First, stay where you are and don’t leave the accident scene until you are told to do so by a police officer. Leaving the scene of an accident could make it difficult for a police officer or your personal injury lawyer to determine who is at fault in the accident. It is also possible that your leaving the scene could result in criminal charges.
While in your car, call the police and report the accident, or have some one do this for you, even if you are told by others that it is not necessary. The police can take pictures, make notes and diagrams and preserve evidence that is critical to proving your case. Be prepared to tell dispatch the address or approximate location of the accident. It is important to call the police while you are at the accident scene even if you don’t think that you are hurt. We have had countless clients over the years who felt fine at the accident scene while their adrenaline was high, only to wake up a day or two later to tremendous headaches and neck or back pain which resulted from serious injuries sustained in their car accident. Even conservative insurance adjusters understand this to be the case when they review an injury victim’s case file.
Never admit fault. You should always be honest with the police officer who is investigating the accident, fault is determined by the police officer and other experts. Your job is to honestly answer the police officer’s questions as to what happened before, during and after the accident from your vantage point. It is natural to feel bad for someone else that is involved in an automobile accident with you. You may even feel sympathy for them, but do not admit fault to them or to anyone else as it could come back to harm you later when the other driver’s attorney and insurance company are reviewing the case.
Collect names, addresses, and phone numbers of witnesses and anyone else involved in the accident, or who witnessed the accident. Witnesses are often happy to help you while they are at the accident scene, including providing you with their names and phone numbers. Police officers are busy and witnesses may not come forward to them. If you don’t get witnesses’ names and phone numbers at the accident scene, it may prove next to impossible to find them later on, and they may be the ones with the key evidence in your case.
If possible, use your phone and take photographs of damages to vehicles, persons, property and the general area around the accident scene. This is crucial evidence that may be difficult to obtain later, and not all police departments will do this in their investigation.
As opposed to a car accident, determining liability in an accident involving a large commercial vehicle can be quite complicated. A number of parties could be held liable for injuries or other damages in a truck or bus accident:
- The driver of the commercial vehicle
- The owner of the commercial vehicle
- The person(s) or company that leased the vehicle from the owner
- The manufacturer of the vehicle or its parts (tires, brakes, trailer, etc.) that contributed to the accident
- The shipper or loader of the truck’s cargo.
These various parties may dispute liability among themselves, taking up valuable time on your claim. An experienced personal injury attorney at Anderson & Rogers can help determine the responsible party or parties and get them to pay fair compensation for your injuries.
PIP refers to the section of a car insurance policy that provides for the payment of limited amounts of medical treatment for the insured. Because Utah is a “no fault” state, medical bills for injuries sustained in a car accident are covered by the injured party’s own insurance company. In some cases, PIP insurance can also cover lost wages, funeral expenses, household services, and other costs associated with your car accident.
At Anderson & Rogers, we will get your PIP claim filed on your behalf so that your medical bills can be paid quickly and you can avoid collection calls and actions from your medical providers. You can just focus on getting better. We will also help you get your lost wages, your car repaired, and fair compensation for all other losses paid from all possible insurance avenues.
In the case of a car accident, if the other driver in an automobile accident is at fault for the accident their insurance company is usually responsible for providing the accident victim with a rental car.
In the case of an accident involving a large commercial vehicle, if the driver of a semi-truck, large commercial truck or bus is at fault for the accident their insurance company is usually responsible for providing the accident victim with a rental car.
However, the other driver’s insurance company will usually not pay for a rental car for the accident victim until after it has made its own investigation into the facts of the accident and determined that its insured is at fault for the accident.
Unfortunately, this investigation tends to be much longer than most accident victims would expect. It is commonly a number of weeks, and sometimes much longer before an insurance company completes its own fact investigation. Accident victims are often surprised after a long wait when they hear that the insurance company has chosen to not pay for a rental car because it couldn’t determine if its insured driver was at fault or not. Most accident victims cannot wait this long and are in need of immediate transportation.
At Anderson & Rogers, we know how to work with insurance companies to hurry this process to get our clients into a rental car without unnecessary delays, often within a day or two.
