Crucial Information If You Or A Loved One Is Involved In An Auto Accident

INTRODUCTION: The following are helpful hints to move your property damage & injury cases quicker and to obtain maximum value for your vehicle & injuries. Not every piece of advice will fit every case. When a hint does not fit your situation, if you have questions please do not hesitate to call, email or text me immediately. Communication between us is CRUCIAL to obtaining the best & quickest results. I LIMIT MY PRACTICE so I can devote as much time as necessary to each client to obtain the best results as quickly as possible. Mitch 801 560 7117; mitchvilos@gmail.com. Make sure you indicate in or on any correspondence to me “Attorney/ Client” privilege.

MAKING SURE YOUR MEDICAL BILLS ARE ALL PAID ON TIME - Make sure the hospitals, doctors & therapists (medical providers) who treat you have BOTH YOUR NO-FAULT car insurance information AND your health insurance information (including Medicare or Medicaid if applicable - if you rely upon either, I need to know that immediately).

YOUR car “No Fault” insurance has to pay first, and then when the “No Fault” benefits are exhausted (used up), your health Insurance (or Medicare or Medicaid) takes over. If you don’t have health insurance or Medicare or Medicaid, I may be able to help you get medical treatment, even surgery, if necessary, through the use of liens. If you qualify for Medicaid, you should apply immediately.

Your car insurance company will send you No Fault/Personal Injury Protection (PIP) forms to fill out. Fill them out in pencil and email me the form before you sign & send to your car insurance company. See instructions below about how much information to disclose to your insurance company. Once I approve what you’ve written, sign it, and either copy it and send or scan it to your car insurance company. Your copy then becomes an original - don’t send the original filled out in pencil.

Once your car insurance “No Fault” benefits have been “exhausted,” you will get an “Exhaustion Letter” from your vehicle insurance company saying they have paid everything they are going to pay. Send a copy of that letter to your health insurance company (or Medicare or Medicaid) immediately and send me a copy as well. I can help you with this if you need help.

Please get me a copy of the declarations page of your car insurance policy as soon as possible. If you have umbrella coverage with another company, please let me know.

MAKING SURE YOU ARE ABLE TO GET YOUR VEHICLE FIXED OR REPLACED (if totaled) QUICKLY AND FAIRLY - Notify your car insurance company immediately by calling the claims office at the number on the documents they send you to keep in your car. They will ask you for a statement. Just tell them the basics - example: The other guy ran a stop sign or red light and wrecked your car. You were injured and your doctors are still treating. Don’t go into details about what you did or thought, just tell the company what the other guy did wrong that caused the wreck. I don’t take a fee on your vehicle damage claim, so it’s easier if your insurance company knows they can deal directly with you about vehicle repairs or replacement. You have the option of going through your own company if you have “collision coverage” or dealing with the property-damage adjuster of the company of the person who injured you. YOU ARE ENTITLED TO THE FAIR MARKET VALUE OF YOUR VEHICLE AT THE TIME OF THE WRECK (don’t let them offer you low or even high blue book). The company that sold you the vehicle could write you a letter on their letterhead giving an opinion of what your vehicle was worth on the day of the wreck. Also, internet searches for cars exactly like yours and what the asking prices are can help you negotiate the property damage claim with either your car insurance company or the other company. If you owe more on your car than it was worth when it was damaged, we hope you had GAP insurance to pay the difference between what is owed the lender and what the car was worth. The GAP coverage will require a whole list of information before they pay, so contact them immediately and ask for that checklist. BE SURE YOU GET PHOTOS OF ALL THE DAMAGE TO YOUR VEHICLE (AND THE OTHER GUY’S IF POSSIBLE) BEFORE THEY ARE REPAIRED OR SCRAPPED!

MAKING SURE YOUR ATTORNEY HAS ALL YOUR MEDICAL BILLS & MEDICAL RECORDS - I won’t be able to settle your injury case for it’s maximum value unless I have ALL of your medical bills and medical records. Medical bills - I only want a copy of the original bill that explains what the bill was for; please don’t send repeat bills.

