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Coats on babies in car seats don’t match.

January 27, 2018 Andrew Cherin Uncategorized

Most people know this but some people don’t – it is dangerous to have your baby wear a jacket or large piece of clothing in a car seat or booster seat. This is because in the event of a car accident, your baby may not be securely fastened to the car seat and be seriously injured.

The large coat or extra clothing on the baby may seem snug against the straps of a car seat but in a car accident the baby will not be restrained and in fact fly through the straps and possibly be seriously injured. The extra fabric doesn’t act as an extra barrier and in fact acts as a loose, false barrier that doesn’t hold the baby in.

Yes, it can be annoying to take your baby out of the jacket or large sweater and then have to put it back on, but it is for the protection of your baby in the event of a car accident. You may even think that you are only traveling for a short drive but this should not convince you to allow it. Car accidents can happen at any time and any place. All it takes is one person not paying attention to your car being stopped or someone in a hurry and a car accident happens. Don’t risk your baby’s health for the inconvenience of taking him or her out of a jacket or coat.

If your baby did fall out of the car seat with a jacket on in a Seattle car accident, unfortunately it is your fault and not the car seat manufacturer. You must follow proper protocol and manufacturer’s intended usage. A Seattle personal injury lawyer will walk you through your options in a car accident injury case but you may hurt your case by not securely fastening your child in his or her car seat.

What you post on Facebook can be used against you?

January 26, 2018 Andrew Cherin Car Accidents, Insurance, Tips

If you are injured in a Seattle car accident, chances are high that the insurance adjuster as searched your Facebook, Twitter, and instagram pages to see your activity level. If you have just been injured in a car accident and all of a sudden you are posting pictures of you on a skateboard doing tricks, the insurance company is going to be skeptical and use that against you even if those pictures posted after the car accident were actually pictures taken before the car accident.

Insurance companies can look at your Facebook and other social media if you have your privacy settings set to public. The pictures you post on social media could be from a long time ago but they insurance company may believe that they are of you today and a jury will think the same. Your Seattle personal injury lawyer can prove that these were pictures from a long time ago before the car accident but it makes it much more difficult.

You social media may be discoverable at trial so your privacy levels may not even matter. Courts are somewhat up in the air about whether your social media accounts are discoverable by insurance companies in car accident injury cases. However, it would be a good idea to keep your social media private so they are not easily witnessed by insurance adjusters who then will not offer anything for your case and make it much more difficult to settle your case outside of trial.

You generally cannot fake injuries in car accident injury cases and the truth will come out one way or another. There are too many barriers for someone to fake the insurance industry and the insurance industry has too many resources to be faked. Your doctors will not treat you if they think you are faking an injury because they could lose their license. A lawyer will not take your case if they believe you are faking because they could lose their license. The truth will come out one way or another in the end. Insurance fraud is no joke and could come with monetary fines as well as jail time.

Debunking Seattle car accident injury calculators for case value?

January 25, 2018 Andrew Cherin Car Accidents, Insurance, Tips

If you are injured in a Seattle car accident injury case, you have probably searched for your case value and came across personal injury calculators. You have probably looked into personal injury calculators to figure out how much your case is actually worth. Many of these websites will say that your case is worth 3 times the medical bills and lost wages, however, this is highly misleading and inaccurate. However, this is still not how much you will see in your pocket. This is generally what the personal injury lawyer says your case is worth before you have to pay back medical bills and your personal injury lawyer. Additionally, lost wages are generally not included in the multiplier, only added in after the multiplier.

Your Seattle personal injury case could be worth far more 3 times the medical bills or your personal injury case could be worth less than 3 times the medical bills. What determines whether a case is worth more or less is the type of treatment you receive, the permanency of your injuries, and the other factors. Every case is different so it is hard to pinpoint exactly what a case is worth but these are the general factors that are considered when determining a case value. You should set up a free consultation with a Seattle personal injury lawyer to learn more about your case value.

