Personal Injury Lawyer

When you have sustained injuries in an accident or an act of negligence on the part of another, the medical bills come rolling in quickly. In a very short time, it can feel like an avalanche of debt piling up. What do you do when you don’t have the money to pay all the invoices from doctors, hospitals and medical equipment (also known as Durable Medical Equipment or DME)? Can you just wait to pay later when you have a settlement? The short answer is “No”. The obligation is yours to ensure payment. However, there are ways to handle this so that you can continue with medical care and save your credit score.

Be Organized

Take the time to organize any invoices you receive. Organize into paid and unpaid so that you can easily tell what your remaining obligation is. You may receive a bill for the full amount even if you have insurance, as it may take some time for the claims to be paid. Leave those in the unpaid stack until they are paid. Once the insurance does pay the claim, match the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) to the invoice and make sure to follow up on any discrepancies.

Make Payment Arrangements

Even those with insurance will likely still have a remaining obligation. Whether it’s a deductible, copay or a non-covered charge, you may end up a significant bill. Do NOT wait for a settlement. Be proactive to arrange for payment with the doctor’s office or hospital in order to avoid going into collections. Once you are in a debt-collection scenario, there may already be negative reporting to the credit bureaus and your chance for a possible reduction of the remaining amount owed goes down. If you have a very low income, you may be required to show proof of income in order to have an agreement for small payments.

Ask for a Discount

Whether you are self-pay (no insurance coverage) or you have significant remaining debt after the insurance claims, it never hurts to ask if you can get a discount. Sometimes you can get a significant reduction just by asking for it. Remember the old adage about attracting more flies with honey? Being nice can sometimes pay off in a big way.

Get an Attorney

Perhaps you weren’t sure if you needed legal help to be reimbursed from another party, but now you are getting so many bills you can’t keep up. Maybe you have injuries that prevent you from working, leaving you unable to pay the remainder of the debt. You may simply be unable to spare another dollar from your already tight budget. If any of these sound like you, look for an experienced personal injury lawyer. Many times they can arrange payment through their office until you receive your settlement.

Personal Injury Attorney in DeKalb County, GA

The topic of “duty of care” comes to be a concern in personal injury lawsuit cases. When the duty of care is abandoned, along with the presence of negligence, you are most likely to have a decent personal injury case on your hands. Every person has a duty to uphold as citizens, and when that duty is breached there are repercussions.

The most common breach of duty of care occurs in motor vehicle accidents. If someone fails to stop at a stop sign and happens to strike a vehicle coming from the opposite direction because of this, they failed to honor their duty of care. The right thing that should’ve been done is the person at the stop sign should have, of course, stopped. This would allow for oncoming traffic to pass safely and then them to pass safely following the rules of the road. It is so common that these breaches occur that state laws require drivers to obtain motor vehicle insurance. This is so once a breach occurs the parties involved in the accident are protected. These insurance policies cover property damage and sometimes somehow the bodily injury caused by the accident.

You are given a larger duty of care when you hold the lives of more than yourself in your hands. Bus drivers, airplane pilots, train drivers, doctors, or even lawyers, hold a high duty of care because their negligence can affect the lives of several people, not just themselves.

When the duty of care is abandoned this causes several entities to be sued by the injured parties.

Duty of care applies to not only individuals but also businesses. Business owners owe it to their visitors to have a safe space that is kept up to date with safety regulations at all times. If an individual goes to the grocery store and upon entering the establishment, they trip over a raised panel in the floor right by the threshold, that business has failed them and can be held responsible for any injuries and damages.

There are several ways an individual, entity, or business can breach their duty of care. And unfortunately, it happens far too often. If you or a loved one has sustained injuries or damages due to the negligence of someone else it is best to speak with a personal injury attorney in DeKalb County, GA that can thoroughly explain your rights and what options may be available to you and your family going forward.

Contact Andrew R. Lynch, P.C. for their insight into personal injury cases and duty of care.

