Need help Settling a Pain and Suffering claim for elderly car accident victim?

Question

My 79 year old mom was hit by a 17 year old uninsured driver a year ago. Her insurance company is offering $20K for pain and suffering. She had no broken bones, just a cracked rib and severe bruising. It's taken a year for her to recover to a point that she is able to return to her normal activities. She continues to have back problems requiring chiropractic treatment and a severe hemotoma on the breast which will require more mammograms.

Having medicare, the trauma center bill of $30K was reduced to $600 due to an agreement the hospital has with medicare. So, her medical expenses only total $13K. I believe this is the reason the insurance company is offering such a low settlement.

My mother lives in California and carries uninsured motorist coverage. The limit on her policy would cover her for up to $100K for pain and suffering. I'm wondering what would be a fair settlement to expect in a case like this.

We have not hired an attorney as we would like to save the 30%.

Answer 1

OK, depending on what state you are in, those chiro bills will be heavily discounted - you can see a chiro FOREVER, and not make much progress.

You say she had severe bruising, and a cracked rib.  Those are MINOR injuries.  The problem is, she's 79, so it just hurts a lot more and won't heal well.  Hemotoma - that means BRUISE.  So she's got a bruise on her breast.  Why does that require mammograms???

She's got $600 of adjusted medical bills, and $12,000 of chiro bills.  

Honestly, I think that $20K is fair.  In order to get more, I think you're going to need that attorney.

Answer 2

I'm an adjuster, and I think this is a very fair offer.  $20k in pain and suffering for very minor injuries is a GREAT deal.  Most likely, after a year, the continued chiropractic treatment won't be considered anyway.  

I don't know all of the details, of course, but for a cracked rib and bruising in California, I would expect the pain and suffering to be much less than $20k.

Most people believe the rumor that every claim settles for 3x the medicals, which is most likely why you feel the offer was low, because you feel that they're basing that on the reduced bills.

This is NOT the case.  I have never in my entire career used a formula like that.  The size of the medical bills really has nothing to do with the pain and suffering portion.  The pain and suffering portion (called "general damages") has to do with inconvenience, disability, permanency, length of treatment, pain and suffering, annoyance, etc.  And it is never determined by multiplying the medicals by a certain number.