Most importantly, no one can accurately determine your case value or give you an estimation on your case value until your injuries are fully healed and you have completed 100% of your medical treatment or gotten as close to 100% as possible. There are too many factors that go into determining car accident injury case value that cannot be predicted without fully being healed, medical bill totals, lost wage totals, and permanency of injuries calculated.

What makes a case worth more than 3 times the medical bills and lost wages? These are car accident injury cases that have permanent, life changing injuries. Typically, these cases involve a surgery, lengthy hospital stay, and permanent impairment of some ability you used to have but no longer have because of the car accident. Additionally, these cases could have giant loss of income ability and lost wages that make the case value worth more than 3 times the medical bills calculation.

What makes a case worth less than 3 times the medical bills and lost wages? These are car accident injury cases that generally only have diagnostic costs such as MRI, x-rays, or CT scans that are expensive with little or not medical treatment. This is typically where the diagnostic tests are more expensive than the actual recovery medical treatment that is given like physical therapy, chiropractic treatment, etc. These cases are worth some money but generally not worth as much as cases where someone has gone through long treatment and has permanent or temporary debilitating injuries. Additionally, cases where massage therapy is the only form of medical treatment is generally not worth as much as other treatment.

Waiting too long to hire a personal injury lawyer may wreck your car accident injury case?

January 25, 2018 Andrew Cherin Car Accidents, Insurance, Tips

Waiting too long to hire a Seattle personal injury lawyer can wreck your personal injury case and make it much less valuable than it could have been if you hired one from the get go.

If you wait too long you could lose out on great advice and rights you could have been entitled to but waited too long. A Seattle personal injury lawyer will let you know from the outset of your case how to pay for the medical treatment that you need right now. Your car accident injury lawyer will be able to find insurance coverage to pay for the medical treatment that you need or possibly find you a doctor that will give you the medical treatment that you need and wait to be paid out of the settlement via a lien that your attorney signs as do you.

By delaying getting the treatment that you need at the outset of the case, you are giving the insurance adjuster the ability to argue that you were not injured by the car accident and this must be from some other act. Additionally, if you don’t get treatment early, the jury will think that you are not that injured otherwise you would have got treatment immediately or soon after the car accident.

Additionally, if you wait too long to hire a Seattle personal injury lawyer you could lose out on your case. In Washington State you have three years from the date of your car accident to either settle or file a lawsuit. If you do not settle or file a lawsuit within this time period, you no longer have any avenues to seek recovery against the defendant.

If you wait too long to hire a Seattle car accident injury lawyer, you may lose out on potential defenses that you may have had to mitigate defense insurance arguments limiting the value of your case. Some times a person in a car accident could have potential holes in their case such as partial liability or fault. A personal injury lawyer can mitigate this by going to the car accident scene, taking pictures, getting witness statements before they disappear, or more. Additionally, hiring an accident reconstructionist early can avoid potential pitfalls by insurance adjusters hanging their hat and withholding money because of their view that there is partial liability.

It is best to find a Seattle personal injury lawyer at the outset of your case so you know your rights and they can limit the arguments that the insurance company can use against you to make for a less contentious settlement.

Why you shouldn’t give a recorded statement to defendant’s insurance?

January 23, 2018 Andrew Cherin Car Accidents, Insurance, Tips

A potential pitfall for Seattle car accident injury victims is when it comes to talking to the other insurance company and giving them too much information. While the truth will always come out, it is a good idea to not give them the opportunity to spin your words into something that is untrue or misleading.

At the outset of a Seattle personal injury case, the other insurance company will ask for you to give a recorded statement. This may seem harmless but it is ripe with danger. The insurance adjuster is trained in asking questions that may be misleading or lead to inaccurate information.

Some of these questions can include talking about your medical history and your current symptoms. The insurance adjuster loves talking about prior injuries and trying to relate those injuries to the current car accident injury case. If you had prior injuries, they will ask if the injuries seem like the same injuries you suffered in this car accident and if they were present before this car accident. This could lead you into a hole that may be hard to get out of.

