Frequently Asked Questions

Your health is very important to us. After getting hurt in an accident, you need to be treated by doctor as soon as possible to make sure you are going to be ok and to document the fact that you have been hurt in an accident via medical records. Delaying treatment for days or weeks will only hurt your injury claim. The insurance company will not believe that you are hurt or in pain after an auto accident if you do not see a doctor, which should be soon after the incident. You can go to a doctor of your choosing or allow us to help you find a doctor. Even without health insurance, we can help you find a doctor immediately that will not require payment upfront, but rather, they would get paid out of your eventual injury settlement. Our office will fight the insurance company to get all your medical expenses paid, in addition to your other damage claims like pain and suffering, lost wages, etc.

In general, the more and greater the interruptions a car accident causes in your life, the more you need an attorney to assist with your injury claim. Unlike many other Dallas injury firms, we do not accept every claim. We only choose to handle the claims for which the Firm can justify its fee out of your eventual injury settlement and still get more in your pocket (even after the Firm’s fee is paid) than you could get on your own. An accident injury is usually a total interruption of all aspects of your life, your work, and the lives of your family. You need to work to make ends meet but your pain and injuries may prevent you from doing so. Additionally, you may not have another vehicle available after an auto accident to be able to get to work. The stakes get even higher when the interruptions from a car wreck begin to affect your ability to return to work, your finances, and, ultimately your family. If you went to the hospital, chances are you need an attorney because of the large amount of bills you have already incurred, the ongoing pain, and the likelihood of needing further medical treatment. Your need for an attorney increases significantly when you have been hit by a drunk driver or you have broken bone(s), bulging disk(s) in your back, permanent scars, or need a surgery. On the other hand, if you did not see a doctor, do not plan to see a doctor, or you only went to the doctor once, we will provide some advice for you to best handle the injury claim yourself. Thus, we admit an attorney is not necessary for all injury claims, but it is still a free claim evaluation with our office either way. Make no mistake about it, the “For Profit” insurance company will not be on your side and will not willingly compensate you for all of the many interruptions the accident has likely caused you and your family. In fact, even if the adjuster is being nice, please understand that they are trained to take advantage of your hardships caused by the auto or truck accident and try to either deny your injury claim or pay out as little as possible. The advantage of having an attorney is that the insurance company will not truly feel the threat of a lawsuit when you try to handle your own injury claim. If we decide to work together, our Firm will fight to recover the maximum amount of money we can get for you and show you how it makes a difference when we put Personal back Personal Injury Law.

To truly answer this question, we must know how long you will be treating for your injuries. Just like every person is different, every claim is different. The amount of time it takes to resolve your claim at its full value varies only because we do not know when you will be done treating. We cannot make a demand for settlement of your claim until you are done treating because the insurance company will only pay once and will require you to sign a Release of Claims before any settlement check will be issued. Thus, if we settle your injury claim before you are released by the doctor and it is later determined that you need further treatment or some costly procedure, it will be too late to go after the other driver’s insurance company for the cost of the additional medical care. Thus, our first job is making sure you are treating with a doctor for your injuries. Once we know that your health is being taken care of, we investigate the collision, get a copy of the police report, get photographs of the vehicles and your initial injuries, get any witness statements, and gather all other documentation we need from you and other parties. While you are receiving medical treatment, we are behind the scenes keeping the insurance adjuster informed about all aspects of your claim and medical treatment. Once you have been released from your doctors, we then immediately order a copy of any medical records and bills that we do not already have. Once we have everything we need for your claim, we prepare a detailed demand package that we review and discuss with you before sending it to the adjuster. We usually give the insurance adjuster two weeks to review the detailed demand letter and multiple pages of medical records, photos, police report, etc. Then the adjuster will make a first offer, which gets the ball rolling on negotiations and a final settlement can usually be reached within one to two weeks.

We work on a contingency fee basis, which means the Firm’s fee will be a percentage of and only comes out of any settlement we obtain for your claim. No money is ever required out of your pocket. Our Firm does not get paid until you get paid.

We have many injured clients that either do not have health insurance to cover the cost of their medical bills or they cannot afford the high deductible or co-payments. We work with our clients to locate physicians convenient to where they work or live that will agree to wait to collect their bill out of your eventual injury settlement. We always seek to not only get your medical bills paid out of an eventual settlement, but to also get as much money as possible in your pocket for all of your various damage claims. Many of our clients are surprised to find out that the insurance company did not tell them about the many other types of damage claims that can be made, in addition to seeking full reimbursement for all of your medical bills.

No, the insurance company will likely not pay for an injury claim (other than maybe a small nuisance value) when your pain and injuries are not documented via medical records within a reasonable time after an auto accident. It is very important to see a doctor right away if you experience any pain, headaches, stiffness, or unusual symptoms after an auto collision. Also, it is important to tell the doctor about all aches, pains, and injuries you encountered, even though they may seem slight at first. By not going to the doctor or hospital right away you can not only hurt your chances of recovering much financially – if anything – for your claim, but you are also risking your health. You could have received damage to your body, especially your spine, and not realize it until it is too late for your injury claim or perhaps your long term health. It is important to remember, if you do not have medical records that document how you were hurt and in pain from an accident, it is nearly impossible to get the insurance company to make a settlement offer just based on someone’s word alone that you were hurt or in pain.

Just because you were hit by someone who does not have auto insurance, or by another driver who fled from the scene, that does not mean that there is nothing we can do. Do not give up, give us a call instead. We can help you locate a hit and run driver and we know ways to locate an insurance policy to possibly cover your accident that was previously unknown. As a last resort, we can help you make a claim on your uninsured motorist coverage, which will not raise your insurance rate when the accident was not your fault. Even your own insurance company is a “For Profit” insurance company, so you still need the assistance of an attorney to make sure your own insurance company treats you fairly for your injury claim.

