When you are involved in any type of accident, bills start accumulating immediately. Being transported to an emergency room by paramedics can cost upwards of $1,000. Then there are the emergency room bills, charges for treating physicians, therapists and the like. If a surgery is involved, the bills get overwhelming. A personal injury attorney with extensive experience can be of great help to you with these bills and keeping creditors and collection agencies away.
Who pays the bills?
If there’s 100 percent liability in your case, the person who caused the accident is ultimately going to pay your bills through their insurance. Unless you are involved in a workers’ compensation case, they are probably not going to pay them as they come in though. The law in California does not require that. If you have insurance, your attorney will work with your insurance company in getting as much of your bill balances paid as possible. That raises a new issue.
Liens
Should you receive a settlement or verdict award from the person who caused the accident, you are required to reimburse your insurer for any of your medical bills that they paid. Nearly every health or car insurance policy contains that language. These obligations are liens on the case. California law requires that these claims be satisfied. A skillful personal injury attorney has extensive experience in compromising and satisfying liens. Leave the claim issues to them. You’ll probably be very pleased with the outcome
Collection agencies
Some bills or balances because of that might be placed in a collection. No attorney can prevent this from happening, but they can contact the collection agency and request that further collection efforts be held in abeyance until your case is resolved. The collection agencies almost always cooperate. It is one less file for the bill collector to worry about. They know they are eventually going to get paid. Provide your attorney with the initial contact letter from the collection agency, and you’ll probably never hear from that bill collector again. They’ll most likely be paid out of your gross proceeds from a settlement or verdict.
Be sure to provide your personal injury attorney with copies of all bills, collection letters and the like in connection with your care and treatment in your case. It operates to keep your damages current and your creditors away from you. We at Chris and Frank Accident Attorneys can help you. Call us 24/7 for help.