As stated above, your PIP policy will likely be responsible for the first $3,000 of your medical bills regardless of who is at fault in the accident. After that, it may be necessary to have your medical bills paid by your health insurance company until your personal injury case is resolved in its entirety. This presents a problem for those who do not have health insurance, or those whose health insurance doesn't pay 100% of their medical bills. Fortunately, at Anderson & Rogers we have built a good reputation with many of the medical providers, including most of the large hospitals in the state, and we can often work with them to wait to get paid until after your case is resolved. This means that they can agree to discontinue collection efforts, and even agree to continue to treat you, with the understanding that they will get paid out of the proceeds of your case after it settles or we get a favorable result in court. These medical providers will often agree to postpone receiving payment until our client’s case is finished based on the fact that they are confident that our law firm has the experience and knowledge necessary to prevail on our clients’ cases so that they will get paid. This is a great benefit to many of our clients.
However, whether ongoing medical bills are paid by a client's health insurance company or agreements are reached to postpone their being paid until after your case is resolved, the car insurance companies will likely refuse to pay for any of your damages, including your medical bills, until after your claim has been completely resolved. We understand the problems this can be for an accident victim. At Anderson & Rogers we will work with the insurance companies to make sure you are receiving timely and fair compensation for your injuries, usually without the need of a trial.
Commercial vehicle operators need to follow several rules that regulate when and how they operate their vehicles. These rules restrict how much freight they can carry, how many hours they can spend on the road, and also require drivers and owners to regularly maintain their vehicles. Drivers are usually required to log and document many of these things. Failure to abide by these rules can affect the vehicle’s stopping distance and the driver’s ability to react in an emergency situation.
First, stay where you are and don’t leave the accident scene until you are told to do so by a police officer. Leaving the scene of an accident could make it difficult for a police officer or your personal injury lawyer to determine who is at fault in the accident. It is also possible that your leaving the scene could result in criminal charges.
While in your car, call the police and report the accident, or have some one do this for you, even if you are told by others that it is not necessary. The police can take pictures, make notes and diagrams and preserve evidence that is critical to proving your case. Be prepared to tell dispatch the address or approximate location of the accident. It is important to call the police while you are at the accident scene even if you don’t think that you are hurt. We have had countless clients over the years who felt fine at the accident scene while their adrenaline was high, only to wake up a day or two later to tremendous headaches and neck or back pain which resulted from serious injuries sustained in their car accident. Even conservative insurance adjusters understand this to be the case when they review an injury victim’s case file.
Never admit fault. You should always be honest with the police officer who is investigating the accident, fault is determined by the police officer and other experts. Your job is to honestly answer the police officer’s questions as to what happened before, during and after the accident from your vantage point. It is natural to feel bad for someone else that is involved in an automobile accident with you. You may even feel sympathy for them, but do not admit fault to them or to anyone else as it could come back to harm you later when the other driver’s attorney and insurance company are reviewing the case.
Collect names, addresses, and phone numbers of witnesses and anyone else involved in the accident, or who witnessed the accident. Witnesses are often happy to help you while they are at the accident scene, including providing you with their names and phone numbers. Police officers are busy and witnesses may not come forward to them. If you don’t get witnesses’ names and phone numbers at the accident scene, it may prove next to impossible to find them later on, and they may be the ones with the key evidence in your case.
If possible, use your phone and take photographs of damages to vehicles, persons, property and the general area around the accident scene. This is crucial evidence that may be difficult to obtain later, and not all police departments will do this in their investigation.
PIP refers to the section of a car insurance policy that provides for the payment of limited amounts of medical treatment for the insured. Because Utah is a “no fault” state, medical bills for injuries sustained in a car accident are covered by the injured party’s own insurance company. In some cases, PIP insurance can also cover lost wages, funeral expenses, household services, and other costs associated with your car accident.
At Anderson & Rogers, we will get your PIP claim filed on your behalf so that your medical bills can be paid quickly and you can avoid collection calls and actions from your medical providers. You can just focus on getting better. We will also help you get your lost wages, your car repaired, and fair compensation for all other losses paid from all possible insurance avenues.
If the other driver in an automobile accident is at fault for the accident their insurance company is usually responsible for providing the accident victim with a rental car.
However, the other driver’s insurance company will usually not pay for a rental car for the accident victim until after it has made its own investigation into the facts of the accident and determined that its insured is at fault for the accident.
