Atlanta Injury Attorney Blog

As an Atlanta Injury lawyer, this question gets asked of me repeatedly so I will write a brief post on this here. Yes, your health insurance will pay for medical care incurred as a result of a car accident so long as 1) the non emergency care is in network, 2) you provide confirmation to your health insurer that you did not have Georgia medical payments insurance or it was exhausted, 3) you actually give the medical providers your health insurance information in a timely fashion. The bottom line is submit the bills to the health insurer and make sure you give the hospital your health insurance information up front or in the days following.

Will you have to reimburse your health insurance company in Georgia? Probably. The loopholes are getting smaller and smaller but it basically boils down to whether you are still insured with them and whether they are a self funded plan or not.

As an Atlanta injury lawyer and Atlanta trucking lawyer I can tell you that the key to succesfull coordination of benefits for a case with serious injuries is to bring the attorney into the case in the early stages so you do not make irreversible mistakes.

A very nice potential client called today looking for an Atlanta Injury Lawyer as he was not getting return phone calls from his injury lawyer. He described a collision in which the car sustained over $9,000.00 in damage and he said he had called a TV advertising firm to help with the case. The first problem is that the law firm charged him a 40% contingency fee for pre-suit work. The standard fee is 33.3% in Atlanta. Even worse, the firm also told this man to go to an Atlanta chiropractic clinic that they worked with often rather than to go to his own family doctor and to have it paid for by his health insurance. The client has health insurance and would have had access to cheaper and better health care but the lawyer diverted him to "their chiropractor." To compound the problem, the chiropractor then sent the man to a local neurologist who is well known in the insurance defense community for having little credibility. Now the man has over $9,000.00 in flimsy medical bills that are unpaid and will have to come out of his settlement.

The client has wasted two months getting overpriced chiropractic care, he is on the hook for the bills because those kind of doctors do not take health insurance and the chiropractor and neurologist are looking to the settlement to get paid. The worst part is that the client has continuing low back pain and the low end medical care suggested by the lawyer is worthless. The client is now going to an orthopedist in his health care plan, but much of the damage is done.

Continue reading " Low End Atlanta Injury Lawyers Charging Higher Rates and Giving Bad Advice " »

Twelve years ago I met my wife, Tyree Churchill Simon, on a blind date at Fado Fado in Buckhead and what I knew then is even more true now; she is the most beautiful woman in Atlanta. Thank you for 12 years, 2 cool kids and a hilarious and passionate life together.

Love, your husband,

Chris

Like many of you in the past, I got called for jury duty in Fulton County today and even though I am an Atlanta Injury Lawyer, and wrote this is large bold Allcaps on the form, I still got to hang around until 6 p.m. waiting to be cut by the lawyers trying the case. No one puts a trial lawyer on a jury and I wish they would have done it this morning. However, some jurors wanted to know what to expect in the selection process for a trial so I thought I would put a few thoughts down for you so that your day is more enjoyable.

Continue reading " Fulton County Jury Duty Can be an all Day Affair even for an Atlanta Injury Lawyer " »

Many clients come to me after being injured in a car accident in Georgia and they complain that their health insurance company is refusing to pay their bills claiming that it is a car accident and therefore the money has to come from the other driver.

This is a lie being spread by the health insurance companies. It is a complex issue,but it breaks down this way. Your Georgia health insurance is obligated to pay for your medical care after a car crash so long as you presented the bill within the time allowed under the policy and so long as there is no medical payments coverage. If there is no medical payments coverage, your health insurance is the first payor and they must pay. That's it.

As an Atlanta injury attorney, I do advise my client that they do need to provide them with information about the driver that caused the crash and the health insurer may claim a right of reimbursement if you make a recovery for bills that they paid, but they have to pay.