Additionally, insurance adjusters will try to ask you about your current injuries. They may try to downplay your injuries on the phone and ask you how you know you are that hurt. They may ask you how you are feeling right now and you may say fine. However, they will not ask you about how you felt last night or when you were driving in your car. Moreover, many injuries manifest themselves over a period of days after the car accident. The sooner they talk to you and get a recorded statement, the harder it is for you to say all of a sudden you are injured and need all this care.

They will and can use the recorded statement in court as a prior inconsistent statement or to show that you were not hurt. If all of a sudden you are hurt but during the recorded interview you said you were fine, the jury may look down on you as untrustworthy or lying about your injuries and the severity of them.

Additionally, the recorded statement may have to do with how the car accident happened. If the car accident happened because of anything but a rear end car accident, they may try to put words in your mouth like you ran the red light or you ran the stop sign. They could say that you saw my client right? So why did you continue if you saw them. They didn’t see you. Even if you didn’t see them or you had no time to stop. They can easily put words into your mouth on how the car accident happened and potentially make it your fault if there are no independent witnesses to say otherwise.

If you have been injured in a car accident, you need a Seattle car accident injury lawyer to represent you before you talk to the insurance company. You don’t need to make a statement to the defendant’s insurance company but you may need to give one to your insurance company. Make sure you have a lawyer representing you before you give any statements to anyone.

Failing to Attend Medical Treatment or Having Gaps in Treatment Will Hurt Your Case

January 22, 2018 Andrew Cherin Insurance, PIP, Tips

If you fail to attend your medical treatment or are having gaps in your treatment, you are hurting your Seattle car accident injury case. Your case will be worth far less if you have large gaps in treatment or miss your medical appointments.

Insurance companies and juries will believe that you are fully healed if you stop going to your medical treatment, miss appointments, and have large gaps in treatment. It is hard to make three chiropractic sessions a week, massage therapy, and physical therapy appointments with a full work schedule, parenting duties, and everything else. However, if you want to get better and help your case, you need to make all your appointments that your doctors believe that you need. If you don’t, you are sending the message that you are fully healed or not injured.

Not being able to pay for your medical treatment out of pocket is not a good excuse that will work with the insurance company. A Seattle personal injury lawyer can find you coverage or ways to get the treatment that you need. A Seattle personal injury lawyer can never personally pay for your medical treatment, as this is illegal. However, they can sign letters of guarantees or liens with medical personnel such as doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, massage therapists, etc. so that you can get the treatment that you need without a gap in treatment and then pay them back out of the settlement. Most medical providers will not allow you to do this without a Seattle car accident injury lawyer representing you and guaranteeing payment back to them.

Additionally, if you have exhausted your PIP, you may have other coverage that can pay for your medical treatment such as medical insurance, other PIP coverage or something else. A Seattle personal injury lawyer can find this coverage if it is available to you. Medical insurance may initially deny paying for your treatment but a Seattle personal injury lawyer can make them start covering your treatment if you have the coverage. This can include paying for surgery, doctors bills, etc. It may not cover chiropractic or massage, however, as most medical insurance policies do not cover these types of treatment.

Mistakes That Can Wreck a Seattle Car Accident Injury Case: Statements made to doctors and massage therapists

January 21, 2018 Andrew Cherin Car Accidents, Insurance, Tips

As a Seattle personal injury lawyer, I have seen many things that can help or hurt a car accident injury case. Here are some of the top mistakes or misconceptions that clients have that I have seen that hurt Seattle car accident injury cases. A misconception is that doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, and others will only write in your records what helps

What you say to your doctor, massage therapist, chiropractor, or any medical personnel will be put in your medical records and potentially used against you. You may think that because your doctor has treated many people injured in car accidents before that they know what will hurt your case and what will help your car accident injury case. However, most doctors and other medical personnel have no clue about what will help your case and what will hurt your case. They are simply a recording device and focused on you getting better.

Doctors, massage therapists, and other medical personnel want to see you get better. In fact, it is their number one goal to get you better from the injuries you suffered in the car accident. Their goal is to get you better as fast as possible. When they see that you state that you are feeling good, they write it down. When you say you are no longer feeling pain in a certain area, they write it down. They often will not differentiate between how you are feeling right now and how you felt last night after work or how you felt as you drove home from work yesterday. However, the good ones will.