Unfortunately, this investigation tends to be much longer than most accident victims would expect. It is commonly a number of weeks, and sometimes much longer before an insurance company completes its own fact investigation. Accident victims are often surprised after a long wait when they hear that the insurance company has chosen to not pay for a rental car because it couldn’t determine if its insured driver was at fault or not. Most accident victims cannot wait this long and are in need of immediate transportation.
At Anderson & Rogers, we know how to work with insurance companies to hurry this process to get our clients into a rental car without unnecessary delays, often within a day or two.
As stated above, your PIP policy will likely be responsible for the first $3,000 of your medical bills regardless of who is at fault in the accident. After that, it may be necessary to have your medical bills paid by your health insurance company until your personal injury case is resolved in its entirety. This presents a problem for those who do not have health insurance, or those whose health insurance doesn't pay 100% of their medical bills. Fortunately, at Anderson & Rogers we have built a good reputation with many of the medical providers, including most of the large hospitals in the state, and we can often work with them to wait to get paid until after your case is resolved. This means that they can agree to discontinue collection efforts, and even agree to continue to treat you, with the understanding that they will get paid out of the proceeds of your case after it settles or we get a favorable result in court. These medical providers will often agree to postpone receiving payment until our client’s case is finished based on the fact that they are confident that our law firm has the experience and knowledge necessary to prevail on our clients’ cases so that they will get paid. This is a great benefit to many of our clients.
However, whether ongoing medical bills are paid by a client's health insurance company or agreements are reached to postpone their being paid until after your case is resolved, the car insurance companies will likely refuse to pay for any of your damages, including your medical bills, until after your claim has been completely resolved. We understand the problems this can be for an accident victim. At Anderson & Rogers we will work with the insurance companies to make sure you are receiving timely and fair compensation for your injuries, usually without the need of a trial.
If you or a loved one is hurt at all in a car accident, please feel free to contact us for a free initial consultation. At Anderson & Rogers we will talk to you over the phone or in person if you wish. If you cannot come to our offices, we can have an experienced and friendly attorney meet with you at your home or the hospital to answer your questions and discuss your personal injury case. Our attorneys are not pushy and are happy to give you straight forward answers to your questions and leave it to you on whether you wish to have us help you in your personal injury case. If we agree to represent you in your personal injury case, we will not charge you anything until your personal injury case is won or settled.
In most cases we are able to settle our client’s personal injury matter without the need of filing a law suit. Even when a law suit is necessary, we deal with the other driver’s insurance company and are usually able to resolve the matter with their insurance company and its attorneys before going to trial. This is because the insurance companies have dealt with us many times before and they know we have the experience and knowledge necessary to win your case at trial. Even if the other driver does not have insurance there are usually a number of ways to get insurance compensation for our clients so that they can afford to move on with their lives.
Utah is a “no-fault” insurance state, meaning that when an automobile accident takes place, your own car insurance company is usually obligated to pay the first $3,000 of your medical expenses and a portion of your lost wages under your personal injury protection (PIP) policy regardless of who is at fault. In the vast majority of cases, your car insurance company will not increase your monthly insurance premium just because it had to pay out under your PIP policy. However, all other medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of quality of life, disfigurement, the repair of your car, and costs of a rental car while your car is being fixed will not be paid by your car insurance company under your PIP policy. This is where we can help. There are often other insurance avenues that can be sought in order to provide just compensation for an accident victim and their family.
At Anderson & Rogers, we will get your PIP claim filed on your behalf so that your medical bills can be paid quickly and you can avoid collection calls and actions from your medical providers. You can just focus on getting better. We will also help you get your lost wages, your car repaired, and compensation for all other losses paid from all possible insurance avenues.
Strict liability is a legal term that essentially means “liable without fault.” In Utah, dog bites are “strict liability” causes of action. This means that if a dog bites you, you generally don’t need to prove the dog’s owner was negligent or reckless, but you do need to prove that their dog bit you and caused injury to you. In other words, a dog owner is liable for the harm caused to you because of their dog’s bite whether or not the owner considers the dog dangerous.
No. But you do have to show that the dog bit you and that you were injured as a result of the dog’s bite. Dog bites causing broken skin, scars, or any pressure-type injury can be included in your dog bite claim.
