Were you injured in a car wreck? Learn what you should know about your car accident claim in this article. Then, contact our Boise attorneys.
What to Do After a Car Accident
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.
Liability for a Car Accident
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.
Choosing a Car Accident Attorney
Figuring out who you want your attorney to be for your Boise, Idaho car accident can be a daunting process. How do you make that selection? You make that selection by looking at the people involved. Don’t succumb to TV advertising and don’t succumb to billboards. Look at an attorney’s background. Today, on the internet, you can find out about people’s backgrounds. What have they accomplished? Are they real trial attorneys? Personal injury trial attorneys with a success in the courtroom is what you want for your Boise, Idaho car accident lawyer.
You want an attorney who’s had success, and you want an attorney who has experience and understands the scope of the types of injuries that you’re facing. You also want an attorney who has been recognized by one of the many rating agencies by his colleagues and his fellow attorneys. You want an attorney who teaches other lawyers how to go about the process of being a personal injury attorney. Look at whether they’re rated AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell. Are they ten-rated by Avvo? Are they members of the American College of Trial Lawyers? Are they members of AAJ? Are they members of the Idaho Trial Lawyers Association? You want attorneys who are involved in all of those types of organizations and have received accolades from those types of organizations for their successes.
You want attorneys who know what to do when it comes to the types of defenses that an insurance company throws up for a Boise, Idaho car accident case. You don’t want to cut any corners, and you want an attorney who you’re comfortable with. You want an attorney you can work with— somebody with whom you would have a good relationship that can last beyond meeting them as part of your car accident claim. You also want somebody you can call up later and ask questions, who wants that relationship to sustain over time.
Spend the time looking at the background of the attorney, spend the time looking at their accolades, and spend the time getting to know them when you interview them. That’s what you should do. You should interview your attorneys to make sure that they’re somebody you’re comfortable with. We’re happy to talk to you. Any one of us at this firm will be happy to have a conversation with you about your Boise, Idaho car accident case to help you understand whether we’re the right lawyers for you.
Car Accident Case Value
Wondering what damages you can recover or what the value of your case is when you’re in a car accident case in Boise or even up north or out east in Idaho is a difficult proposition. It seems like it should be easy.
Economic losses can include lost wages and medical expenses, but even medical expenses can be complex. Who paid for them? Are there write-downs? Are they actually causally related to your wreck? What about that lost income? It’s easy if you’re an hourly worker. It’s pretty straightforward that you’ve missed so many hours and it’s by the hourly rate, but maybe that caused you to miss out on some bonuses. What if you’re self-employed? What if you’re a small business person and you’ve lost the opportunity to be at your storefront? What if you’re a construction person and you can’t make some bids on some jobs that you think you probably would have gotten? Those things make even calculating that value difficult.
Then you get to the really complex things, which are the lost value of life. People don’t ask you, if you’ve been injured, how much your medical expenses cost. Your friends ask you how you’re doing, if you’re back to things yet, if you’re back water skiing after your Boise, Idaho car accident, if you’re back to snow skiing or running or driving your ATV – whatever those things are that you like to do. Did you miss out on a hunting season? Those are real losses, and those losses have to be evaluated and calculated, and they can only be evaluated and calculated based on your situation.
There is no formula, there is no chart, and there is no graph for us to calculate your losses. If you see somebody trying to do it that way, that’s somebody’s who doing it wrong. We need to understand you to be able to help evaluate your case. The way to help us start understanding you is to reach out to us. Let us have an initial conversation to see if we are the right lawyers for you to help you figure out what your case is worth, what damages you should recover, and what the value of your claim is.
Were you injured in a crash in Boise and have questions about what you should know about your car accident claim? Contact our experienced Boise Car Accident Attorneys at Hepworth Holzer today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
We are committed to helping individuals and families throughout Idaho navigate the world of personal injury litigation as quickly and efficiently as possible. Let us get results for you and your family.
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