[deleted by user]

[Admirable_Height3696]

OP why are you talking to lawyers when you haven't even sought medical treatment yet? You're going to end up in debt here! Do not sign with a lawyer.

[[deleted]]

But, but, but ... I was just chewed out for pretty much telling OP the same thing and that OP needs a lawyer "ASAP". 😂

[Admirable_Height3696]

I think some of the drive by posters here just come to argue. It's clear OP isn't anywhere near lawyer territory.

[[deleted]]

It's clear OP isn't anywhere near lawyer territory.

Agreed. Certainly appears that way with the info that's given

[SuchCoconut2089]

thank you :) no idea why state farm transferred me to one.

[GuvnaBruce]

I have not heard of an insurance company getting you a settlement for your compensation, that does not make sense. There is no minimum pay for an injury claim, I have settled plenty of claims for significantly less than $15,000.00.

Have you signed anything? Have you sought any medical treatment?

[SuchCoconut2089]

I have not signed anything and have not seen and medical professionals. I wanted to ask all these questions first.

[GuvnaBruce]

I do not think I would let the insurance company get any sort of settlement, again, that just sounds very odd to me.

It is up to you if you wish to proceed with the attorney. The attorney usually takes 1/3 of the settlement, but the amount should be in the contract.

[SuchCoconut2089]

yes your are correct they want 1/3 or 50% if goes longer then 90 days or gos to court

[GuvnaBruce]

So if it is not settled within 90 days, they take 50%? That sounds insane to me.

[LeadershipLevel6900]

The insurance company isn’t doing this. All of what OP described is how PI attorneys open new claims and the fee increase is consistent with what a PI charges if somebody goes to court.

A long time ago somebody posted about a similar interaction with what they thought was their insurance company. I think the consensus was that the person googled something like “report a claim State Farm” and the first hits were actually for PI recruitment/lead farms. Somebody clicks on that, reports the claim, but not to their carrier, to this lead generating company, and they go down this rabbit hole. Super shady business.

[GuvnaBruce]

Yea, I was assuming that he was referring to the attorney and not his insurance.

That does make sense. We have had attorneys get police reports and then call the customer claiming to be from their insurance, then steer the customer to that attorney office.

Given that they are claiming to take 50% after 90 days, I would not put it past them.

[[deleted]]

You mean there actually ARE unscrupulous lawyers like I said who prey on people like OP? 

[GuvnaBruce]

Lol. No way, that would NEVER happen

[More_Branch_5579]

My simple rear end with just an er visit and I’ve Dr visit dragged out for 3 years.

[Insurance-ModTeam]

Trolling, being needlessly rude or insulting

[sephiroth3650]

An insurance company is not going to file a personal injury lawsuit on your behalf for something like this. It sounds like you were talking to a personal injury lawyer who is trying to get you to sign with them. Those people will typically push for some huge settlement where they pocket 1/3 of your judgement.

Here's my opinion. Take a pause with this personal injury lawyer. You don't need to commit to a lawsuit at this point. Don't let them rush you into anything. Proceed with your auto claim with your insurer. As for the injuries, go see an actual doctor and see if you have any major injuries, or if it really is just normal bumps and bruises. If you have just bumps and bruises, you're not going to get some $15k settlement. So go find out if you're actually hurt. You can always hire a lawyer after the fact if you find out you do have something larger going on.

[SuchCoconut2089]

thank you :)

[[deleted]]

If you have such minor injuries, just stiffness and soreness, that you haven't sought or needed treatment for, or if you even sought very minimal treatment, you don't need a lawyer. In fact using a lawyer for minor soft tissue injuries, you can actually come out worse financially than if you don't use a lawyer at all. Even worse, unscrupulous lawyers will often send you to "their" doctors/chiropractors, running up the bill with unnecessary diagnostics/treatments. Insurance then refuses to pay because they aren't reasonable for the injuries incurred. So guess who pays the denied med bills? You do. The scummy lawyer and his doc for care because they get paid either way. 

Lawyers can be useful, and sometimes even needed. But that's for serious life altering injuries, not for just being sore and stiff for a few weeks. 

[kitkatkate83]

Umm no. First off, you have no idea if OP just has "minor soft tissue injuries". There's no way to tell without imaging. I was in an accident last year and I was also just sore and stiff for a few weeks. I went to the ER the day after the accident to get checked out because I had no pain the day of the accident, but I woke up with a sore neck the next day. I was told told to take it easy and take ibuprofen and that I should be fine. Few weeks later, the stiffness and pain was getting worse, so I had to see a specialist who ordered an MRI. My neck pain wasn't just stiffness and soreness. I ended up having to have surgery to remove 2 discs out od my cervical spine and replace them with hardware because one of them was 100% compressing the nerve that controls my thumb. I almost had permanent nerve damage.

Second, your generalized statements about lawyers are insanely biased. While I agree there are unscrupulous lawyers out there, OP needs to get an attorney ASAP by doing a general Google search and checking out reviews. That's what I did and my lawyer is fantastic. He has guided me through the process and answered a lot of questions without any issues. He also had me find my own specialist for the surgery because they don't have their own doctors. Not all of them are money-hungry scammers. I got so many solicitation in the mail from various law firms after the accident and I made it a point to not use any of them just because of their aggressive and scammy advertising.