There is no longer a “one-bite rule” in Utah. Instead, in order to prevail on a claim against the dog owner’s insurance company the injured person generally does not need to show that the owner had prior knowledge of the dog’s aggressive behavior. But they do need to show that the dog bit them, and that the bite caused harm to them. However, proof of a dog owner’s knowledge of their dog’s past aggressive behavior can aid in resolving a dog bite claim.
Awarding compensation in a dog bite case depends on several factors:
- The severity of your injuries
- The cost of your past and future medical care
- The amount of wages lost
- Whether there is any scarring or disfigurement from the dog bite
- The level of physical and emotional pain and suffering resulting from the dog bite, as well as many other innumerable factors.
Working with a Utah personal injury lawyer from Anderson & Rogers will help you get the compensation you need to recover from your dog bite injuries.
You may still have a great case against the insurance company. You simply need to contact an experienced personal injury lawyer and explain the facts to them and they should be able to answer your questions for you.
Even if someone is shown to have provoked the dog in any way, the dog bite victim still may be able to prevail in their dog bite case. Whether the provocation is verbally abusing or annoying the dog, or simply tugging on its tail, or even other forms of serious provocation, we can often help at Anderson & Rogers. Just give us a call and we will answer your questions for free over the phone.
At Anderson & Rogers, we typically do not go after a dog owner’s personal assets in order to compensate for injuries suffered by a dog bite victim. Instead, we first look to the dog owner’s homeowner’s insurance company in order to seek fair compensation for our clients. However, this is easier said than done. Proving who the dog’s owner is can sometimes be difficult, as can proving whether the dog’s owner is covered by a home owner’s insurance company. Sometimes the dog is owned by a child or live-in friend of the homeowner. Other times the dog's owner does not own a home at all, or the bite occurs at a business or far away from any home. Plus, how do you find out if the dog bite is covered by any insurance company?
In situations like these, the knowledge and experience of a good personal injury attorney can be the difference between a stack of medical bills with a future of unpaid medical treatment and a fair settlement. At Anderson & Rogers, we can be the difference in fair compensation for dog bite victims and their families and the unfair alternative.
First, stay where you are and don’t leave the accident scene until you are told to do so by a police officer. Leaving the scene of an accident could make it difficult for a police officer or your personal injury lawyer to determine who is at fault in the accident. It is also possible that your leaving the scene could result in criminal charges.
While in your car, call the police and report the accident, or have some one do this for you, even if you are told by others that it is not necessary. The police can take pictures, make notes and diagrams and preserve evidence that is critical to proving your case. Be prepared to tell dispatch the address or approximate location of the accident. It is important to call the police while you are at the accident scene even if you don’t think that you are hurt. We have had countless clients over the years who felt fine at the accident scene while their adrenaline was high, only to wake up a day or two later to tremendous headaches and neck or back pain which resulted from serious injuries sustained in their car accident. Even conservative insurance adjusters understand this to be the case when they review an injury victim’s case file.
Never admit fault. You should always be honest with the police officer who is investigating the accident, fault is determined by the police officer and other experts. Your job is to honestly answer the police officer’s questions as to what happened before, during and after the accident from your vantage point. It is natural to feel bad for someone else that is involved in an automobile accident with you. You may even feel sympathy for them, but do not admit fault to them or to anyone else as it could come back to harm you later when the other driver’s attorney and insurance company are reviewing the case.
Collect names, addresses, and phone numbers of witnesses and anyone else involved in the accident, or who witnessed the accident. Witnesses are often happy to help you while they are at the accident scene, including providing you with their names and phone numbers. Police officers are busy and witnesses may not come forward to them. If you don’t get witnesses’ names and phone numbers at the accident scene, it may prove next to impossible to find them later on, and they may be the ones with the key evidence in your case.
If possible, use your phone and take photographs of damages to vehicles, persons, property and the general area around the accident scene. This is crucial evidence that may be difficult to obtain later, and not all police departments will do this in their investigation.
PIP refers to the section of a car insurance policy that provides for the payment of limited amounts of medical treatment for the insured. Because Utah is a “no fault” state, medical bills for injuries sustained in a car accident are covered by the injured party’s own insurance company. In some cases, PIP insurance can also cover lost wages, funeral expenses, household services, and other costs associated with your car accident.