If you were hit by a drunk driver, your claim is instantly more complicated. Depending on the facts of your claim, and if it is handled correctly from the beginning by an attorney, it could have a much higher settlement value than other types of injury claims. Do not lose sight of the fact that but for the other driver getting behind the wheel of a vehicle after drinking, you and your family would not have been put in danger of your lives and now having to recover from the pain and injuries the drunk driver has caused. The stakes are so much higher when the other driver was drunk. We make sure an insurance company that insures careless people who drive drunk pay the maximum amount for all the pain they caused you and your family.

If you have missed work and lost wages or income as a result of an auto collision, we understand how this is a financial struggle for you and your family. To top it off, you need a rental car or replacement vehicle to be able to get back to work. We will assist you with a way to get back to work, once released by your doctor. It is important that you keep track of the time that you missed from work and make sure you get your doctor to provide you with a “Release from Work” note so we can later submit this to the insurance company for reimbursement when we are negotiating your settlement. Long before we reach your injury settlement, we can separately assist you with submitting your lost wages documentation for reimbursement from your insurance company now, if you have Personal Injury Protection (PIP) on your auto insurance policy. Even if you used accrued sick or vacation time after your auto accident, we still make a claim for the time you missed from work because we know you would have much rather have spent that time relaxing with friends or family and not in pain recovering from injuries.

Unfortunately, there is no clear cut answer to this question without a lot of information up front. No attorney can remotely answer this question until it is known for how long you will treat with a doctor and until the full extent and costs of your injuries are known. Even then, there are still many other variables to know how to properly evaluate an injury claim. Based on our many years of experience, we can evaluate whether your claim is the type for which you will benefit from having an attorney — to get more money in your pocket, even after paying the Firm’s fee out of your settlement, than if you were to handle the injury claim yourself. Following the recommendation of your doctors, consistently treating for your injuries, not canceling or not showing for doctor appointments, and following our advice will help make sure we are in a position to get you the best settlement that we can in your particular situation.

We put Personal back into Personal Injury Law. We believe that there is a better way to handle injury claims, which begins with continual client communication. Unlike many Dallas injury lawyers, we do not treat our clients like a number and we do not avoid our clients’ phone calls. We pride ourselves on keeping our clients informed at all times and caring for them. We want our clients to be happy with our Firm throughout the entire injury claim process, upon final settlement, and refer us their friends and family members for years thereafter. Our injury settlements are higher than settlements reached at other law firms because we take the time to get to know you and how this accident has changed you and your everyday life. We want to know all about the limitations caused by the accident, track your treatment, pain levels, and any medical procedures you have done. We also want to keep the insurance adjuster in the loop regarding your pain and injuries so they will keep raising the amount they set in reserve for your eventual injury settlement. Thus, we take your calls, when you call, if at all possible. If you try calling a team member that happens to be unavailable, another team member will assist immediately or schedule a return phone call, usually by the end of that business day, if not sooner. Before taking on a client, we insist that we can keep in continuous contact with you over the phone, email, or both. If you call us just to check in on status or to ask a question, we will make sure that you have an informed answer from a knowledgeable member of our team as soon as possible. If you have a question for the attorney, our team will schedule a time for the attorney to call and speak with you at a time that is convenient for you.

We know that you need replacement transportation fast after your vehicle has been crashed into by another driver. Unlike many Dallas car wreck firms, we do not charge a fee for helping you deal with in the insurance company regarding your crashed vehicle and we never take any percentage out of any property settlement. If liability for the accident is clear, then your vehicle should be replaced (a check provided, if declared a total loss) or taken in for repairs very quickly. However, there are times when the other driver’s insurance company will claim they need time to investigate the accident as to whether there was insurance coverage in effect at the time of the accident, the person driving the vehicle was listed on the auto insurance policy, or any other person that was driving the insured vehicle had the owner’s permission. As many of our clients soon find out, the other driver’s insurance is not in a hurry to solve your vehicle situation until you have an attorney. While the insurance company will claim that it has up to 30 days by law to investigate, we expedite the investigation process on behalf of our injured clients. Once a property damage claim is accepted by the insurance company, an adjuster is assigned to determine the damages to your vehicle. The adjuster will write you a check for either the cost of repairs or for the total loss of your vehicle. We help enforce your right to have your damaged vehicle repaired anywhere you choose. We also make sure the adjuster provides a rental vehicle during the repair period. If the damages exceed the initial repair estimate, we make sure the body shop properly requests a supplemental amount to be paid by the insurance company. If your vehicle is declared a total loss, we make sure the adjuster pays you very quickly for the fair market value of your vehicle, which will be based on its condition prior to the accident. We assist with making sure you get paid a fair value for your totaled vehicle and ensure that you are getting credit for all features, upgrades, and recent repairs or parts placed on the vehicle prior to the accident. In addition, we help our injured clients recover money for all personal items that may have been damaged during the accident, such as glasses, cell phones, laptops, iPads, etc.

Once a vehicle has been in a car wreck and repaired, it will never be worth as much upon resale now that it has been in an accident. Thus, you now have a diminished value claim. The fact that your vehicle has been repaired and repainted will be reported via Car Fax. Likewise, car dealerships know how to inspect a car for inevitable overspray and other adjustments that likely had to be made to your vehicle during repair after an auto accident. We work with auto evaluation experts to argue these facts on behalf of our clients in making a separate claim for the “inherent diminished value” of your repaired vehicle. The amount we can recover for our clients varies depending on the make and model, year, the cost of repairs, and amount of miles on your vehicle. Many of our clients are surprised to find out that this type of claim can be made and it is yet another advantage of having an attorney on your side after an auto accident.