Do be careful though because some hospitals will lie to you and claim that they submitted the bill and that the health insurer refused to pay. In my practice as an Atlanta injury lawyer, I find the best practice is to submit the bill yourself to the health insurer the minute you get it and to send a certified letter to your medical providers with your health care information attached as well as a letter from your own insurance company confirming that there are no medical payments benefits (usually in the form of a copy of your declarations page)

Be careful about deadlines, especially for emergency medicaid applications as one of my Conyers, Georgia clients recently found out, getting the DHR to reverse their decision can be difficult. As a Conyers, Georgia injury lawyer, I can tell you that vigilance in the first 60 days after the bill is incurred is critical.

As an Atlanta injury attorney I see constant changes in the tactics used by hospitals and health insurers that are designed to put more money in the hospital and insurer's pocket from the injured victims settlement and I have written about some of them previously. Today we will be talking specifically about two new situations my clients have experienced.

Continue reading " Atlanta Injury Lawyer Faces Stubborn Hospital Billing Departments " »

Georgia Inadequate Security cases are complex and time consuming but rewarding in that as an Atlanta injury lawyer, I can help encourage property owners to behave responsibly. Inadequate security cases are grounded in general premises liability law and therefore the entire analysis begins and ends with superior knowledge. As I explained in my articles on Georgia slip and fall cases, the liability of the land owner stems from the fact that they know their property better than you do and have a duty to keep the property free from hazards through the exercise of ordinary care. On the left you will see what can happen to a client when an apartment complex fails to implement any security measures resulting in a car jacking and two rounds being fired into the his abdomen.


Prior Crimes Create a Duty to Take Reasonable Security Precautions

These same general principles also apply in third party criminal attack cases. Third party criminal attacks include rape at a Georgia apartment, assaults and murder. If the victim is an invitee(as opposed to a trespasser) then the first thing to analyze is the prior crime on the property. There must be sufficient prior crime on the property to put the property owner on notice that they need to take action. Once the owner is on notice, they have a duty to exercise ordinary care to safeguard the invitee from danger. That does not mean that every possible measure must be taken, but it does mean that industry customs must be followed and reasonable measures must be implemented.

Continue reading " Georgia Inadequate Security Lawyers Encourage Owners to Implement Reasonable Security Measures " »

Georgia Wrongful death lawyers know that claims for the statutory claimants and the claim for the Estate of the deceased are separate and distinct claims and that suit must be filed within two years of the death, in most cases. There are a few exceptions and one of them is that where the Estate of the Deceased is not established (they died without a will and no one filed to appoint an administrator) then the statute of limitations will be tolled for up to 5 years. That means if you missed the two year statute of limitations for the Georgia Wrongful Death claim, if the person suffered before death, had substantial medical bills or had a punitive damages claim, then there may still be a suit that can be brought on behalf of the unrepresented Estate because it has been tolled by O.C.G.A. Sec. 9-3-32.

OCGA § 9-3-92 provides that "[t]he time between the death of a person and the commencement of representation upon his estate ... shall not be counted against his estate in calculating any limitation applicable to the bringing of an action ...."

In Georgia, there is a two year statute of limitations within which your Atlanta injury lawyer must file your lawsuit for injuries, with a few exceptions. Over the past few weeks a number of clients have called with the two anniversary fast approaching. Waiting until the last minute to file an injury claim is a very risky proposition. If your Atlanta injury attorney has not filed suit yet I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous this is.

Now it is true that there are many good reasons to be patient in the pursuit of your injury case. If your medical care is continuing for instance, it would be foolish to attempt to try or settle your case in the middle of the care. However, as the first anniversary of the car accident passes you should have a talk with your lawyer to decide what the strategy is. If your medical care is at an end, the only thing you should have to wait for is the medical records. Once they are in, your attorney should be able to draft the demand within one week and the insurance carrier will usually respond within 45 days. The negotiations will take another 2 weeks, but at that point, you will have a good idea of whether the carrier is going to make a fair offer or if you will need to litigate the case to obtain the fair value.

Continue reading " Atlanta Injury Lawyers Should Not Wait Until the End of the Statute of Limitations to File Suit " »