At Anderson & Rogers, we will get your PIP claim filed on your behalf so that your medical bills can be paid quickly and you can avoid collection calls and actions from your medical providers. You can just focus on getting better. We will also help you get your lost wages, your car repaired, and fair compensation for all other losses paid from all possible insurance avenues.
As stated above, your PIP policy will likely be responsible for the first $3,000 of your medical bills regardless of who is at fault in the accident. After that, it may be necessary to have your medical bills paid by your health insurance company until your personal injury case is resolved in its entirety. This presents a problem for those who do not have health insurance, or those whose health insurance doesn't pay 100% of their medical bills. Fortunately, at Anderson & Rogers we have built a good reputation with many of the medical providers, including most of the large hospitals in the state, and we can often work with them to wait to get paid until after your case is resolved. This means that they can agree to discontinue collection efforts, and even agree to continue to treat you, with the understanding that they will get paid out of the proceeds of your case after it settles or we get a favorable result in court. These medical providers will often agree to postpone receiving payment until our client’s case is finished based on the fact that they are confident that our law firm has the experience and knowledge necessary to prevail on our clients’ cases so that they will get paid. This is a great benefit to many of our clients.
However, whether ongoing medical bills are paid by a client's health insurance company or agreements are reached to postpone their being paid until after your case is resolved, the car insurance companies will likely refuse to pay for any of your damages, including your medical bills, until after your claim has been completely resolved. We understand the problems this can be for an accident victim. At Anderson & Rogers we will work with the insurance companies to make sure you are receiving timely and fair compensation for your injuries, usually without the need of a trial.
It is possible that by not wearing a helmet your motorcycle accident claim could be affected. However, at Anderson & Rogers, we understand that many adult motorcycle riders choose not to wear a helmet for a variety of reasons. Some feel it impairs their vision or hearing and can lead to increased accidents itself. Others feel that it takes away from their constitutional right to express themselves as they wish as motorcycle riders. At Anderson & Rogers, we aggressively represent our motorcycle injury clients whether they choose to wear a helmet or not. Even when insurance companies attempt to point to injuries being increased due to a motorcycle rider not wearing a helmet, we will make all of the arguments necessary to show this isn’t the case—even to a jury if necessary.
Insurance companies may use police reports, witness statements, physical evidence, and other facts surrounding the accident to show negligence or recklessness on the part of a motorcyclist involved in an accident. This is due to motorcycle accidents involving more serious injuries, which insurance companies often feel costs them more in paying out claims than regular car accidents. Having a knowledgeable and aggressive personal injury lawyer from Anderson & Rogers on your side will help you in defending against insurance companies who unfairly deny your claim or try to pay you less than your fair share.
If the liable motorist flees the scene of a motorcycle accident, or cannot be otherwise identified, the motorcyclist can work with a personal injury attorney at Anderson & Rogers to find the fleeing automobile driver, or to seek compensation from other possible insurance avenues for the motorcycle rider so that he or she can get the money they need in order to pay their medical bills and expenses.
In most cases we are able to settle our client’s personal injury matter without the need of filing a law suit. Even when a law suit is necessary, we deal with the other driver’s insurance company and are usually able to resolve the matter with their insurance company and its attorneys before going to trial. This is because the insurance companies have dealt with us many times before and they know we have the experience and knowledge necessary to win your case at trial. Even if the other driver does not have insurance there are usually a number of ways to get insurance compensation for our clients so that they can afford to move on with their lives.
Not always. While drivers have a responsibility to exercise reasonable care and proper look-out for pedestrians, a driver may be found to not be at fault in an accident with a pedestrian if the pedestrian fails to properly prove that the driver’s actions were negligent and that the driver’s negligence caused harm to the pedestrian.
At Anderson & Rogers, our attorneys have successfully resolved hundreds of personal injury cases, including automobile/pedestrian cases, to the advantage of our clients. We understand the law and what proof is required to prevail on an automobile/pedestrian case. We know where to look to find the necessary information to put together a successful automobile/pedestrian case.
