I was at traffic light with 10-12 cars in front of me, the other driver was texting and looked up and crashed into me, she is claiming a 3 car pushed her into me. No citation, but she was listed as at fault driver and for following too close. Her insurance has refused liability and my insurance is giving me a hard time about, medical reimbursement for herniated cervical disc, which was caused from accident.
You absolutely need to speak with a personal injury attorney directly right away so they can assist you with your claim. I would suggest contacting an attorney as soon as possible.
The other driver was following too closely and can try to make a claim that a phantom vehicle caused the accident; however, a qualified personal injury attorney will be able to advocate on your behalf and make sure the at fault party is held responsible.
Your injuries are serious and your case warrants immediate attention from an attorney.
You have already made a horrendous mistake in talking directly to the other driver's insurer. Insurance adjusters are poaid to try to cheat people like you out of legitimate claims and to pay as little as they can. Even where they pay, offers to unrepresented parties are almost always very small compared with offers to reopresented parties. Note that there are two possible claims here, one versus the car behind you and one versus the car behind her. and a good lawyer probably pursues both.
Disc injuries are serious, and if proven to be caused by an accident, can entitle you to more than medical bills, including pain and suffering, lost wages and even damages for future impairment.
Stop cheating yourself and get counsel. Be aware that if you wait too long you lose ALL rights to collect under Georgia law so act immediately.
My office would be glad to meet with you and there is no charge for the consultation (and no fee unloess we collect money for you). My number is 404-768-3509. There is no way to fully assess the strength of your case without more details but it needs to be looked at.
Get an attorney IMMEDIATELY. Insurance companies are in the business of trying to pay very little, if anything on claims. This sounds like a case of clearly liability and serious injuries. You will never receive what you are entitled to without representation!
1. Get a lawyer!
2. Was there damage of the rear of the car which struck you?
3. See if you have UM/UIM coverage which will add additional protection.
http://www.phillyinjurylawyer.com/
You need to speak with a personal injury attorney immediately. Given the significance of your injuries and the questions regarding the liability of the other driver, hiring an attorney to represent you is truly your best option here. Even in an otherwise apparently simple rear-end type collision, there can be a multitude of other factors that come into play. For instance, if there are witnesses who might also testify another vehicle rear-ended the person behind you, there may be a potential John Doe claim in which your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage could be applicable. Suit may also need to be filed in order to discover some of that information.
The bottom line is there is significantly more investigation that needs to be done, and given your diagnosis of herniated discs, you should be more focused on your own treatment than trying to sort through the insurance mess. So long as you are unrepresented, you will continue to get the run-around from the adjusters involved. If you'd like more information or have other questions, please feel free to call me at (770) 427-5498.
Well if you were sitting still, it wasn't YOUR fault. It may be necessary to eventually sue multiple drivers behind you and to let them fight about who was at fault. I've been doing this for 21 years and they try tricks like this all the time to try and avoid liability. Feel free to give me a call to discuss further. But, whatever you do, don't sign anything until you have a chance to get educated about insurance tricks and by a all means find an experienced lawyer to help you out. It sounds like you have a serious injury.
Russell Keener
Http://www.keenerlaw.com
You have a police report. Take photographs showing the damage done to your car.
You'll need an experience trial lawyer to represent you if the insurance company is denying liability. You should ask lawyer about trial experience.
Evidence can disappear if you don't hire a good lawyer to preserve it.
1st - You should take your back injury seriously. This type of injury can cause you problems for the rest of your life if you don't adddress it as soon as possible.
2nd - My advise to Clients in your position is "Don't talk or give statements to the other driver's insurance company." Adjusters will attempt to use any trick to (like what is happening to you now) to save their company money!!!
3rd - You should consult with and retain an experienced Personal Injury Attorney ASAP. The attorney can gather the necessary information to prove that you were not at fault and expose the sneaky tactics of the other driver's insurance company. Based on the information in your question, the "mysterious other car" defense should be shown to be baseless and let the other drivers insurance comapnies fight amongst themselves. I hope this information has been helpful. Good Luck!! George McCranie IV
Do not let them get away with this!!! Please call an experienced personal injury attorney immediately. Was there property damage to the rear of the car that hit you? If no property damage, then it would certainly be suspect that she was pushed into you by another vehicle and I would file suit against her immediately. If she was pushed into you by another vehicle (again there should be some property damage showing this) then the other vehicle should be responsible. However, if she hit you first and was then hit by another vehicle then they may both claim that the other caused the incident ------ they should both be sued in this scenario. If the third driver that allegedly forced her into you is unknown then you should file suit against her and the unknown driver (this is called an uninsured motorist claim). Under any scenario, you did absolutely nothing wrong. Unfortunately, an insurance company will look for any excuse to deny responsibility even in a claim where you did absolutely nothing wrong. As the others have stated, I strongly urge you to consult with an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as possible. A disc herniation can be a life changing and permanent injury, you need an attorney who will not back down from these petty tactics of the insurance company.
Hello,
As several other attorneys have already stated, please do NOT goes this alone. Hire an accident injury attorney in your area immediately. Many attorneys would take this case. I am adding an answer because even though I am licensed in CA, NV, MO, my website has a page of 8 universally critical mistakes that people make in the initial aftermath of an accident. Immediately stop talking to the other party's insurer. Do NOT sign and return any type of authorization purporting to allow access to your medical records, employment records, or any other information.
Do you recall how many points of impact you felt? I deal with this type of fact pattern alot in my representation of clients in various states. I am just curious what you remember, because two distinct impacts would support the argument that the woman behind hit you, then was pushed into you again by the driver behind her. This is something to discuss with the lawyer you choose to retain. Please do not discuss the number of impacts with any insurers at this point.
I wish you the best of luck in this. As the other attorneys confirmed, you did nothing wrong here. You are not the liable party, and frankly, the other insurer should have acted in good faith by accepting liability and fighting it out with the insurer for the car behind her.
Bottom line: the other party's insurer knows you are not liabile, but they are trying to deflect, in a manner that is arguably bad faith. A skilled attorney knows how to handle an insurer like this, and I can guarantee that you will recover more with an attorney then you ever would by trying to handle this yourself.
Best,
Melissa Mack, Esq.
Alameda, CA
