is the definition varies wildly. The honest answer drives people crazy. It drives them crazy because they are usually looking for a way to either plan for money they hope to receive, or they want guidance as to what to ask for to close their case without an attorney.

The people asking because they don't want to hire an attorney think lawyers keep case value a secret. These people think that the lawyers keep the secret so that they can earn business. It isn't true. If you call a lawyer to ask what your case is worth, it isn't the same as bringing a lump of gold to a jeweler and asking what it is worth. Jewels are a commodity, there are indexes showing what the value of a pound of gold is worth at any given time. There is no such index for injuries. An eighty year old retired man with a broken foot will have an entirely different value for his case than say a twenty-four year old rising football star. The person rear-ended by a cell phone wielding distracted driver will have an entirely different case than a person struck by a drunk driver. The family of a deceased father hit by an uninsured driver has an entirely different case than the family of a father killed by a negligent cement truck. Even if you try to compare two nearly identical rear-end collisions at stop lights, with essentially the same amount of property damage and similar injuries, the end results could vary by several thousand dollars.

When lawyers try to predict their internal receivables, they usually guess low. They use a number based on the historical average for every case they have ever signed. That way they can count the number of cases on the books, multiply it by this average, and get a guess at what they think they could earn on every case in their docket. In reality, the individual results bounce above and below the average. But, if you smooth out the numbers over a long period of time, there is a guess they can use. That guess has nothing to do with the value of each case.

What is that number? Why don't you tell us?

That number isn't the total offered. That number is only the attorney's fees. That number is artificially low too, so that attorneys don't oversell their potential and get disappointed if the numbers don't work. Most importantly, since that number is based on an average and not the particular facts of any given case, if you hear that number and use it on your case the attorney could be liable for malpractice in giving you bad advice.

If you don't know what a case is worth, how do you ever settle them?

At some point the insurance company for the defendant is unwilling to offer more. At that point you can look at the number offered, subtract expenses, medical bills and such, and determine the outcome. If the outcome is substantially less than what you think a jury would pay on your worst day (after expenses of litigation), then it makes sense to go to trial. If the offer is equal to your worst day at trial, you still have little to risk. If the offer is better than your worst day at trial, then you risk losing money in litigation.

That begs the question, how do you know what the case is worth at trial?

We still don't "know" what a case is worth at trial. We can only make guesses based on experience, the Blue Sheets(a list of settlements and verdicts used for statistical purposes) and the facts of the case. The guess is just that, and educated guess. Without having worked the case for some time, being advised not only of all the facts in your favor and the facts against you, as well as the area where your case will be heard, that guess cannot be accurately made.

Fine then, what are all these "factors", so I can decide for myself?
The time of the day
The weather
The types of cars
The amount of property damage
The driving record of all the parties
The age of the parties
If any party was on medication, drugs or alcohol
Cell phone usage
How the accident occurred
Where the accident occurred
The traffic controls at the scene
The position of the sun, trees, or lighting
The injury history of the parties
What each driver was doing at the time of the accident
The insurance companies involved
The amount of and types of coverage available
The number of injured people
Pre-existing injuries, if any
The treatment history of the parties
The doctors seen
The length of treatment
The consistency and frequency of treatment
How soon treatment started
The types of treatment
The types of diagnostic tests
The results of diagnostic tests
The medical records
The cost of the care received
If there was or was not health insurance
Medicare, Medicaid, county care or other liens
And much, much more....

Stop being evasive, what is my case worth? Just tell me

What's your case worth? Honestly, I don't know. All I know is your case is worth every single cent I can get out of the other side, whether in settlement or through trial.

For more information, visit the main site at:
http://shtxlaw.com/autoaccidents.php
http://shtxlaw.com/sourcesofrecovery.php
http://shtxlaw.com/typesofinjuries.php
http://shtxlaw.com/motorcycleaccidents.php
http://shtxlaw.com/needlawyer.php
http://shtxlaw.com/insurancecompanies.php

It was interesting to see two vastly different views on the past tort reform efforts in Texas being reviewed almost simultaneously. In support of tort reform efforts was and commentary made May 2, by Perryman Group (I’d direct link the article for you, but the link always goes back to their main page http://www.perrymangroup.com/ , go to the news publications and then commentary, its entitled “A Texas Turnaround”). The contrary position was stated in this article from Fox News.

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