If a pedestrian’s actions are negligent and are a cause of a driver hitting or running over the pedestrian, the pedestrian may be limited on what they can recover in an automobile/pedestrian case. An automobile/pedestrian accident can also have shared fault between multiple parties. If a judge or jury decides that the pedestrian was less than 50% at fault, he or she may be able to recover a portion or all of their damages for the harm they suffered in the automobile/pedestrian accident. In matters like these, it is best to get competent legal advice from an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as possible since getting important evidence up front is key to winning your case.
The insurance company of a driver that harms a pedestrian is usually liable to pay for an injured pedestrian’s medical bills up to the policy’s limits. However, most liability insurance companies will not pay any medical bills for an injured pedestrian until after a personal injury case is won or settled with them. This requires a smart and well-reasoned approach to medical care.
At Anderson & Rogers, we have built a good reputation with many of the medical providers, including most of the large hospitals in the state, and we can often work with them to wait to get paid until after your case is resolved. This means that they can agree to discontinue collection efforts, and even agree to continue to treat you, with the understanding that they will get paid out of the proceeds of your case after it settles or we get a favorable result in court. These medical providers will often agree to postpone receiving payment until our clients’ case is finished based on the fact that they are confident that our law firm has the experience and knowledge necessary to prevail on our clients’ cases so that they will get paid. This is a great benefit to many of our clients.
Strict liability is a legal term that essentially means “liable without fault.” In Utah, unsafe or defective products are generally considered strict liability causes of action, meaning that defendants who are responsible for the unsafe product—regardless of the degree of carefulness by the defendant—may be held liable for injuries caused by its defects.
Depending upon the nature of the injury, as well as the condition the product was in when the injury was caused, proving liability in a defective product case can be difficult, as one of many parties could be ultimately responsible for your injury:
- Product Designers—the people who design the individual parts of a product or its container
- Product Manufacturers—the people who craft the individual parts of a product or its container
- Product Assemblers—the people who put those parts together
- Wholesalers—the people who package and store products for distribution
- Retail Distributors—the people who sell the products
Defectively Manufactured Products: This case involves products that are defective because of some error in the manufacturing or assembling process. Consequently, the product that caused the injury is somehow different from the rest, for example, a tainted batch of salad dressing or an apparatus with loose or missing nuts and bolts.
Defectively Designed Products: This case involves a product that is inherently defective or dangerous in its design; rather than a single product being incorrectly manufactured, an entire product line will be defective, for example, a particular make and model of car with faulty airbags or seatbelts.
Failure to Provide Adequate Warnings or Instructions: When a product is dangerous in some way that is not obvious to the user, designers are often required to provide adequate warning or instructions that invite the user to exercise precaution or diligence while using the product. If an injury results from a failure to include one of these warnings or instructions with the product, the designers can be held liable.
Product liability claims generally require that you prove that four things happened:
- Proof of personal injury or some type of damage.
- Proof that the product involved in the case either lacked proper warning, instructions or was defective in some way.
- Proof that said defect or lack of warning or instruction led to the injury.
- Proof that when injured, the victim was using the product in a manner in which it was designed or intended to be used.
Utah is a “no-fault” insurance state, meaning that when an automobile accident takes place, your own car insurance company is usually obligated to pay the first $3,000 of your medical expenses and a portion of your lost wages under your personal injury protection (PIP) policy regardless of who is at fault. In the vast majority of cases, your car insurance company will not increase your monthly insurance premium just because it had to pay out under your PIP policy. However, all other medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of quality of life, disfigurement, the repair of your car, and costs of a rental car while your car is being fixed will not be paid by your car insurance company under your PIP policy. This is where we can help. There are often other insurance avenues that can be sought in order to provide just compensation for an accident victim and their family.
At Anderson & Rogers, we will get your PIP claim filed on your behalf so that your medical bills can be paid quickly and you can avoid collection calls and actions from your medical providers. You can just focus on getting better. We will also help you get your lost wages, your car repaired, and compensation for all other losses paid from all possible insurance avenues.
You are not obligated to speak to the other driver’s insurance company. The insurance company may try to lead you into saying something that makes it appear you are partially or fully at fault for the accident or otherwise makes your case difficult to win or settle. Insurance adjusters are well trained at acquiring information that benefits their side. Keep in mind the insurance adjuster will be taking log notes and possibly recording the phone call with you.
