California Personal Injury and Insurance Blog

Multiple Policies on 1 Car

This has come up a few times lately in my personal injury cases so I thought I would discuss it with you. Here is the scenario: Bob is driving his Aunt Sally's car. Bob is 25 and has an insurance policy. Sally is 43 and has an insurance policy as well. If Bob rear ends Paul, which policy pays for Paul's personal injury damages?

This is an interesting question and one which doesn't have an easy answer. (And one which most attorneys do not know the answer to!) The first answer is to read the policy. Most policies will have a provision explaining what happens when there is more than 1 policy in effect. The options are simple:

1. A policy may say that it is primary. This policy will pay first up to the policy limit.
2. A policy may say that it is excess. This policy will pay only after the other policy pays.
3. A policy may say that it shares on a pro-rata basis. This means that each policy pays based on its share of the limits. A few examples:

A. If each policy has a $100,000 policy limit, than each policy pays 50% of the claim.
B. If Bob's policy is $50,000 and Sally's policy is $100,000, then Bob's policy pays 1/3 of the claim and Sally's policy pays 2/3 of the claim.
C. If Bob's policy is $300,000 and Sally's policy is $100,000, then Bob's policy pays 75% and Sally's policy pays 25%.

When you are driving a friend's car, or a friend is driving your car, is pays to see which policy is going to pay for the damages if someone is involved in an accident.

What is used to determine your medical bills?

This is an important question. Why? Because your medical bills are part of the settlement of your case. When you are injured, you are entitled to recover your medical bills, both past and future, as well as your pain and suffering.

This should be relatively straightforward, right? After all, add up your medical bills and you have your number. At least, that is what most of us would do. But, in law, there is more to it.

Plaintiff's attorneys, people who represent the injured party, take the side that most of you take: it is the amount of the medical bills. Insurance companies believe that your medical bills are actually only the amount paid by your health insurance, Medi-cal or Medi-Care. In other words, the insurance companies want to pay as little as possible. Is anyone really surprised? Probably not!

If you are injured, you need to demand payment in full for your medical bills. Do not let them reduce the bills down to the amount paid. There is no authority in the law for them to do this, especially if you have private insurance. If they refuse, you should talk to an attorney.

Loss of Consortium

Sometimes people ask me about filing a loss of consortium claim. Well, that is not how they put it, but that is what it is called. They ask about a claim for the spouse of the injured person. And they want to know if they can make a claim and what is involved.

We can start easy. Can you make a claim? Yes, but only if you are married. If you are dating, engaged or "seeing each other," then you do not have a loss of consortium claim in California. California limits loss of consortium claims to a married couple.

Now, what is involved? That is more complex. In California, loss of consortium is the loss of spousal services. So, if your spouse cooks, cleans and does the laundry, you can recover for that. If your spouse cuts the grass, trims the bushes and fixes the car, you can recover for that. In general, you can recover for the loss of whatever your spouse normally did but cannot do as a result of the collision.

Talk to your attorney about a loss of consortium claim. These are tricky claims and require an experienced attorney to review and value.

The value of a good lawyer

Some people think a good attorney can just increase the value of your case. And he or she can, as I will discuss. But, before we get there, a good attorney can help you avoid wasting your time.

Case in point: attorney asks me today if his client can pursue a claim against his insurance company when the client was at fault for the accident. The answer, as every driver's ed student at Franklin High knows, is no. Uninsured motorist coverage only protects you if the at fault driver has no insurance. There is no insurance to pay you if you cause an accident.

But, this attorney was actually pursuing this claim. How much time and energy were wasted on a case that never had value? Too much.

In addition to avoiding wasting your time, a good attorney will get you more for your case. Insurance companies do not want to talk about it. But, their own reports show that an attorney can get you 30 to 70% more, on average, then you can get on your own.

How do you hire the right attorney? Besides reading my blog, you can get my free report by emailing me at hiringatty@jonathangstein.com to learn how to hire the right attorney and how that can get you everything you are entitled to after an accident.

Seat Belt Excuses

I have heard a lot of doozies, but some of these take the cake. The Sacramento Bee is reporting on seat belt enfocement in Roseville, CA. The Roseville PD heard some great excuses, including that the doctor told someone not to wear a seatbelt. WOW!

It is very simple: when you get in the car, you put on your seat belt BEFORE you turn on the car. Just make sure everyone makes the seat belt "click" before you even turn on the engine. That way you don't have to worry about someone not having their seat belt on.