It’s important to understand that you are not lying and they are not lying when they put down this information, only that it is not the complete truth. A lot of time doctors will ask how you feel right now, which is fine but you need to be honest with them and tell them how you felt last night, how you felt driving here in the car, and how you feel when you do something that causes you pain too. This will allow them to put this into their notes as well.

It’s not a lie to tell them you are feeling ok right now because you are just sitting here. Additionally, a lot of people are anticipating feeling good because of past experiences and comfortability with your doctor, massage therapist, chiropractor, etc. who have made you feel good in the past. This can dull the senses in some ways and make you think of the future instead of the past.

What can you do to make sure that you are not hurting your case when you talk to your doctor, massage therapist, physical therapists, or chiropractor? When the doctor asks you how you are feeling right now, always think of they are asking how you have been doing since they last saw you. Think of the time you had a lot of pain with your car accident injuries since you last saw this doctor. It’s important to report both the good and the bad.

A lot of times doctors will focus on the good because they want to see you improving so they feel satisfaction with their being a part of your healing, which is great but give them the whole story.

If the defendant doesn’t pay for medical bills up front, who is going to pay now?

January 20, 2018 Andrew Cherin Car Accidents, Insurance, PIP

In a Seattle car accident injury case, the defendant will not pay for your medical bills until you settle with them. You don’t want to settle with them until you have gone through 100% of your treatment and are back to normal. The question remains then, how do you pay for your medical treatment up front until you get your settlement?

There are many ways to pay for your medical bills while you are waiting to settle with the insurance company for the person that caused the car accident. This includes PIP insurance, medical insurance, cash, and paying on a lien.

You can pay for your medical treatment immediately if you have personal injury protection on your car insurance policy. This is a great insurance policy to have and should not be skipped over. Some people may think that their medical insurance will pay for their medical bills so they don’t need to pay extra for personal injury protection insurance. However, most medical insurance policies will not cover car accident injuries without a lawyer showing that there is no other way to pay for the medical treatment you need. Additionally, your medical insurance probably will not pay for chiropractic adjustments and massages, which are great to help her ripple heal faster from a car accident.

The best thing about PIP is that you don’t need a referral for PIP to pay and they will cover just about every medical treatment procedure or treatment that you need from car accident related injuries. This includes ambulance bills, hospital, massage, doctors visits, chiropractors, acupuncture, physical therapy, surgery, X-rays, MRI’s, and more. PIP will even pay for your lost wages, baby sitting, child care, and landscaping or housekeeping if you can’t do it but used to before.

Medical insurance will cover some bills such as hospital bills, physical therapy, ambulance bills. However, most medical insurance policies will not cover chiropractic or massage therapy. Additionally, they may be reluctant to cover any bills if they are related to a car accident and you don’t have an attorney. This is because they believe the defendant who caused the car accident will pay or other insurance is primary. However, if you can show you have exhausted your PIP insurance and have no other way to pay right now, so long as your policy covers the treatment normally, it will be covered.

Getting medical treatment on a lien is available to most people who are injured in a car accident and have a lawyer representing them. This is because most medical providers are reluctant to provide treatment to people injured in car accidents with a promise to pay them back out of the settlement alone. Most will trust a lawyer to sign a lien and guarantee payment out of the settlement. This is a good alternative to paying out of pocket and not getting the treatment that you need.

If you are injured in a car accident, you need a Seattle personal injury lawyer to represent you now. Consultations are free and car accident injury lawyers are paid out of the settlement. Therefore, everyone can afford a Seattle personal injury lawyer but you can’t afford not to have one against the insurance companies in a car accident injury case.

Do baby on board stickers work or hurt?

January 19, 2018 Andrew Cherin Car Accidents, Driving Tips

You know the stickers. You have seen them everywhere. They are usually in the back corner of the rear windshield and is yellow stating baby on board. Does it help people avoid Seattle car accidents? Does it save babies lives in car accidents? What affect does it have on people driving?