Invisalign

If you have recently been in a car accident, you know that the injuries you can sustain to your jaw, teeth, and face can be severe. In fact, if your injuries go untreated and you do not see an orthodontist right away, you could be living with permanent disfigurement or damage for the rest of your life. In fact, these kinds of injuries may be apparent physically, but they can also have mental, emotional, and financial consequences as well. If you are going through the recovery process after a car accident and sustained jaw or facial injuries, speak with an orthodontist as soon as possible to see how they can help relieve your pain and get you on the road to recovery. The sooner you call, the sooner they can help.

What kinds of dental injuries can you sustain?

Dental injuries are extremely common in car accidents and can be very mild or even severe. Even if you only have a mild dental injury, it is important to see your orthodontist as soon as possible so that they can fix the damage before it causes other long-term problems. When you get into a car accident, it is extremely common that you may:

Hit the side of your head on the window.
Hit your head on the steering wheel.
Hit your head on the dashboard.
Come into contact with the airbag.

When one of these scenarios happens, it is possible to chip, fracture, break, or get an avulsed tooth. When this happens, your orthodontist can likely fix these mild injuries with:

Root Canals
Caps or Crowns
Veneers
Braces
Implants

While these may seem like minor injuries, you should still get them checked as soon as possible so your orthodontist can fix them.

Jaw Injuries

Because whiplash is a common injury after a car accident, it is possible to also get temporomandibular joint pain (TMJ). This jaw injury—and others—can happen when you hit the dashboard or when the airbag impacts your face. Your orthodontist can help you recover through bite guards, headgear, surgery, and recommending specific liquid diets. Depending on how severe your jaw injury is, you may only need a liquid diet with painkillers. However, the more severe the injury, the more likely your orthodontist will need to perform surgery to realign your jaw.

Facial Injuries

Similar to jaw injuries, you may suffer from facial injuries as a result of hitting the car or another object in your car upon impact. If this happens, you might sustain cuts, bruises, are damage to the bones around your mouth. When this is the case, you may need your orthodontist to make different incisions around your jaw to carefully reposition any broken bones.

It is important to seek help from your orthodontist after an accident like this so you can get the proper treatment and so they can help document your injuries for your legal claim.

Resources:

Wikipedia, Dental Care

Alliance Dentistry, Invisalign

Personal Injury Attorney

When someone is put in a dangerous or harmful situation on the property of another individual, this person may be able to seek a premise liability claim against the property owner or caretaker. Owners of public property have a responsibility to ensure safety and protection on their property, as often as possible. Because of this, while someone is there, if they are not protected and safe, the property owner is responsible for that negligence.

Public property may be a school, grocery store, federal bank, and in some cases, while it is not public property, even a home. The injuries that can be sustained range from minor to severe. There have been instances of a slip in fall in the can goods aisle of a grocery store, to even being shot by another customer at a local gas station. This is why it is important to contact a skilled personal injury attorney in the event that you or someone you know has suffered an injury or any sort of harm on the premise of another person.

There are some factors that will determine whether or not you would have a premise liability case. These factors include:

The person being pursued must, in fact, manage or own the property of which the injury occurred.
There was a lack of care on the owner’s part that makes the property unsafe.
The person pursuing a lawsuit was actually injured.
Based on the negligence of the owner of said property, someone was harmed.

If these few factors can be proven in your case, you or the harmed party can seek damages for their injuries. These properties typically have insurance, and the payout will come from their insurance policies. When you speak with a skilled attorney, they will be able to take all the details of your case, gather witnesses, and possible footage such as videos or photographs, and use this information to negotiate on your behalf. In the event, the property owner or insurance company refuses to accept liability, with the right attorney you can take your case to a courtroom and possibly be paid more than what was discussed with the other party prior to.

These cases are not typically hard to prove, but what you receive in damages can depend heavily on your legal team. If you or someone you know wishes to pursue a premise liability claim, speak with a skilled personal injury attorney DeKalb County, GA offers before it is too late.

