Beyond morals test

[blitz]

I'm a bitch and I like money. I (along with my whole family) was rear ended at a stoplight by an old lady doing 80km/h. 8 months of treatment for me, kept me from biking, and just generally a fucking pain to deal with. I got more than the $6k cap because my treatment took longer than 6 months.

You don't have to sue them, it will be a settlement outside of court.

The other person won't "suffer" because of the <$6k payout; they're going to suffer from the at fault accident.

[BavarianBeast]

That's a different story IMO. OP stated that the accident was a result of the guy in front of him coming to an abrupt stop, and subsequently being rear ended. If you have a good vehicle with good brakes and prevent rear ending the guy infront of you and the poor sap behind you can just afford to drive a tercel and hits you then all I would expect is for his insurance company to pay the damages. If you wanted to go after somebody for injuries, would you not have to sue the person directly?

[msommers]

Why is this even a discussion? It is literally the reason you have insurance -- in case of an accident.

[ercchry]

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That's a different story IMO. OP stated that the accident was a result of the guy in front of him coming to an abrupt stop, and subsequently being rear ended. If you have a good vehicle with good brakes and prevent rear ending the guy infront of you and the poor sap behind you can just afford to drive a tercel and hits you then all I would expect is for his insurance company to pay the damages. If you wanted to go after somebody for injuries, would you not have to sue the person directly?

Nah, it’s all the same claim. Two parts to every claim, car and person. You can close up the car damages and leave the personal injury open. Two years to file a claim as there can be unknown long term effects to these sorts of things. Also if you are aware your brakes are shit... leave a larger gap. You should always be able to come to a full stop without using the bumper of the car in front of you to help

[dirtsniffer]

I said I'd sue, but I've been in accidents where I wasn't hurt and the thought never entered my mind. If I was hurt I'd sue 100%

[ExtraSlow]

If I'm hurt, I go after injury compensation. No hesitation.

I don't even understand why this is a morals test.

[Tik-Tok]

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I don't even understand why this is a morals test.

Because the injury is most likely not long term, and no financial loss resulted from it (only the future re-sale loss on the vehicle).

Gas to the physio appointments would be about it.

[rx7boi]

IMO it's being called a moral test to see if you'll try your luck and get more than you're owed, assuming that X injury is always equal to Y compensation which we know is not the case.

It's all relative because some people will value minor whiplash and feel like they are owed the world and others as mentioned will simply say "meh, that's life," get compensated for gas and time and call it a day.

When we're talking about a $5-$6k windfall for WAD2, these amounts aren't always easy to come by so I can see why some people will want to milk it for what it's worth.

That said, I don't get how lawyers are getting around soft tissue caps.

[ThePenIsMightier]

When you say "sue the other person" you are referring to the person that rear-ended you, right?
You are not debating suing the driver in front of you. Are you?

[BavarianBeast]

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Nah, it’s all the same claim. Two parts to every claim, car and person. You can close up the car damages and leave the personal injury open. Two years to file a claim as there can be unknown long term effects to these sorts of things. Also if you are aware your brakes are shit... leave a larger gap. You should always be able to come to a full stop without using the bumper of the car in front of you to help

Ahh, I gotcha.

Ever tried to merge into traffic with a 30 year old vehicle? Sometimes the gaps are too small to leave sufficient space and if the driver in front of you has to hit the brakes as hard as possible and is in a new vehicle your not avoiding that. I know when that scenario happens in my westfalia, I'm going to be going through the fuckin windshield.

[ercchry]

See signature

...aggressive downshifting helps!

[Tik-Tok]

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When you say "sue the other person" you are referring to the person that rear-ended you, right?
You are not debating suing the driver in front of you. Are you?

No, that person left, completely unaware of the situation.

[Xtrema]

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That's a different story IMO. OP stated that the accident was a result of the guy in front of him coming to an abrupt stop, and subsequently being rear ended. If you have a good vehicle with good brakes and prevent rear ending the guy infront of you and the poor sap behind you can just afford to drive a tercel and hits you then all I would expect is for his insurance company to pay the damages. If you wanted to go after somebody for injuries, would you not have to sue the person directly?

No. I got my $9K ($4.5K per passenger back in the days) without even asking. Since they ruined my front left winter tires, I also asked for cost to replace front right tire and other cost like missing work for 2 days (contractor back then). Got all of it paid out. Not sure if insurance was better to deal with back then.

[ercchry]

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No. I got my $9K ($4.5K per passenger back in the days) without even asking. Since they ruined my front left winter tires, I also asked for cost to replace front right tire and other cost like missing work for 2 days (contractor back then). Got all of it paid out. Not sure if insurance was better to deal with back then.

All comes down to the adjuster... had a big one back in the day, took 3 years to settle. Couple years later got hit on the bike. Knew it wasn’t worth the hassle, plus preexisting problems. Adjuster showed up to go over it all and remembered me. Knew I was very well informed, got my missed days, cap, and all the destroyed shit I had on me when I hit the ground. Settled in a couple weeks

It’s really a huge pain in the ass, and like most things in life only the lawyers win. When it starts to go beyond a few months of pain it gets pretty tricky. When I was first hit I was in the trades and needed to be physical able to do the work. After the first 6 months of physio it was obvious that I wasn’t going to be able to continue in that line of work. So now what? Someone hits you and the whole point of insurance is to make you whole again. So you have to factor in things like retraining in a field that you can physically handle. Then the amount of years for your income to catch up to what it once was. Then the missed earning potential.... but how do you quantify that? Humans only have so many potential years of earning. So if you look at the later years, where ideally you are more senior and your time is more valuable... you now have less of those years cause you had a later start at your career than you would have if you didn’t get injured. This can get expensive quickly, problem is though you now need professional witnesses to come up with these projections, most people can’t float these costs for the 2-3yrs it’s going to take to see the lawsuit resolve... so you get a lawyer who is willing to work for a split... 30-50% depending on how deep it goes. So by the time you actually see a cheque, it’s a lowball, and you give away a bunch of it and it ends up boiling down to barely anything

[BavarianBeast]

Yeah I get it now, always thought that an injury claim was not directly tied to the vehicle claim.. Always figured the vehicle claim would just support the injury claim. Good to know.

[max_boost]

Don't over think it. The other party might have accident forgiveness. End of the day, take care of you and all the benefits that come with it.

[Thaco]

I don know how you can rule out the fact that it's long term, you dont know if its long term until it is...

[kenny]

Best action is to do nothing and wait it out see if you have any recurring injuries or if any other complication arises.

You have 2 years IIRC before you need to take any action.

[A790]

SUE!

My back injury from 10 years ago is becoming a problem again today.

SUE. Get yourself taken care of.

[killramos]

I don't agree with the concept of using litigation to get ahead ( Ie USA Style ).

But if you have injuries and damages I don't see an ethical problem with using ligitation to make yourself whole, whether its soft tissue issues or excess depreciation of your vehicle.