The Car Accident Lawyer for You

According to a 2012 report published by Allstate, Houston area drivers typically are involved in accidents every 8 years, which is 25.9% more than the average across the United States. On average, commute time is 25 minutes, and over 70% of drivers are the only occupants in their vehicles for their daily commutes. Statistically, the amount of time on the road and the sheer numbers of vehicles on the road during typical rush hour times means more serious car accidents and fatalities.

Common Injuries Caused By A Wreck

“Traffic accidents are the main cause of neck injuries that often result in long-term suffering and great socio-economic cost. More than 800 000 cases of vehicle crashes involving neck injuries are reported in the United States annually, and the cost of treatment is as high as $5.2 billion.” Viano DC. Role of the Seat in Rear Crash Safety. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers, 2002.

“In rear-end impact accidents, cervical vertebrae usually suffer a sudden forceful hyperextension followed by hyperflexion. Cervical soft tissues suffer sprains or strains in this period, leading to a variety of clinical symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, forgetfulness and emotional/psychological disturbances [120]. While some individuals recover from initial symptoms within a few weeks after the accident, up to 50% develop persistent symptoms.” Carroll LJ, Holm LW, Hogg-Johnson S, et al. (2009). Course and prognostic factors for neck pain in whiplash-associated disorders (WAD): results of the Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010 Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders. J Manip Physiol Ther 2009;32:S97–107.

If another driver’s negligence has caused your injuries, you may be entitled to a financial settlement. Each incident is different, and there are many factors to consider; however, regardless of the type of vehicle accident, if you were injured and experienced pain and suffering due to a motorist’s distracted driving or negligence, you have the right to pursue a personal injury lawsuit.

Scott McLemore and his team will work with you every step of the way, explaining the process and fighting for your rights. Scott will seek all the compensation you need for your injuries, which often include:

• Broken bones
• Spinal cord injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Lost wages during recovery and in the future
• Mental anguish
• Pain and suffering
• Payment of past and future medical bills

The harms and losses caused by a car accident can add up. Medical bills can keep coming. Lost wages can hurt a family. Scott McLemore knows this and has helped many clients get the compensation they need.

If You Have Been in a Wreck

• If you can, take some scene photos and share them with your lawyer.
• Get to a medical professional and get checked out.
• Know that an Emergency Room Visit, may not tell the whole story about your damages.
• An MRI is the preferred method to determine whether you have injuries to your neck or back.
• X-Rays and CT Scans may only reveal broken bones and not herniated discs and other spine injuries common in wrecks.
• Being recorded by an adjuster before you know the full scope of your injuries and the facts of the wreck can lead to confusion and your claim being undervalued from the start.

Easy Steps To Remember After A Wreck

Don’t speak to or be recorded by any insurance adjuster before you call 713 LAW FOR T, schedule a time to speak with a trained legal professional and get smart about your legal rights. If you don’t use my law firm, we understand, there are many competent and helpful injury lawyers I’d be happy to recommend, if you need another option. But, whatever you do, don’t be a victim twice. You owe it to your family and yourself to understand your rights and not be a victim, twice.

How To Get Medical Help When You Have No Insurance or Money After A Wreck

1. Research online, or call our office and we can provide you with a list of medical providers who will accept a letter of protection, or LOP, to postpone treatment for your treatment costs, until when you financially settle with the people responsible for hurting you.
2. Tell them the name of the lawyer helping you and ask them to fax or email a Letter of Protection to their office, or if you hire our firm, we can send an LOP, with your permission, on your behalf to the LOP treater, you select to work with for your injury related medical needs.

Dealing with the financial crisis of a wreck is made harder by the fact that Houston led Texas — which has both the very highest rate and number of uninsured residents among all states — with 1.4 million uninsured people, or 19.7 percent of residents, without health coverage. Approximately 5.2 million Texans were uninsured in 2019, or about 18.4 percent of the state’s population. The answer to wow to get the medical help, if you have no health insurance or money to pay for treating your injuries is available through medical doctors who will treat your injuries under a letter of protection, or LOP, provided that you will agree to repay them from any recovery you make in the lawsuit.

Defendants, after a car wreck, don’t just open their check book to pay your medical bills, as they pile up. A defendants liability insurance doesn’t just start to pay your weekly and monthly medical bills, after a wreck. Adjusters will most often, dispute liability, to deny payment of medical and damages, and even more often, argue that any medical and billing is not related, not needed, or too expensive for their preferences. The impact of denying, delaying and defending, slows the injury victims access to medical care, increases frustration and confusion and is a common tactic used by insurance adjusters. To professionally settle a case, medical records, medical bills, photographs, lost wage records, police reports and other legal evidence should be compiled and reviewed by a trained legal team, to make the most meaningful recovery under the law.

