Negotiating Settlement for Motor Vehicle Accident

[visualk]

We were involved in a motor vehicle accident in Jan 2015 and the short of it is we got rear ended while stopped at a red light. Our car suffered some damage as it is a larger sedan but the other car crumpled in pretty bad. Me and my partners major injuries were severe whiplash and lower back pain. My two children age 3 and 7 months were also in the car but appear to be okay.

Fast forward to today after numerous physiotherapy sessions that have now ended and still having back pain and having to consistently perform exercises to remedy the pain we are at the stage of negotiating a settlement. I am not too familiar with this process and would like to seek some insight in to how we go about this. Note - we did not contact an injury lawyer and not sure if it is worth it but thought we would approach it ourselves first.

I know insurance companies have a ceiling for soft tissue but in speaking to the adjuster there is a maintenance program we could qualify and receive $X amount of dollars for. I believe this is where I could negotiate.

Thoughts?

[ercchry]

contact a lawyer... WADI and II there is a cap on, if you got a higher diagnosis then you are over the cap. but that is just for "pain and suffering" any lost wages, future lost income, etc, etc can still be claimed on top of that cap. if you are not healed yet DO NOT settle the claim!!! you have 2 years, use them. anything out of pocket between now and then should be recoverable too.

[Sal0]

I'm in the exact same situation, accident in January and still have back and neck problems. Some guy smoked me when I was stopped at a red light. Back is pretty messed up now where I can't do any heavy lifting.

Getting better to me is more important that the money, but the cap does seem like a big joke. I think my biggest mistake was quitting physiotherapy when I felt I was getting better. I also really hated going since it really messed me up to the point where I could hardly move the next few days which for me at the time was not really an option. To be honest, I never realized how much of a roller coaster ride whiplash can be as you seem to have good days and bad days.

Ercchry probably already gave the best advice, and that is don't settle until your 100% healed!

[ercchry]

hopefully you guys do heal 100%, i never did... was over 3 years before settlement, and that was not worth it at all

[CanmoreOrLess]

Lawyer up, I have a friend who works in this exact area on the personal injury adjuster side of things. She explained to me how they grind you down for a settlement and never offer anything near the upper levels of attention unless you have a lawyer. Have a lawyer and the conversation is very different and moves far faster.

Even if you are "healed" stuff can flare up and come back to bite you later on. Did you take your kids to a doctor after the accident to get a professional opinion as to their real condition? Otherwise, you really don't know their situation 100%.

[Weapon_R]

Its a good idea to consult with a lawyer on these issues. Even if you are capped, you may miss certain things that increase your settlement. In my experience, a lot of perceived cap claims end up settling for much higher because claimants don't explore the extent of their injuries properly.