If they do contact you, you may want to inform them that you are planning on speaking with an attorney and that you will have your attorney contact them to answer their questions. At Anderson & Rogers, we have decades of experience in dealing with insurance companies in a firm and professional manner. We will speak with the insurance adjusters on your behalf and work to maximize the value of your case.
It is best to have an experienced personal injury attorney establish communication with the other driver’s insurance company. Insurance adjusters are trained to ask questions in a way that benefits their case the most, and can hurt your case. Your words and your intent can be misunderstood and used against you in later proceedings in order to hurt the value of your case. Communicating directly with the insurance company can jeopardize your case.
Anderson & Rogers’ attorneys have the experience and knowledge needed in dealing with insurance adjusters and will deal with them in your best interest.
As explained above, if insurance companies can get you to provide them with your written or recorded statement, they may use this as a means of reducing the amount they must pay out on your claim. It will not likely benefit you to “tell your side of the story” by answering an insurance company's predetermined and prepared questions. The insurance companies are looking out for their own interests. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you by protecting your interests.
In Utah, your PIP insurance carrier, as explained above, will be responsible for the first $3,000 of your medical bills. But until the application to the PIP carrier is received, properly completed, and all necessary information provided to the PIP carrier, it has no obligation to pay any of your medical bills. So, you will likely get annoying collection calls and letters from your unpaid medical providers until your PIP claim is properly filed and processed by the PIP insurance carrier.
Once your PIP insurance is exhausted, it will be necessary to have your medical bills paid by your health insurance company until your personal injury case is resolved in its entirety. This presents a problem for those who do not have health insurance, or those whose health insurance doesn't cover 100% of their medical bills. Fortunately, at Anderson & Rogers we have built a good reputation with many of the medical providers, including most of the large hospitals in the state, and we can often work with them to hold off receiving payment until your case is resolved through our office. This means that they can agree to discontinue collection efforts, and often agree to continue to treat you, with the understanding that they will get paid out of the proceeds of your case after it settles or we get a favorable result in court. These medical providers will often agree to work with our office as they are confident that our law firm has the experience and knowledge necessary to prevail on our clients' cases so that they will get paid. This is a great benefit to many of our clients.
However, whether ongoing medical bills are paid by a client’s health insurance company or agreements are reached with medical providers to be paid in the future, the car insurance companies will likely refuse to pay for any of your damages, including your medical bills, until after your claim has been completely resolved. We understand the problems this can be for an accident victim. At Anderson & Rogers we will work with the insurance companies to make sure you are receiving timely and fair compensation for your injuries, usually without the need of a trial.
If you choose to speak with the other driver's insurance company, you shouldn't be surprised when they say that they will not pay to fix or replace your vehicle until after they have performed their own investigation into the auto accident and have made their own factual determinations. They may indicate it will take a number of weeks to do this, or they may not give you a time frame at all. The delays can be frustrating for an accident victim who relies on their own vehicle for transportation to and from work, doctor visits, and other routine errands in their busy lives. Then to add insult to injury (quite literally), after making you wait an undetermined and lengthy period of time you may be saddened by the amount that you are offered to repair or replace your vehicle. Often this amount fails to include prorated property tax and vehicle registration fees which you may be entitled to reimbursement for. It may also not include replacement costs for personal items which were located inside your car and were damaged in the accident. Most problematic, insurance companies often ignore established blue book and fair market values and attempt to pass-on vehicle replacement values based on what their own private computer systems tell them to.
Even if the insurance company determines that they would rather repair your vehicle instead of replacing it, they may direct you to take your vehicle to one of their “pre-selected” body shops who they often do business with. You can guess where that can lead as far as quality of repairs and customer loyalty. Even when accident victims turn to their own insurance companies for help in this area, they often find that they are not treated any different than they are by the other driver’s insurer.
At Anderson & Rogers we have a history of helping clients receive timely and fair compensation for their damaged vehicle. If we are retained by an accident victim in their personal injury matter we do not charge for our services in helping our clients recover the property damages for their vehicle. We consider this a service to our clients and want to start them off on the right foot to financial recovery in their injury matter.