Having handled too many claims where someone has been injured or killed for not wearing a seat belt, trust me on this. This one simple act will make a world of difference.

Health Insurance Reimbursement

There is always a question of whether you need to reimburse your health insurer after a collision. The basic scenario: you are struck by another driver. You go to the doctor. Your health insurer pays for your treatment. They then send you a notice saying they are entitled to be reimbursed.

The largest company that handles reimbursements for insurance companies is a company called Ingenix. Ingenix is now being investigated by the NY Attorney General. While the investigation is focusing on what a doctor is reimbursed, it will not surprise me to see a review of the subrogation practices of Ingenix and other health insurers.

I will continue to follow this for you.

Diminished Value of Your Car

Everyone knows the old saying that a car is worth less after a collision. (Notice I am not calling it an auto accident anymore. Why? An accident just happens. A collision is someone's fault. When two cars collide, it is someone's fault.)  The question is can you recover that lost value, and if so, how much is that claim worth?

The simple answer is that you can recover that lost value. The problem is that it becomes a cost/benefit analysis. Does the benefit of making a claim outweigh the cost? For example, if the lost value is $500 and the cost is $600, it does not make sense. If the lost value is $10,000 and it will cost $1,000, then it probably does make sense.

So, if you decide that it makes sense to pursue, how do you determine the lost value. The first step should be to consult this website, a free tool to determine the lost value, or diminished value, as they like to call it. Once you have an idea about the value, you may want to submit it to an insurance company and make the claim. If they deny it, you would then need to retain an expert and you can determine the cost/benefit at that point.

By the way, you may have to educate the adjuster about your ability to recover diminished value.   

Farmers, Small Claims Court and SHEESH!

Farmers Insurance is at it again! Yep, good old Farmers. Farmers, apparently, "Gets you back where you belong." Well, maybe it should be "Gets in you the back all along." (Hmmm....anyone see a future career writing jingles?

I have a client who could not settle her case with Farmers. She filed a lawsuit against their insured in small claims court. The judge ruled in her favor and a judgment was mailed out. Simple enough. Thirty days elapsed and no reply from Farmers. I told her to wait a few more days to see if the check was in the mail.

Well, it turns out that Farmers left her a message thirty seven days after the judgment came down. Farmers decided, instead of paying her, to pay the court. (A defendant who loses can pay the court in small claims court.) It will cost them an extra $25. Not a big deal, right?

Well, the catch is that the court will hold the check for 30 days. Then, it will take 4 to 6 weeks to issue a new check to my client. The result: my client doesn't get her money for 90 to 120 days after the judgment.

Why does Farmers do this? Beats me. A few options: 1. Farmers is really desperate to keep its money and needs to earn interest for that extra 30 days. 2. Farmers really doesn't want to help people. 3. Farmers wants to try to discourage people from suing their insureds in small claims court.

SHEESH! Farmers deserves some award for bad service for this nonsense.

The Health Insurance Crisis

Now, it is not often that I get political. And, it is not often that I post cartoons, but today seemed like a good day. Why? Because I received two today.

The first, found here, Download new_yorker_cartoon.pdf,  is a cartoon from "The New Yorker." Pretty funny.

The second one is a YouTube video. Yes, YouTube. This is brought to you by SickofBlueCross. It is a spoof of Monty Python's "Bright Side of Life."

Enjoy!

Allstate Barred in Florida

WOW! Okay, I get that businesses make business decisions based on what they think will happen in the future. (Exhibit A: Ford and the Pinto) But, Allstate has taken bad business decisions to a whole new level.

First, it refused to turn over documents in a case despite a court order. (For the record, a court order is just that - an order. It is not a request, a suggestion or the court asking. It is an order.)

Now, the Florida Department of Insurance has barred Allstate for doing business in Florida because Allstate, wait for it.............................failed to turn over documents. Even the Florida Governor is telling Allstate customers to go find new insurance.

Of course, Allstate was surprised at this decision. (Are they ever not surprised? They constantly seem to be surprised.)

So, a quick recap, Allstate refuses to comply with a subpoena, is barred from doing business and is surprised at this result? Here is a tip for everyone. If you don't comply with a subpoena or a court order, you can lose your business license, be suspended or worse. Allstate, as much as this is going to come as a surprise to them, is no different than the Mom-and-pop dry cleaner or any other business.

I agree with Gov. Crist: Allstate policyholders should move their insurance. You are, clearly, not in good hands!