Insurance settlement
 

Re: car wreck 4/13/2010. First insurance settlement offer is in. Attorney has a call in since it's (surprise) too low for the permanent disability of a 47 year old. Now the back and forth between attorney and insurance adjuster begins...

Hopefully the negotiations don't drag out for a long time.

Wishing you the best of luck and the least amount of stress during this time!

It's awful that not only are we all dealing with brain injuries, but we have all the added stress of outside people controlling our lives, which aggrivates symptoms, and the whole cycle starts again.

Wishing you the best :hug:

Going through the same thing
 

Hi roadrunner,

I feel for you. I'm going through the same thing. I've been dealing with the insurance companies and lawyers since the Fall of 09.

The ridiculous thing is, the insurance company of the man that hit me and was determined at 100% at fault and ticketed for wreckless driving, doesn't want this to go to trial so they're going to offer their policy max as the start to negotiations.

It's my own insurance company that won't pay out my policy benefits. In the beginning they were cooperative, but once they determined my wage loss benefits would be the maximum pay-out for them, (I fell into the high-wage earner category) they stopped everything.

Ironically, I was an insurance agent for years and then became an insurance and financial instructor for agents. If I ever got to the point that I could go back to work, it wouldn't be in the insurance industry :mad:

I hope things work out for you soon...The financial burden is one of the biggest stressor. Sending out positive thoughts for you.

I am working to get a TBI Trust Funbd started in idaho. Along with this will be an attempt to get a provision where attorney's and insurance companies have standards to follow in the case of brain injuries that are diagnosed as long term or lifetime disabilities. My friend had 40% of his settlement taken by his attorney.

My hope is that the defending insurance company is liable for the injured legal costs and fees if the insurance company acts in bad faith or with aggressive defense of their liability.

Add to this a provision that the injured's attorney is limited to a smaller fee in those cases where the max pay-out is determined to be less that the total damages to the injured. In the case of lifetime TBI , mTBI or even PCS symptoms and disabilities, a $300,000 or $500,000 max payout is not even close to the needs of the injured person.

With the paltry disability payments received from SSDI, the income lost over a lifetime can easily exceed a million dollars. The 20 years of my reduced income from 46 to 65 would be more like $1.5 to $2 million after accounting for the SSDI income.

The whole system is corrupted here in the "No Fault" state of Michigan...Every State Supreme Court Justice except for one has accepted the max in political contributions from the insurance companies.

The insurance companies own the State Supreme Court and our State Insurance Commissioner, Kevin Clinton, who coincidently served for nearly five years as president and CEO of MEEMIC Insurance Company. If he had the power of enforcement, he wouldn't excercise it anyway.