If you have been injured in a car accident and the other driver is at fault, you may be entitled to reimbursement from the insurance company for any time you’ve taken off from work resulting from accident-related medical restrictions placed upon you by your doctor. You may also be entitled to future lost wages and loss of wage-earning capacity if you cannot return to work. At Anderson & Rogers, we work with you to get the necessary information needed to get a timely payment of your lost wages. We can often get you your lost wages shortly after the accident and before the case is resolved in its entirety.
Household services are costs associated with hiring somebody to perform household duties while you recover from the injuries you sustained in your automobile accident. In order to receive fair and timely compensation for lost household services, you will need to properly show your need for them, and provide timely and accurate proof of this to the insurance company. Acquiring household services is not simple or easy. At Anderson & Rogers, we know the ins and outs of proving and acquiring reimbursement for lost household services for our personal injury clients.
You should not agree to release any information to an insurance company until you have had an experienced personal injury lawyer review your case. Signing any release without having it properly reviewed by an experienced personal injury attorney could lead to unfair and inaccurate conclusions being drawn by the insurance company and could cause significant future problems in your personal injury case.
Before you provide any information to an insurance company you should consult with an experienced personal injury lawyer who can properly advise you in your personal injury matter. The attorneys at Anderson & Rogers are happy to talk with you for free on the phone or in person and explain your legal rights to you regarding your personal injury matter. This includes what information should be provided to your insurance company.
There are many factors to consider in cases of slip-and-fall injuries. The liability can fall on different parties based on what kind of incident has occurred.
- Your Employer - If there is a lack of safety equipment for work that has chances of injury
- Property Owners - if the owner created/knew of the existence of the problem and didn't correct the issue
What you should remember when dealing with a slip-and-fall case is there must be proof that the incident was caused by a dangerous situation that the individual had prior knowledge of, but didn't remedy the situation.
A wrongful death action may be filed by someone who is legally entitled to seek damages from a person, business or government entity whose negligence or recklessness caused the death of an accident victim. Those authorized to seek these damages are usually close family members of the decedent such as a spouse, child, parent, etc. and are sometimes referred to as “real parties in interest.”
The laws vary greatly from state to state as to who can bring a wrongful death action for the loss of companionship, quality of life, inheritance, funeral, burial, and other damages resulting from the death of a loved one. Therefore, it is best to contact an experienced and knowledgeable personal injury lawyer to help you determine if you are entitled to bring a claim against a negligent party who caused the death of your companion or close family member. The attorneys at Anderson & Rogers know the law and the system and can answer your questions for free over the phone.
A wrongful death claim can be brought against individuals, government agencies or businesses whose negligence or recklessness caused the death of a loved one. In our experience, it is not always clear who is at fault at the onset of a case as there are often many unknown parties who are not discovered until after we hire qualified experts who find the whole truth after carefully piecing together thousands of pieces of evidence. Many clients have been surprised to find that there were actually a number of parties who were each partially responsible for the death of a loved one. For instance, what might appear on its face to be a simple accident caused by an inattentive semi-truck driver may also prove to be the result of an improperly maintained semi-truck, an overworked and unsupervised employee, or an improperly maintained or designed roadway or off-ramp.
At Anderson & Rogers, if we agree to take your wrongful death case we will front the costs of the experts who can examine the facts, interview potential witnesses and provide proof and knowledge as to what happened in the accident that caused the death of a loved one. You will not have to pay these costs back to us until your case is won or settled.
Each state has different time periods allowed for filing legal action against someone who negligently caused the death of a loved one. These legal time periods are governed by a state’s individual “statutes of limitation.” If these statutes of limitations are not strictly adhered to, you may permanently lose your right to seek compensation for the loss of your loved one. Some of these time periods are 1 year or less, and sometimes there can be a number of limitation periods involved in a single case. For this reason, it’s important to contact an experienced personal injury lawyer quickly and get answers to your questions so that you can protect your rights.
At Anderson & Rogers, we offer a free initial consultation for all wrongful death and personal injury matters. We are happy to talk to you on the phone or meet with you in person to answer your questions. We understand the delicate and sensitive nature that the loss of a loved one requires. We will speak to you with kindness and understanding and will not try to push anything on you. Feel free to give us a call.