Attorney Kim Baer - Fender Benders

News!

I'll take it.

Thank you, taylor.

>> 7:39 right now, and our good friend kim baer is in studio with us.

Attorney.

And this has to be a very busy week for you, young lady, especially with the weather we had yesterday.

>> whenever the weather gets back, we have fender benders and we have people calling in saying i had a car accident and i thought we'd talk about that today.

>> perfect timing.

>> if you had a car accident and you're really not hurt, you go see the doctor once or twice, you probably don't need a lawyer.

As long as the liability is here, it's something you can probably negotiate yourself with the insurance company.

The tips i would give somebody in that situation is number one, make sure that you remember that you're going to have to pay back your medical bills.

>> that's a big one.

They may not realize that.

>> factor that in.

When i say pay back your medical bills.

If health insurance paid it, it will be health insurance.

Blue cross or united healthcare, whoever it might be, is going to come knocking saying we need to be paid back.

>> this is if you get money from the insurance company.

>> if you get money from the car insurance company, then the health insurance company wants to be paid back so factor that in.

Don't settle too quick.

Nowadays, we're seeing a lot of concussions.

And i don't think it's because there's more concussions.

I think people are more aware of it.

Concussions can take 2-3 weeks to manifest.

And some people say you don't feel right.

Maybe i'm in shock or shook up.

And maybe they have dizziness or nauseousness.

And they're having difficult finding words.

If you're going to handle the car accident case yourself, wait and make sure you're okay.

Now when do you need an attorney?

What i would recommend is if you've had some serious injuries or you've got quite a bit of medical bills and you've had some medical treatment.

Because hiring an attorney means that the attorney can negotiate with the measuring company.

We can negotiate and try and get those liens knocked down.

Usually by 1-third.

We can negotiate with medicare.

And then the other thing is, is we obviously know how to do a demand package.

We're going to do your information about lost wages and we'll get your medical records and bills.

And we'll talk about pain and suffering.

And we'll put together a demand package, which most people don't do.

>> because you're experienced.

>> we're experienced and we're good at it.

We wait until you're done treating.

If you're married has your spouse had to do all the grocery shopping and the yard work and that's something you normal do?

>> is there an amount of time you need to do this?

>> two years from the time of the accident.

One of the things that lawyers know about that people usually don't is that you also may have a claim for loss of consortium.

Your spouse and children do.

If it was traumatic and your car flipped and your wife and kids were in the car, there may be a bystander claim.

And that's a separate claim.

And most people don't know about that either.

>> wow.

I didn't realize that.

>> we have all those things we have to talk about.

The other thing that people don't realize -- and we've talked about before -- is on your own car insurance policy, you have med pay.

>> what is that?

>> med pay is a benefit that you've paid for.

Typically it's $1,000-$10,000.

And that's money that if you hire an attorney, we immediately try to get.

We contact your car insurance carrier and say give us all the med pay.

And we have to jump through hoops and give them bills and things like that.

But we want you to be able to pay the out of pocket expenses.

Otherwise the healthcare providers want to get your med pay.

They don't want to wait for the settlement.

>> which is understandable.

>> and we try to get it for you because you're going to have out of pocket expenses.

And if you don't get it, you have to wait in the the case is settle and or we get a jury verdict.

>> that something you need to have on your plan or is it part of auto insurance?

>> it's not part of our auto insurance.

You need to check.

It's on your card or deck page.

If you're renewing auto insurance, i would highly recommend that you pay the extra money to get it.

And that also has to be paid back.

And you say well, why would i use it?

Typically we can knock 1-third off of it and sometimes have it waived.

>> wow.

>> and that's something you want to have a lawyer work on.

Lou, if you and i were in a caraccident and it was your fault.

If you only had $20,000 worth of insurance and my bills were more than $20,000, a lawyer would help make a claim on my policy for underinsurance.

>> you would obviously max out the $20,000.

And then the same lawyer would then turn to your insurance and try to get the rest from your own private insurance.

>> exactly, exactly, exactly.

We have three places that we can get money from.

Number one, the person that caused the accident, their insurance company.

The person who was injured, their auto insurance company.

And number three, let's say that there's not nearly enough and maybe i've been really, really hurt.

I may have to file a claim against you personally.

So those are the three areas that we look at.

>> and you've been great about being on our program and talking about if you're in an accident, things you immediately need to do as well to make sure you have information and a lawyer in case you need to get one.

>> get the information of the person that caused the accident.

Sometimes the police don't come or they're delayed or somebody wants to lead.

Please, please, please, get one witness.

If somebody pulls over and stops -- you wouldn't believe the number of times that it's clear that somebody was rear ended and the person changes the story and says you hit me.

>> you need to get information from everybody involved.

>> use your phone and take photos.

Those are all helpful.

>> what about what you say immediately after an accident?

>> you don't ever want to admit fault.it's perfectly fine to see are you okay?

Do you need me to call an ambulance if i caused the accident?

You usually don't want to say -- i'm not sure how i feel.

Right after the accident, if i hit you, my insurance carrier is going to start calling you because they want to get your statement.

And they're immediately going to see, so lou, how are you feeling?

And you have to remember that whiplash usually takes 24-48 hours to kick in.

And a concussion can take a couple of weeks.

You never want to say you're fine because that can be used against you later.

>> you're fine and then all of a sudden -- >> and you're really hurt.

And they'll say see, you're making stuff up.

You can say i'm not sure.

I'm going to wait and see.

And you don't have to talk to them, you can hire a lawyer and the lawyer will handle it.

>> great.

>> great information.

And there are still some slick spots out there, especially in rural communities.

Keep this information close to you.

If you need assistance, of course the baer law office is willing to