Colerain Personal Injury & Car Accident Attorneys

Contact our office to set-up a free initial consultation. We can do the consultation over the phone, via zoom or in person at our Cincinnati, Oxford or Clermont offices. You can contact us 24/7 at 513.999.5297 to set up a consultation. Or you can submit an online request here.

Once you retain our office to represent you, we will immediately notify the negligent party’s insurance company and direct that all future contact be made through our office. Insurance companies will ask you to make statements, which will be recorded. They will also ask for information or documentation which they will use against you in a later proceeding. It is important that you have an attorney prior to these requests who can communicate with the insurance companies on your behalf. Remember, the insurance companies are not operating in your best interests. You need an experienced attorney to assist you through this process.

Next, our office will obtain medical releases form from you to permit us to obtain all of your medical records that will be necessary to prepare our case. This includes your medical history prior to your accident.

If you have lost wages as a result of the injuries you sustained in the accident, our office will obtain the necessary information from your employer to establish your claim for lost wages. This includes information such as date of hire, hourly wages, and the amount of time that you were off work after the accident. Without this information, it is very likely that the insurance company will deny payment of any wage loss claim.

We will generally request your tax returns and/or W2 forms for the prior 3-5 years if necessary to establish your history of wages.

It’s generally the case that several different types of insurance policies will be responsible to pay various parts of your claim. It is our goal to obtain and review all potential insurance coverages and to coordinate the benefits to maximize your final recovery.

Health Insurance

In most cases, your health insurance will pay your medical expenses such as ambulance, hospital, and doctor bills. This is to ensure that you have the ability to obtain medical treatment immediately after the accident. Keep in mind that health insurance companies have the right to be reimbursed from you by any payment you receive from your settlement.

Automobile Medical Payment Benefit (“MedPay”)

Most car insurance policies provide you with a small amount of coverage for medical expenses that result from an accident regardless of who is at fault. This allows you to obtain necessary medical treatment early on in a case. In many cases, we recommend that you use your MedPay benefits to pay the out of pocket expenses not covered by your health insurance policies.

Subrogation and Reimbursement Representation

As mentioned above, almost all insurance policies that provide payment to you after an accident will require you to repay them if you collect a settlement fro the person who caused your injuries. This is called subrogation and the law allows for it. It is our policy that we will contact any of the entities that claim subrogation rights and include them in the settlement procedure or lawsuit so that when your claim is settled, all claims against you will be disposed of at the same time.

After we begin representation, we will begin gathering your information and preparing your case. We will continue this process throughout your period of treatment. When you have either fully recovered or reached “maximum medical improvement',” we will be in a position to evaluate your claim. At the evaluation meeting, we will review all of the documents to be certain that the medical records, expenses, and wage loss records are complete. We will then attempt to estimate for you the range of potential jury verdicts if the matter were to proceed to trial as well as the time, risk, and expense of going to trial. We will then suggest a target settlement amount and make a demand to the insurance company.

Our office will prepare a demand letter and send it to the insurance company setting out the important features of your claim. The insurance company is not required to respond and has no set time limit to do so; however, depending on the schedule, the response time is normally 30 to 60 days. When an offer from the insurance company is made, we forward it to you along with a breakdown of approximately what you would receive if that offer was accepted. We will then communicate to you any counter offers made by the insurance company. You have a right to accept or reject the insurance company’s offer.

When you and the insurance company cannot reach a settlement, we will file a lawsuit against the proper individuals or companies to obtain a verdict on your behalf. The filing of a lawsuit however does not mean your case will necessarily go to trial. In fact a vast majority of cases will settle before trial. Thus, it is normal procedure that the settlement process continues throughout the period of trial preparation.