If there is a question of a pre-existing condition, I will have to have your medical records (not your bills) for 5 years before the accident as well (usually available from your family doctor). I can order these records by using a Medical Release Form that you sign, but it takes quite a while to get these, usually from an independent copying service. Many clients have found they can get these records for free or at minimal cost and much quicker directly from their doctors’ offices and from the medical records and billing offices of the hospital(s) that have treated you. PLEASE REQUEST A COPY OF THE CHART NOTE OR MEDICAL RECORD AND CORRESPONDING MEDICAL BILL AFTER EACH VISIT. Because of the Privacy Act ordering medical records and medical bills has become a nightmare. If you can get these records and bills after every visit, I can be putting this evidence together while you heal and it will prevent huge delays when it becomes time to settle your case.

LOST INCOME - If you have missed work as a result of your injury, you are entitled to be compensated for your lost earnings. To prove this, we will need copies of your most recent wage stubs (12 weeks before the accident), the wage stub showing lost time off work as a result of the accident and finally wage stubs if and when you return to work.

You will not be compensated immediately by the wrongdoer’s insurance. This will come when we resolve the case. However, you are entitled to up to $250/week from your own vehicle insurance company. They will need the same records as we will need to prove lost earnings to the wrongdoer’s insurance.

URGENT: To get your No Fault (PIP) insurer to pay you up to $250/week while you are temporarily off work YOU MUST get the emergency room doctor or family doctor to give you a work release. It is VERY DIFFICULT to get one after the fact.

REIMBURSEMENT FOR AROUND-THE-HOUSE HELP - Your No-Fault (PIP) coverage probably (may not apply to motorcycles) allows a budget of $20/day to pay someone to do the chores you normally do around your home day to day. If you need this kind of help around the household, ask your No-Fault(PIP) adjuster to send you (if they haven’t already) a “Loss of Household Services” claim form. If the adjuster says he/she doesn’t have such a form, let me know, I have one you can use to document the help you receive. You DO NOT have to pay for these services in advance and can even use the time spent by family members or friends to qualify for this benefit.

WARNING ABOUT YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA - Please keep in mind that insurance company investigators and lawyers will miss no opportunity to use social media or video to portray your complaints of pain and disability out of context. Everything you do and say outside your own home (and inside your home to others besides your immediate family) is fair play in proving whether you are or are not in pain or suffering from disability. Just sayin’. If you take photos to help document your injuries smiling, if you have show your face, can be a distraction to what we are trying to show. Posting activities on Facebook or any other social media service doing what you shouldn’t be able to do with the injuries you sustained CAN AND WILL HURT YOUR CASE, insurance companies are known for taking and showing anything they can out of context.

PROVING TO INSURANCE COMPANY(IES) THAT YOUR INJURIES DID NOT PRE-DATE YOUR VEHICLE WRECK - I need medical records relating to your treatment (if any) for the five years before this collision. Using those records we can prove to the insurance carriers that the symptoms you have been experiencing since this collision are new and not related to some other cause. If it is too difficult for you to get them because of your injury, please give me a list of all medical providers who treated you during the 5 years before this accident, and, if you can look them up, their addresses and telephone numbers. I will then order the records I need. Generally I don’t need nurses notes or lab records. Please discuss with me before you order any records.

Send your attorney the declaration pages of any and all insurance companies of any and all vehicles you own and that you were riding in at the time of the wreck. If you were driving someone else’s vehicle, I need the declarations page of their insurance policy in force at the time of the accident.

BANKRUPTCY WARNING - Do you have a Bankruptcy currently pending? I’m not a bankruptcy attorney, but the way your bankruptcy attorney lists your personal injury case could DESTROY your personal injury claim. If you are currently involved in a bankruptcy case, I need to know it NOW!!!!

AGAIN, If you have questions or help with anything explained above, PLEASE do not hesitate to tell me about it. I feel it a privilege and a blessing that you have decided to let me help you through this trying time in your life.

Sincerely,

James “Mitch” Vilos [6 7 19]