4 Car Accident Tips

Bang! You’re in this collision and you’re wondering what you should do. The first thing to do is make sure that you’re okay and make sure the other people in the collision are okay. If somebody needs healthcare, you need to help them get that healthcare. You need to make sure nobody’s going to get hurt any further. Once these immediate issues are out of the way, you want to talk to the police. One of the mistakes we see people make is failing to report a collision. Frankly, there are statutes that make it illegal to fail to report a collision. If somebody has hit you and is trying to get away from the scene or leave without making sure that law enforcement has been informed, you need to understand that you need to deal with that.

Next thing you want to do is get the healthcare you need— emergency room healthcare. Make sure there’s nothing urgent going on. Plan for your follow-up care, as well. Recognize that the emergency room is not your family doctor who’s looking at your wellness completely; they’re looking at if there’s a reason we need to do immediate intervention. Is there a reason to admit you to the hospital to stop some bleeding or to set a bone? You want to follow up with your healthcare provider shortly after to make sure you get a more comprehensive evaluation of any injuries you’ve incurred.

You then want to call a lawyer. It’s always better to get a lawyer involved earlier in the process rather than later in the process so you can get some advice, guidance and direction on the right things to do in dealing with the injury claim itself. How do you deal with that insurance company that’s on the other side of your Boise, Idaho car accident? If you haven’t dealt with them before, you might not realize the things that they will try to do to minimize your claim and to reduce the amount that they ultimately have to pay you.

Obviously, another thing you should do is make sure your loved ones know what’s going on. You should probably call them before you call your lawyer but put the lawyer on that list because it’s better to deal with it sooner than it is to deal with a lawyer later. If you’re wondering what you should do right now, give us a call. We’ll be happy to talk to you, and provide you some guidance and direction, and help you decide the right course of action for you in your Boise, Idaho car accident claim.

Dealing with medical expenses after a car accident injury is a relatively complex thing, surprisingly. One of the things that people don’t often realize is that their own auto insurance, their medical payments coverage portion of their auto insurance, is the primary bill payer for medical bills incurred because of injuries in an Idaho accident. You have to have chosen to purchase medical payments coverage. It’s not automatic coverage that you’re required to purchase.

Once you choose to purchase it, it applies to the first $5,000, $10,000, or however much coverage you’ve purchased of your medical bills. After that, your standard health insurance will kick in. That means your deductibles, your co-pays, or those portions of that insurance that are out-of-pocket, are going to be out-of-pocket for you. Both your medical payments coverage and these other costs that you have to pay out-of-pocket and your health insurance pays are subject to reimbursement.

A subrogation right is one of the words that lawyers use in Boise, Idaho car accidents. Subrogation means the right to be re-paid. Sometimes medical care can be provided on a lien – that means a right to be paid the first time – where the physician or other healthcare provider says, “Alright, I’ll provide the care and wait and hold off, until you’ve resolved your personal injury claim, to be paid for the services I’ve provided.”One of the problems with that is, in a situation where your health insurance paid the bill, it may get billed $100 and only have to pay $75, whereas if a provider is providing a lien, they’re not going to provide that write-down, so you have that additional cost you may not have otherwise had.

It’s surprising how complex medical expenses can be. At the end of the day, the bad guy only has to pay once, so you have to manage your payment of expenses from the time the injury happens forward to make sure that you’re taken care of. That can be done through discussions with the billing offices and stuff like that to help them understand your situation. Good Boise, Idaho car accident injury attorneys will help you deal with these issues over the course of your claim. If you have any questions about this or anything else to do with a Boise, Idaho car accident, give us a call. We’re here to talk to you.

Anybody who is involved in a car accident injury claim in Boise, Idaho or anywhere is always wondering how long it’s going to take and when a case will be over. That’s not just a valid question but an important question. The answer is that it depends. It depends on how hurt you were. What’s the scope of the injury care that you need? What are the medical processes you are going through? When have you recovered? It also depends on who the bad guy is who caused the injury and how they’re behaving. Who’s their insurance company? You can resolve claims relatively quickly, but they tend to be the smaller, easy-going claims, claims that are not hard to evaluate.

Bigger claims of greater magnitude, where the damages are larger and there’s long-term impairments and pain and suffering that that Boise, Idaho car accident imposed upon you, tend to take longer. If there’s a lot of conflict, the case can go to trial. We know those trials can be 18 to 24 months down the road from the time the lawsuit is filed. You don’t want to file your lawsuit until you’re ready to try to resolve your claim. You often try to resolve that claim before you file your lawsuit.

How long is it going to take? The answer is it depends on your situation. We’re happy to discuss your situation with you. Just call us or reach out to us, and one of us would be happy to discuss your case with you. Talk to a real lawyer here at a firm like this to figure out your situation.