Auto liability, insurance adjusters, most always, intend to write only one single check, with a full and final release, releasing any claim of damage or injury you may have, regardless of whether you actually know about it, have been properly medically evaluated, or not, the day you get paid, sign a release and permanently close down your rights. Most adjusters and insurance companies ask the injury victim to waive any claims for fraud, if any committed by the adjuster, in order to settle your claim. Imagine, trusting someone at an insurance company, who will ask you to later waive any claim for misrepresentations or fraud they committed in adjusting your case, with understanding your legal rights and getting the help you need. Insurance adjusters for the defendant, literally, under Texas Law, don’t even have to tell you the truth.

Sadly, many victims, will take quick, short checks, offered in a swoop and settle tactic, from a claims handler or adjuster, so they can afford a later medical visit, only to later learn about their real injuries. Being financially strapped after a wreck, in pain, and unable to work, can make handling these matters and making sense of the long term financial implications a risky task, for the inexperienced injury victim, working against a claims handling adjuster, who was trained by an insurance lawyer to create opportunities to undervalue and close down the file, quickly and to your financial detriment.

Understand, now, though it’s tough right now, there are compassionate and capable medical doctors, who will help injury victims after a wreck, to be meaningfully evaluated and treated for their injuries. Those helpful practitioners, work to care for injury victims under a Letter of Protection, or LOP. Without those dedicated doctors, nearly 20% of uninsured injury victims, would have no where to turn for medical help and evaluation for their injuries.

Even if you have health insurance, you will likely find that most medical doctors and health insurance companies, will deny treatments under health insurance to their clients, when their subrogation department learns through medical and billing coding methods, that the injuries and wreck, or work related and they will deny treatment and access through the health insurance policy. For over 20 years, I have heard from clients whose health insurance denied their treatment requests and doctors visits, payments, complaining that the defendant, who disputes fault, should instead pay for your treatment. This financial blame shifting, common between health insurance and liability insurance carriers, causes a delay in treatment, recovery, diagnosis and evaluation, the car wreck insurance company, later argues that you were not hurt, you did not treat and are the blame for your failure to physically recover more quickly.

In a Texas Jury Trial, where an injury victim files suit against a defendant with auto liability insurance, a jury is not permitted to know that the defendant who hurt you, has liability insurance, anything their insurance adjuster said or told you, that the defendant paid your property damage claim for your car or even that the insurance adjuster for the defendant ever even existed. This is based upon long established law referred to as the collateral source rule and is designed to prevent a jury from knowing the facts about how much insurance a defendant has, which company provides liability insurance for the defendant, or whether it even exists. Juries often are permitted to conclude, that only the named defendant has a stake in the outcome of the case, when being sued.

A jury is most often, also prevented from knowing that the client did not have health insurance, had health insurance, what the health insurance company did to deny treatment due to the wreck and that why the injury victim may have delayed in treating for the traumatic injuries, because of health insurance denials and delays in payment. Liability insurance and health insurance are rarely the subject of what a jury is permitted to know during a personal injury a trial. Knowing how that impacts the case and the challenges it creates, is important.

Confusion and vulnerability are the conditions and insurance adjuster may capitalize on to undervalue an injury victims case, who has not been medically evaluated. The in-house adjusters and lawyers at the major auto liability and injury liability Insurance companies, have an already identified bull pin of medical doctors, medical billing auditors, poised to undervalue and drive down your recovery. Without a personal injury lawyer, fighting back for you, your case can easily become overwhelming and be undervalued by inexperienced and who though they will never see or treat you, will be prepared to say you are not hurt, don’t need any help and don’t deserve to be evaluated medically, after a wreck.

How a Letter of Protection Can Help

• An LOP can permit you to receive needed medical care, from medical providers who are willing to wait to receive payment for the reasonable value of their services, until after your lawsuit concludes by settlement.
• It allows you to get treatment regardless of insurance company delays, denials and refusals to help.
• It permits you and your doctor to make decisions about what care and treatment you need.
• Health Insurance policies only indicate what the health insurer will consent to pay for and is not determinative of your medical needs after a wreck. An LOP can help you avoid having an insurance company spread sheet, dictating your medical care after a wreck.