Beyond morals test

[shakalaka]

Considering the fact that I practice personal injury law, the first thing I tell my clients is if you are injured (remember that injuries may not always be immediate and can linger and appear after a while), miss work, undergo personal expenses due to the accident, you have every right legally and morally to sue and be compensated for your loss. However, if you're lying and making everything up then of course ethically speaking, that is wrong and should not be done.

[rx7boi]

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Considering the fact that I practice personal injury law, the first thing I tell my clients is if you are injured (remember that injuries may not always be immediate and can linger and appear after a while), miss work, undergo personal expenses due to the accident, you have every right legally and morally to sue and be compensated for your loss. However, if you're lying and making everything up then of course ethically speaking, that is wrong and should not be done.

Ah man, I knew you were a lawyer but I didn't know you practiced personal injury. I wasn't sure who to go through and ended up going through Litwiniuk.

[Thaco]

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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.

litigation is the only option over 5k

[shakalaka]

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Ah man, I knew you were a lawyer but I didn't know you practiced personal injury. I wasn't sure who to go through and ended up going through Litwiniuk.

It's all good, not a problem. My main practice area is criminal defence, however, I do take on some family litigation files as well depending on if they interest me. Personal injury is something that I always did as it is not as hands-on and demanding right off the beginning as the other areas. I've heard of Litwiniuk in Calgary and I understand they are pretty busy with PI so I am guessing they must be doing something right, so you can't go wrong with picking them. I do have other connections in Calgary for other senior PI lawyers as well if anyone is ever wondering. That being said, PI is an area in which it doesn't really matter where the lawyer is located considering the files very rarely go to court.

[killramos]

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litigation is the only option over 5k

The key point was using it to get ahead, not that litigation is morally wrong itself...

Lots of people see litigation as some kind of jackpot, those people are pathetic.

[Thaco]

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The key point was using it to get ahead, not that litigation is morally wrong itself...

Lots of people see litigation as some kind of jackpot, those people are pathetic.

moral of the story, dont be stupid and crash people

[ThePenIsMightier]

OK well I don't see much of a "morals" anything in this scenario.
If the question was "should I start fraudulently wearing a neck brace everywhere and sue this guy for $987,000 ?" then I'd see a moral dilemma. But you've clearly suffered a loss which you're entitled to compensation for. It's not even that insignificant. 5 months of living at less than 100% and your car is worth say $1500 less? That's a loss!
Quantify your losses, gently pad it, go after it and settle for closer to your actual losses without court.

[tonytiger55]

I got my exam next week so technically I should bloody know this. Eeeekkk.
Fuck sake.. this thread made me get outa my nice warm bed and review my notes. Its bloody cold you know.

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice. You are encouraged to speak with a licensed professional.

I hope I got this the right way round... When you take action against the other party, other party's insurance will cover this under their section A insurance. Your section B covers you depending on the injury at hand. Its not really a moral issue as Section A + B insurance is mandatory on all auto insurance polices. Though you need to talk to your insurance company. They should be able explain section B and subsection 1.

When you do take legal action, its not to them(driver) personally. Their insurance may cover this (section A). To answer your question..its a moral issue if it is not done in good faith and one is making shit up. Get the soft tissue injury checked out, that shit is no joke. There is a limit, I cant be arsed to get out of bed again to check my revision notes.

As for disability... Oddly enough.. it just so happens that I passed my life and wealth exams the other month. An't that a coincidence eh..? Thats a whole other conversation. Again, did you have to take time off..? Do you have any disability insurance..? or anything covered through your work. Again depending on the type of coverage, injury and if you had to take time off, you may be eligible for assistance. Again it depends on the policy and what is covered. Its too broad of an area to discuss with limited info.

On a secondary note. I was rear ended in the UK years ago. Soft tissue injury. I got a small payout but it took a looong time. The government brought out legislation to stop/limit this.
I got rear ended a few years back here. I got hit with a car on bald tires in the snow and the other driver (girl) was texting. I should have taken action but I was too dumbass.

I had a MRI over a year ago and they could tell I had been in a couple of car crash's. Freaky shit.

[ercchry]

^^^ If you get to the point of a lawsuit, you actually are serving all parties involved (even the driver of the vehicle you’re in if a passenger) but if you had insurance at the time they would be the ones handling it and paying out the money

[Xtrema]

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SUE!

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

SUE. Get yourself taken care of.

Well, what seems little whiplash is now bone spur. $4.5K wasn't enough for this shit in hindsight.

[Misterman]

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I know what I'm doing, but I'm curious what the rest of Beyond would do.

Say you're in a not-at-fault accident, in which you were re-ended while you were hard braking to avoid hitting a 3rd party (who was driving stupidly), and the 3rd party drove away not even noticing the accident. You're vehicle sustained major sheet-metal damage (no frame, or mechanical), so resell value is hurt (even though you don't really care), and you received minor whiplash from the accident, which did inhibit a few of your normal activities, but not your working life, for 5 months. More of an inconvenience than anything, and you suspect you won't have long term physical pain.

