You may be surprised to learn, to recover pain and suffering damages from a car accident you might not need to pay an attorney OR your doctors upfront. This applies even if you don’t have health insurance. I felt that this was an important blog post to write, because we see so many people who are in bad financial situations pass up seeing an attorney after they’ve been the victim of an auto accident. Many of them have the impression the system is unfair, so they don’t expect recovery; or sometimes they’re afraid to talk to an attorney because they don’t have health insurance. There’s no reason to worry about that. In fact, there’s absolutely the potential for a person of limited means, without health insurance, or even car insurance, to recover for their medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering damages, as long as they’re not at fault.
Here’s how this works – Someone rear-ends your vehicle, or does something else to cause you to be injured in an auto accident. And what happens next is a process of you paying little to nothing in order to recover for your damages.
1) You come to us and since we work on contingency, you don’t pay us a dime unless you recover damages.
2) As long as you have PIP (Personal Injury Protection) Coverage, you don’t pay for most, if not all, of your medical expenses or lost wages. Your insurance company will pay at least up to the limit.
3) Even if you don’t have health insurance or PIP coverage, you don’t pay for your doctor’s bills as long as you’re not at fault. Why? Because many doctors work on what is called “assignment”. This means because the doctor knows that the other party is liable, he/she agrees to wait to be paid by the other party’s insurance company. You’ll simply sign an Agreement stating the doctor will get paid out of your recovery. And most importantly, you’ll get the medical care you need!
So the point of all this is to say – no matter who you are or what your position in life, you should never be afraid to contact an attorney if you’re injured in an auto accident. If you suffer at the hands of another person, you deserve proper medical care, and it’s that person’s insurance company that must pay for it.
Thanks, and hope you never need us! But if you do, we’re happy to answer any questions you have.
Samantha Manganaro, Esq.