Rear Ender

I am thinking about a woman I saw last night. Let's call her Gina.
She's very attractive as was her fiance, both mid forties. She has a high powered job as does he. Their home was meticulous. Every item a work of art, placed "just so." She was gracious, intelligent, hospitable. He was handsome, rugged and clearly had her back.

She was in her beloved Dodge Ram Pick-U 1500, the same kind we own. It seems like a big truck to me. Just not as big as the Ford F-350 that rear-ended her at 50 miles per hour.

We all found it interesting the vehicle that sustained the greatest impact was the Defendant's vehicle, the big Ford-350. Its entire front end was crunched and pushed towards the front seat. Both airbags in the 350 deployed, it had to be towed and was ultimately totaled.

Gina's truck was crunched in the rear, the back panel pushed in a "v" formation, the bumper ripped off... to the tune of to the tune of several thousand in repairs.

It wasn't to Gina's advantage that there were no police called to the scene. No ambulance. No 911 call. The guy in the F-350 took charge, called the tow trucks, gave her his insurance info, called his auto insurance company on the spot and said it was his fault. He said the police would take forever to get there. Neither one claimed at the time to be hurt.
She said felt like he was a good enough guy and trusted him.

And he was true to his word. His insurance company accepted liability.

There was no loan on Gina's truck, so after fixing it, she probably would have had a diminished value claim since it was new. But she knew nothing of how this car accident business works... so once the truck was fixed she decided she could never drive it again. She traded it in for a Lincoln.

The property/vehicle settlement was a done deal long before Gina's boyfriend called the attorney who called me. In fact, the accident happened in June. I asked Gina why she was calling an attorney now. Why wait so long?

She said the insurance company of the guy who hit her was so nice.
Besides, she said, she had coverage on her own car for medical bills (it's called PIP, Personal Injury Protection in Washington State).
So she figured why bother with lawyers?
She was a high powered exec with a well known company. She negotiated complex contracts daily.
She figured she could surely deal with an insurance adjuster who she likened to a bill collector.
Then... she started getting headaches, nausea, neck aches and back pain.

Her pain began to increase exponentially until two days after the accident, she went to to the ER, got X-Rays, they didn't show anything. Her auto insurance company picked up the bill because she had PIP, they said. They didn't say how much PIP she had. To me, that was a sign that maybe she had a lot of PIP funds available. She saw a chiro three times a week, a massage twice. Always after work.

Everything was fine until one day at home, she bent and sneezed at the same time and down she went. It was as simple as that. A sneeze and she laid on the floor, flat out on a her back in spasms.

An ambulance ride to the ER and one MRI later revealed a small crack in her back that grew much bigger when she sneezed.
Now with her broken back, she can't work, she can't sleep, she's hooked on pain Meds, she and her husband are fighting and she is terrified of driving.
Her own insurance company has said she used up her P.I.P. (Personal Injury Protection) -- and from here on in, either she or her health insurance pay doctors bills until the Defendants company (the F-350) settles at the end.

Thing is Gina has no health insurance now that she has no job.
She has no way to keep paying her doctor.
She told me, when her fiance left the room, that she felt she was losing her mind.
There was no more intimacy between them.
"We fight like pitbulls" she said. "I feel like I'm sinking in quicksand."
I watched the water well in her eyes and then turned to study the pile of paperwork she laid before me earlier.

It was one of those "AHA" moments when you feel a quick rush of adrenalin.
She had a lot more PIP than she knew, because her insurance company neglected to tell her she had $35,000 in PIP benefits, not just the average $10,000.
And, her own insurance company also neglected to tell her PIP also provides up to $35,000 in lost ages -- at the rate of up to $700 a week if she makes that amount (minus the first two weeks pay). I told her the lawyers get the difference in lost wages at the end of the case if they can.

She was astounded. It was then that she confessed she was in foreclosure because she didn't know she had lost wages available to her through her insurance company. She been off work almost four months and they couldn't survive one one income.
I asked her to give me the papers the insurance companies sent her. They neglected to include the application for PIP lost wages.

It felt real good to tell her I think the lawyers could likely help her. I said there are never any guarantees in the legal business, however, I thought they could have her doctors continue to see her on a lien against the case.
Hopefully, the lawyers could help her could get her back lost wages... which may help towards stopping their foreclosure.
I laid out what her rights are, explained the statutes of limitations.
As I explained all the things I tell injured people, they begin to realize the sky is not falling.
You can actually see the bulb go off in their heads, the light return to their eyes, a smile form at the corner of their lips.
They have advocates now. Me.... and the Attorney. Gina called her fiance back in the room and asked me to repeat everything I said to her to him... again.

It was a good night. Albeit a long late one.
I took some photos of the circles under Gina's eyes; of the odd way her head tilted on her neck; the bulge in her back. I took all her paperwork with me, got the appropriate signatures and by the time I was back in my car it was about 7:00. I stopped at the local photo place, printed up her photos and made the 7:50 Ferry.

I made it home just in time to write up her case to the background of "NCIS," and a new show called the "Forgotten." It felt like only minutes after I climbed in the sack about midnight, set the alarm and was on the 5:50 ferry this morning. A big storm hit during the night. I drove over branches and leaves to get off our dirt road to the main road where other sleepy workers like me were commuting to the boat.

I delivered the case to the doorstep of someone who works at the law firm who lives about 15 minutes from the Ferry. She would bring the file to the office when they opened 8:30 am. I headed back to the Ferry, the sunrise and home again.

Just now I got a call from Gina. She said she wanted to thank me for the visit last night, the information, the attorneys.
She said she had already spoken to her attorney and they already faxed the paperwork off to insurance companies so we could get her lost wages going and they would stop calling her. She said the law firm got her doctor to treat on a lien against the case and all bills will be sent to the attorneys not to her home.

And she said for the first time in months, she felt hope again.
Hope.
That would be one of the bennies of being a Private Investigator working a personal injury case.
Because every problem becomes an opportunity for resolution.

With recent government infusions of capital into insurance companies...
and the fact that they accept billions of dollars every month of our lives for accidents that don't happen...
you'd think the auto insurance companies would have enough money to buy a clue: that they are here to service their clients and the people they injure. Not to undermine them.

After I post this today, I will prep for the cases I have tomorrow. There is a never-ended cycling of cases out there -- injuries, vehicles, victims, defendants, insurance companies attorneys, mediators, judges and juries doing a dance of legal liability, and trying to put a monetary value on it all.

If you find yourself the victim of an accident, whatever you do --do not sign anything, settle anything with an insurance company until you consult an attorney, study the subject on the net, and know your stuff. In this investigator's humble opinion, no matter who you are, you are no match for an insurance adjuster without an attorney to look out for your interests.