Contact Andrew R. Lynch, P.C. for their insight into personal injury cases and premise liability.

Car Accident Attorney DeKalb County, GA

Unfortunately, drivers that rear-end other motor vehicles are almost always seen to be at fault. Although it is easy to assume that the driver that was tailing the other involved vehicle had to somehow be distracted, and not notice that the vehicle in front of it had come to a halt, this is not always what happens. There are some cases where the driver that crashed into the back of another vehicle did not cause the motor vehicle accident at all.

To be seen at fault, or liable for a motor vehicle accident, there are some basic factors to take into account:

The driver had a duty to fulfill according to the rules of the rule
That duty had not been fulfilled
Because this duty was breached, a motor vehicle accident was caused.

Failure to obey the rules of road may almost always make you the at fault party in a car accident, but this has to be proven.

In any car accident scenario, law enforcement will supply citations to any party they feel participated in any negligent act causing the accident. Just because you are cited does not always mean you are at fault. In most rear-end cases a car stops and the tailing vehicle does not have time to stop before it is too late. There are instances where a car stops abruptly, but it is expected that the other driver leave a fair amount of space between the cars in front to avoid accidents.

There are some instances where the at-fault party is the one rear-ended. Such as:

Improper backing
No brake lights
Stop and go
Failure to use hazard lights

These are examples of what would make the rear-ended individual negligent and they can be held accountable. It is best to seek legal counsel in these cases because it is common to be wrongfully cited by a police officer. In these accidents, it is also possible that you incur several medical bills due to injuries sustained. If you are not at fault, you should also not be held responsible for the medical bills accrued. If you or someone you know has been wrongfully cited for a rear-end accident and has suffered injuries, speak with a skilled personal injury attorney that will be able to challenge your citation and help you get the compensation you deserve for your pain and suffering. While you may not get everything recovered, the right car accident attorney DeKalb County, GA trusts can help you get something.

Contact Andrew R. Lynch, P.C. for their insight into personal injury cases and rear-end accidents.

Personal Injury Doctor

It may go without saying, that many drivers on today’s roadways are not using proper care and attention in regard to safety of others. A car driver may hit a bicyclist when trying to change lanes, making a turn onto another street, or when the rider was cruising down a bike lane. Riding a bicycle is one of the most common forms of transportation and recreation for many people, who want a more healthy and environmentally-friendly way to get where they need to go.

However, this means a bicyclist must be aware of unsafe drivers on the road at all times. Even the most proactive bicyclist may suffer from a bicycle accident if they happen to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

How Chiropractors Can Help

In the event of a bicycle accident, a rider may consider their options for injury treatment. It is common for a victim of such an incident to experience pain related to the musculoskeletal system. The human body can be easily thrown out of alignment if hit by a vehicle that weighs thousands of pounds. A bicyclist may suffer from dislocations, muscle sprains, neck injuries, and much more. Chiropractors can perform adjustments of the bicyclist’s spine and joints, to promote natural healing.

Correcting Misconceptions

Many bicyclists may worry that chiropractic adjustments are painful, and can be apprehensive about injured areas being manipulated. Rest assured that chiropractors can take this into consideration and that adjustments should not cause any sheer pain. If anything, a bicyclist may feel soreness the day after the first adjustment. But, this should be nothing more than what you may feel after a solid workout.

During an adjustment, cracks and other popping sounds may be heard. If a victim of a bicycle accident has never received a chiropractic treatment before, this may be startling. But, these noises can be quite normal and part of the session. The sounds you hear are often related to air being released between joints.