Would you sue the other person for soft tissue damage money, or not?

You don't sue people. You sue or make a deal with their insurance company and the individual is never the wiser. So there is no reason to feel bad about sticking it to some poor bastard that was in the wrong place wrong time, because you're not sticking it to them. You're getting what is fair from a billion dollar corporation that ass rapes people to provide a government mandatory service with no pricing controls.

I used to be of the moral attitude that I would never sue either if something happened. Just get my car repaired and move on with life. But knowing what I know now from lawyers and seeing someone else go through this. I would absolutely hire an injury lawyer and let it play out. Just make sure to go to the hospital to get checked and start doing some type of regular chiropractic or physio, it makes your claim look legitimate and that makes it worth more money. And I'm not insinuating that it ISN'T legitimate. But a lot of people don't go do these treatments that they should be doing, because it costs too much or they say they don't have time. Then when the settlement comes, it's low because they assume you're embellishing the claim due to your lack of recorded treatment.

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There is a cap, it’s like $6k or something.

Not sure where that number came from? But when my wife dealt with this, with less injury, it was a 14 grand settlement.

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As long as you suffer a loss in any way, i would be suing for damages equal to the loss. That could mean, loss due to depreciated value of the vehicle, time missed off work and medical expenses for sure. That said, when (not if) the insurance offers a settlement amount in short order, i would likely take it. A full lawsuit can drag on and last for years. Unless there was some serious long term injuries, i would take the settlement and move on.

These things can be negotiated for months before ever going to full lawsuit. Never ever take the first offer. Ever. If they make an offer at all, it's because they don't want to go to court. And they don't make their best offer first.

[shakalaka]

Well you do actually sue the person who was at fault and hit you. It's just that they end up sending the Statement of Claim to their insurance company and the insurance company/their counsel take over. But, the entire requirement is that the Statement of Claim itself has to be filed AND served to the person that actually hit you and was at fault. Insurance company maybe the one doing the pay out but the person who's fault it was see the hike in their insurance premium unless I guess they have accident forgiveness. So it does/can matter to the person directly as well. Since there is a 2 year limitation period, often times we end up resolving the files even before a Statement of Claim needs to be filed, however, not always. Lots of times we have to file the SOC just before the two year period is up to preserve the right to sue. And that claim then has to be served on the Defendant within a year after that.

[Misterman]

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Well you do actually sue the person who was at fault and hit you. It's just that they end up sending the Statement of Claim to their insurance company and the insurance company/their counsel take over. But, the entire requirement is that the Statement of Claim itself has to be filed AND served to the person that actually hit you and was at fault. Insurance company maybe the one doing the pay out but the person who's fault it was see the hike in their insurance premium unless I guess they have accident forgiveness. So it does/can matter to the person directly as well. Since there is a 2 year limitation period, often times we end up resolving the files even before a Statement of Claim needs to be filed, however, not always. Lots of times we have to file the SOC just before the two year period is up to preserve the right to sue. And that claim then has to be served on the Defendant within a year after that.

Sorry, my wording probably wasn't perfect for legal standards. What I meant is that a lawyer would generally go to the insurance company to resolve it prior to actually suing, which is how most cases get resolved(feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). In which case the at fault driver really doesn't have much to deal with in most cases. That's how it went down in our case.

[ercchry]

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Not sure where that number came from? But when my wife dealt with this, with less injury, it was a 14 grand settlement.

.

It’s the cap for pain and suffering due to soft tissue injuries (WADII and lower)

[Toilet_X]

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Nah, I'm not a bitch and I don't need the money. Why make somebody else suffer.

I respect this. Id mess you up in a sword fight though.

[Marsh]

This exact situation happened to me (including injuries). Let it go. wish I had uppercut her though.

[jaeden]

Just chiming in re: injury outcomes. I had a minor whiplash injury about 15 years ago - not driving - I slipped and fell on wet snow. Basically same mechanism of injury as rear-end MVC just lower force.

I still have slight neck pain and it bothered me off and on for at least 10 years. I did not have any medical exam or physio though.

Even if you feel better now it can be a pain the ass for a long time.

[max_boost]

Take the money. They won't thank you for not taking it. It's not like it would bad karma or anything either.

I thought morals would be more like seeing your buddy's daughter online and debating if you want to message her

[ExtraSlow]

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I thought morals would be more like seeing your buddy's daughter online and debating if you want to message her

I legit had a buddy tell me my daughter was going to be hot in a few years. She's single digit years of age. So gross. Now a former buddy.

[rx7boi]

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I legit had a buddy tell me my daughter was going to be hot in a few years. She's single digit years of age. So gross. Now a former buddy.

That's a nasty thing to say to a friend about their kid, or any kid really.

Then again, watching those Crime Stop Daily videos on youtube, alot of pedophilia is committed by someone that they know personally.

Gross.