Notify Emergency Personnel: The biggest reason people put the baby on board sticker on their cars is in a car accident injury situation to give emergency responders notice that there is a baby in the car so please come to this car first to check on the baby. Another thought is that the baby on board sticker alerts the first responders to not forget about the baby in case there is a car accident and people are injured.

People Drive Slower: Baby on board stickers are good because they can warn people around them to drive carefully because there is a baby on board. This will help them avoid car accidents because Seattle drivers will drive more carefully around them. The thought is that people will drive more carefully around these cars because they want to protect the baby, they have had their own baby and know how important and fragile babies are, or that the person driving the car with a baby has a lot to think about so they may drive a little more erratic with a baby or young children screaming, throwing things, or otherwise distracting them.

Make Moms a Target: Some moms in mom groups believe that baby on board stickers actually puts a target on their car for thieves and potential kidnappers. For this reason, some moms will shy away from putting the baby on board sticker on their car. Mom groups also think that the sign will be a target for stalkers to stalk you and learn your daily routine to steal away your baby or make you an easy target. However, many moms in these forums point out that you can just as easily tell a baby is in the car with the huge car seat in the back seat so the sticker is not a big giveaway as you might think.

Distraction: There is one thought posted in a British website that baby on board stickers actually cause more car accidents because some people fashion the baby on board sticker in a spot that blocks the driver’s view out the back window. Most people know to place stickers that do not block their view in a car so that you can see out the back window. However, if the sticker is placed in an area that blocks part of that view, a Seattle car accident can occur because you may not see someone coming up behind you as you want to switch lanes.

It seems that the best reason to have the sticker is for emergency personnel to go to your car first to check on the baby, who may be more prone to being injured in a Seattle car accident. Additionally, you may see the added benefit of people driving slower and more cautious around you. I mean, who wants to cut off a car with a baby or drive erratic around them? No one.

If you have been injured in a Seattle car accident, call a Seattle personal injury lawyer today for a free consultation. Seattle car accident injury lawyers are paid out of the settlement so everyone can afford one but you can’t afford not to have one.

Seattle Car Accident Injury Commercial Myth Buster

January 18, 2018 Andrew Cherin Car Accidents, Insurance

I am sure you have seen them on television, as they are everywhere. You know, the Seattle car accident injury lawyer commercial where they show the person on television saying they got $250,000 when the insurance company only offered them $25,000 but they look perfectly fine. How are these people allowed to have commercials so obviously deceiving? It also doesn’t say how much these people actually got in their pocket after very expensive medical bills are paid and attorney fees are paid.

News Flash: these people on television were not the people that were actually injured. In very small lettering at the bottom of the screen it says that these people are actors portraying other people. This is so deceiving it is ridiculous. I don’t understand how they are able to have someone who was not injured come on television and say this law firm got them $250,000 for their car accident injuries without saying in big letters this is not the person and the person injured was actually severely injured.

People that are perfectly fine are not people that get $250,000 for car accident injury cases. What these commercials are failing to show is what injuries these people that actually got $250,000 suffered from. I can tell you right now, $250,000 case is a case where there were either broken bones, surgery, or some other permanent type injury. This is not the type of reward you get from whiplash and seeing the chiropractor for 6 to 9 months with nothing else going on.

These Seattle personal injury lawyers are deceiving the Seattle people left and right. Some people who have not been in a car accident and believe that society is too litigious will believe, how did these Seattle personal injury lawyers con the insurance company to give this person who is obviously not injured $250,000?! They will look at these commercials and believe that lawyers and people that are in car accidents are faking injuries or taking advantage of insurance companies raising their premiums.

Other people that have been injured in a Seattle car accident will think how are these people getting all this money when I am in so much more pain than these people on television who look perfectly fine?!

These Seattle personal injury lawyers need to either show the people that were actually injured in the car accident and have them say what there injuries suffered in the car accident were or they need to stop making these commercials. They are too deceiving to be on television.

If you have been injured in a car accident in the Seattle area, give me a call for a free consultation. Seattle personal injury lawyers are paid out of the settlement so everyone can afford a personal injury lawyer but you can’t afford not to have one against the insurance companies.