Injuries that Can Be Treated

Chiropractic adjustments are not only performed on the spinal column of the human body. A chiropractor may also realign other joints that were injured due to the accident, such as the knee, elbow, shoulder, wrist, and hips. Bicyclists who have sustained injuries from the accident and are experiencing the following symptoms, can likely benefit from chiropractic care:

Restricted range of motion
Headaches
Muscle soreness
Neck and back pain
Sprains
Numbness or tingling
Inflammation

Documentation for Legal Purposes

After visiting with a chiropractor, like a personal injury doctor, do not forget to ask for copies of exams, treatments, receipts for out-of-pocket expenses, and anything else related to your condition. In some cases, victims of bicycle accidents file a civil lawsuit against the driver for financial restitution. It can help your case to show to what extent your body sustained aches and pains, and whether future chiropractic care is needed for recovery. When calculating your potential compensation, current and future medical costs are a factor.

Thanks to our friends and contributors from Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic for their insight into chiropractic care.

Recent survey shows distracted driver’s are causing more traffic fatalities than DUI drivers. For information on recovering damages against a DUI driver who injured you click here. This is the seventh year in a row distracted drivers have held this status. Distracted driving includes texting while driving, talking on the phone while driving, and pretty much any scenario you can imagine. The Georgia General Assembly has outlawed.

Uninsured Motorist and Underinsured Motorist coverage, collectively referred to as UM Coverage, for many persons is the most important insurance to have and hardly anyone knows about it or understands what it is for. It is for when someone else hurts you and cannot pay the bills and costs they caused you.

On every insurance policy issued in Georgia there is a requirement the insurance company offer you UM coverage. This is coverage to protect you, your family you reside with, and the passengers in your vehicle when another driver injures you or your passengers do to no fault of your own and they do not have insurance or enough insurance coverage to cover your injuries, bills, or lost work wages. To increase this coverage beyond the state mandatory minimum of $25,000 can be just a few dollars a month.

Client Example: Recently, Andrew had a real case example of the different outcomes for clients with quality UM coverage and the possible results for a client without quality UM coverage.

Andrew’s client, we will call him John G., was riding a dirt bike through his neighborhood when a large SUV turned left without yielding in front of him. John G. struck the side of the SUV, was thrown from his motorcycle, and shattered both of his knees. John G. was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital. There John G. had multiple surgeries and amassed a $140,000 medical bill.

John G. retained Andrew. John G.’s biggest problem was the SUV only had $50,000 in liability coverage, which is better than most insurance policies and double the state minimum of $25,000. John G. owed a $140,000 to his doctor’s, had no health insurance, and only knew of one insurance company to contact, the at fault SUV’s insurance company.

John G. retained Andrew and Andrew quickly identified that John G. resided with his Grandmother, in Under Insured Motorist law she is a “resident relative”, and she had two separate underinsured motorist policies, one from State Farm Insurance for $50,000 and one from All-State Insurance for $25,000. Because John G. was living with his grandmother at the time of his injury he was given legal standing under the policies to recover, even thought he was not listed on them anywhere.

Because of John G.’s grandmother’s insurance choices prior to the wreck her grandson’s potential recovery went from $50,000 to to potentially $125,000. This is why anyone reading this should stop, contact your insurance company, and increase your UM coverage now!

Without having the UM coverage, John G.’s entire recovery may have been turned over to the hospital, doctors. and legal fees. In John G’s case all three insurance policies turned over their limits.

Andrew himself believes there is no more important insurance to have and to share a bit of personal information Andrew’s UM limits are $500,000.

In any personal injury settlement a client’s first question is how much of the settlement will go in my pocket? Hiring an excellent attorney to handle your claim is important but it is also important your attorney handle the resolution of everyone’s claim who has their hand out asking for a piece of your hard-won settlement or judgment.

An example, in Georgia medical insurers or benefit providers have a right to be reimbursed for the money they pay out to medical providers for your injury. In Georgia it is important to be aware of the “made whole doctrine”, O.C.G.A. 33-24-56.1. In short, recovering money is not enough for an insurance company to get a piece of your settlement. You have to be made whole, meaning you have recovered all your economic and noneconomic damages. If you did not get every dollar you lost by being injured than you should not have to pay the insurance company back. There are a few exceptions to this, for instance if you are insured under an ERISA insurance plan or a policy that is self-funded by your employer.

Category: Personal Injury

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