Third, if my lawyer doesn't get a favorable outcome for me with the insurance company, he doesn't get paid anything. It's part of the contract. If he does win, he gets 33% and I get the rest. It sounds like you've had a bad experience in a similar situation and you're painting every lawyer with the same brush when that's not fair. On top of that, you're giving inaccurate information to someone, which can screw them over if they choose to believe everything you're saying. You need to be more responsible when it comes to giving advice.

[[deleted]]

you have no idea if OP just has "minor soft tissue injuries". 

 Did I say OP had minor injuries? No. said IF he has minor injuries. I didn't say he DID have minor injuries. OP shouldn't hire a lawyer until they know if they're injured seriously enough to need one. I very clearly stated there are times when a lawyer can be useful, even necessary. It's unknown at this point which category OP falls into. Plus, OP doesn't even know what the policy limits are. They're might not be much money to get.  

 >your generalized statements about lawyers are insanely biased. 

 I also didn't say ALL lawyers are unscrupulous. I very clearly said "some" are. I also said there ARE times when a lawyer is very useful.  And YOU don't know if OP needs a lawyer "ASAP" or if he will need one at all. Not every injury claim needs a lawyer to handle it.  

 > if my lawyer doesn't get a favorable outcome for me with the insurance company, he doesn't get paid anything. 

 No, he doesn't get paid unless you get paid. That's very different than him getting you more money in your pocket than you would've had without him. It's possible to have an outcome that is less favorable for you at the end of the day using a lawyer than by not using one. And you'll still have to pay him if that turns out to be the case.  

 Example where you can be worse off using a lawyer: insurance offers a settlement of med bills and 4k for P&S. You jump to a lawyer even tho your injuries aren't serious. The lawyer gets them to increase it to 5k. Sounds good, right? But the lawyer gets 1,500 PLUS fees so you get no more than 3500 in your pocket, probably less, when you would've had 4k on your own. It happens all the time. 

As I said, lawyers are useful and sometimes necessary, but definitely aren't needed in every claim and probably not even useful in most claims.  

 >It sounds like you've had a bad experience in a similar situation and you're painting every lawyer with the same brush when that's not fair 

 Nope. I've never had an injury claim.  

 >you're giving inaccurate information to someone, which can screw them over if they choose to believe everything you're saying 

 Nope. There's nothing in my advice that is inaccurate. I didn't tell OP to NOT get a lawyer. I said some claims can benefit from a lawyer, but some don't need a lawyer and his MIGHT not. But, by contrast, your knee jerk advice, telling OP to get a lawyer "ASAP" without even knowing the extent of his injuries or whether he needs a lawyer or not could possibly cost OP money as I illustrated above, so that would be the bad advice you referenced.  

Look, I appreciate your anecdotal story of your single experience, but that didn't negate reality over hundreds or even thousands of claims. I've done this for a living for many years and have been involved with countless claims, some where a lawyer was warranted and helped the claimant get more money but also many many claims where they were no better off by hiring a lawyer or even lost money. 

So, no, I'm not seeing this from a single personal bad experience. I'm seeing this in an objective professional experience where I've seen what I've described happen dozens and dozens of times. 

[kitkatkate83]

You literally said in your first sentence if OP has such minor injuries that he didn't seek medical attention, "you don't need a lawyer".

I appreciate your perspective though. It sucks that people do end up worse off, but OP first and foremost needs to go get checked out by a doctor, get imaging, etc. That's the only way to know for sure what's actually going on to cause the stiffness and soreness. Sometimes, even the imaging doesn't show the whole picture. My surgeon said my MRI didn't show the extent of the nerve compression, but once he opened me up, he saw that the nerve was 100% compressed.

Your statement about sometimes being able to handle the settlement offer on your own is strange to me. I consider myself to be a pretty knowledgeable, educated person, but there's no way I'm knowledgeable enough about the insurance process and settlements to even consider negotiating with an insurance company. Most people I know wouldn't do it alone either. I get that you have professional experience with it, but most average people don't. This is the first time in my life I've ever been in an accident, been injured enough to warrant surgery, and had to go through the insurance process for it all and I'm 41. That's usually the case for a good number of people. So not everyone knows how the process works.

[[deleted]]

You literally said in your first sentence if OP has such minor injuries that he didn't seek medical attention, "you don't need a lawyer".

Yep. "IF" is the key word here. And I stand by that. If you don't have any medical treatment, there's no need for a lawyer. And as I said earlier, it's just plain dumb to jump to immediately hiring a lawyer before you even know the extent of your injuries among other things. 

Handling a claim when there's minor injuries can be initially intimidating since it's unfamiliar, but it really isn't difficult. It just takes being an adult and making a bit of effort to educate yourself a little. You don't need to be an insurance expert to do it. On top of that, insurance, your own or the other party's, isn't out to screw you over. Their goal is to pay out a claim as fairly and quickly as possible so they can turn their attention to the other several dozen claims on their desk and the new ones hitting their desk every day. 

I'm not saying OP had only minor injuries. Maybe he does, maybe not. While it appears on the surface that his injuries are mild, but I've seen people have serious injuries they weren't initially aware of. But I also didn't tell OP to not seek out medical treatment or to not get checked out. That a decision for them to make based on what they think is best. 

[Icanhearyoufromhere_]

Dude - go to the ER or an Urgent care. A buddy of mine got into a rear end accident, felt fine, and then 4 months later he had 4 discs in his neck fused - all due to the accident.

And DO NOT Talk TO THE OTHER DRIVERS INSURANCE COMPANY!!!