In the more serious cases, especially the ones involving children, I certainly talk extensively about the use of diaries. With simpler cases, I really just tell people to keep track of what doctors they have seen, when they saw them, what tests they have had, and things like that.
In New Jersey, most of us work on contingency. That means that we’re paid contingent upon success, meaning that if you don’t get paid, we don’t get paid. The only area that sometimes depends on the attorney you contact is who pays for the expenses of the case.
No fault is kind of confusing. The only thing that no fault means in New Jersey is that, regardless of fault, you go to your own insurance company to have your medical bills paid or, if you don’t have your own policy, you go to a family member with whom you live.
Everything depends upon the specific circumstances of a particular accident. There are a lot of finer points in every specific situation. Once you start down the correct road, you have to work within the procedures that you have to follow under those circumstances.
With regard to going to a physician, they have to talk with physicians and find a physician that might be willing to treat them with the understanding that they would be paid out of settlement in the case.
It is a rather short list. It is PIP from motor vehicle accidents or workers’ comp when one is working when the accident occurs even if you’re driving a vehicle. At that point, it would still be workers’ comp and not PIP. The third source would be health insurance.
For the attorneys, it’s very important to carefully listen to the client and understand the mechanism of the injury. Only in that way can one make a determination that someone else might be responsible to the client.
Settlements occur more than 90 % of the time. In a settlement, we are required to pay government liens, which would be Medicare and Medicaid.
Read MoreTypically, they have to be dealt with. Many times they are already paid by another source. However, one must clearly pay attention to those medical bills to make sure there are no additional obligations when you are done.
In situations where there really just isn’t enough coverage to properly pay for everything, the attorney will negotiate with the medical providers. They’re usually able to accomplish a result even if the medical bills far exceed what they’re able to obtain from the defendant.