Pain After A Car Accident Is Not Unusual And Should Be Treated.

Pain After A Car Accident Is Not Uncommon

It is very common to experience pain several hours after a car accident.  Don’t think just because you don’t feel pain immediately, that you aren’t injured.  Injuries to muscles, ligaments, and tendons may not manifest themselves immediately.  Often inflammation is the first sign of an injury to these tissues, and inflammation may take time to develop.  Once it does, you will experience pain and discomfort that may interfere with your ability to function.

These types of injuries are well known to medical professionals who treat car accident injuries.  You might hear terms like “soft tissue” or “whiplash” injury.  Make no mistake, however, these are objective injuries that cause pain and require treatment to overcome.

If you’ve been in a car accident and experience pain some time later, seek treatment as soon as possible.  Most likely your injuries will only worsen with time.  Just because your medical treatment takes place some time after the accident, does not affect your entitlement to PIP benefits.  Insurance companies are well aware that these types of injuries may manifest themselves after an accident and won’t usually hassle you about seeking treatment later.  If you are not being treated fairly by an insurance company responsible for paying PIP or for reimbursing your property damage or bodily injury claim, you may need to seek the services of an experienced Kentucky accident attorney or lawyer to get you the benefits you deserve.

Are You Entitled To Money If You’re In An Accident?

Are You Entitled to Money for Your Accident?

Most advertising related to car, truck, or motorcycle accidents focuses on a person’s “right to compensation” or “payment” or “money damages.” This often results in a perception by many that they will get paid money simply for being in an accident. However, this is not true.

If you are in a car, truck, or motorcycle accident you might be entitled to compensation. However, your right to compensation may be limited. A person should realize that he does not get paid simply for being in an accident. He must be hurt. The amount of money, if any, he will receive is based on his injuries, not the fact that he was in an accident.

Kentucky law generally requires a person involved in an accident to incur over $1,000 in medical bills before a claim can be filed. This is called the threshold, because it must be crossed before a claim exists. Whether you will get paid and how much depends on the injuries you incurred and the financial, emotional, and physical impact of those injuries. Larger more catastrophic injuries tend to result in higher claims paid. Minor injuries with less impact tend to result in lower claims paid. Of course, if you are 100% responsible for the accident, you aren’t entitled to any recovery.

Remember, if you’re involved in a car, truck, or motorcycle accident your main focus should be on treating any injuries you sustained. Once you’ve completed treatment, you’ll be in a better position to determine what, if any, compensation you deserve. If you’re not sure whether or not you qualify for compensation or how much compensation you deserve, you may need the services of a qualified Kentucky accident attorney.

Make Sure Your Kentucky Accident Attorney Is An Experienced Trial Attorney

Hire An Experienced Trial Attorney

Not everyone involved in a Kentucky car, truck, or motorcycle accident will need a Kentucky Accident Attorney.  However, if you have suffered lost wages, incurred serious medical expenses over $1,000.00, or have been left permanently impaired or unable to work, you will.  If you are in need of a qualified accident attorney, you might wonder; “What type of attorney should I hire?”, or “What separates the many attorneys I see advertising?”

There are many factors to consider in retaining a qualified accident attorney; however, probably the most important factor that separates most accident attorneys is trial experience.  Trial attorneys, also called litigators, are attorneys who have experience in handling accident or injury claims that have resulted in a lawsuit at the courthouse.  While all experienced attorneys will try to settle your Kentucky accident claim, every claim has the potential to result in a lawsuit.  Only if you and the insurance company agree will your claim be settled.

Many accident attorneys will gladly sign up your case and attempt to settle it; however, you will quickly find that once settlement negotiations break down, they quickly refer your case to an entirely new attorney to handle the lawsuit.  So, if you are seeking a Kentucky accident attorney, make sure that your Kentucky accident attorney is an experienced trial attorney, who is willing to file a lawsuit to fight for your rights to compensation when the insurance company refuses to be fair.

Does Your Kentucky Car, Truck, or Motorcycle Accident Attorney Know Insurance Law?

Does Your Kentucky Accident Attorney Know Insurance Law?

You see many advertisements for car, truck, or motorcycle accident attorneys in Kentucky promising to, “get you the compensation you deserve.”  However, nothing is mentioned about the insurance companies or policies from where this money comes.  Lawyers and most sophisticated clients know that the money will come from the insurance company for the party at fault for the accident if he or she has one and from the injured party’s insurance company if he or she doesn’t.  But simply because an accident attorney knows where to get the money doesn’t mean they know how.

Many accident attorneys will settle your claim with the insurance company without knowing what your case is worth.  They may demand entirely too much or even worse, seek to settle your case for too little.  Some might not even be able to describe to their client’s why they think you should settle for a particular amount offered by the insurance company.  If the insurance company refuses to pay due to some policy exclusion or coverage defense, then that attorney may be unsure how to fight for you to make sure that the insurance company is being fair.

Make sure that your car, truck, or motorcycle accident attorney knows insurance law and understands insurance policies, their specific coverages, and exclusions to coverage.  Retain an experienced car, truck or motorcycle accident attorney with a proven record of handling injury claims and one with knowledge of insurance companies and their practices and procedures.  Don’t get less or worse nothing, because your Kentucky accident attorney doesn’t know insurance law.

Do You Have To Insure Your Moped Or Scooter?

When gas prices hit an all time high last summer, many people purchased a moped or scooter for transportation. Scooters have since become ubiquitous. With the recent explosion in popularity has also come a larger variety of styles and models.  Scooters are now bigger and faster than ever before.  If you own a moped or scooter or are thinking of buying one, you should know whether or not your moped or scooter needs to be insured.  If you fail to insure your moped and you are injured you might not be entitled to certain compensation and you might be subjected to criminal penalties as well.

Motorcycles are specifically exempted from Kentucky’s no fault reparations scheme.  Is you moped also exempted?  Well, it depends.  Kentucky law provides for the payment of certain PIP benefits if you are injured while operating a motor vehicle.  However, Kentucky law excludes mopeds from this definition. Kentucky courts have interpreted this to mean that since mopeds are not motor vehicles, the occupants injured while riding the moped are pedestrians.  Pedestrians are entitled to PIP benefits from the car that hit them. This is true whether they are at fault or not.

However, the definition of moped does not include every type of scooter or moped.  The statute specifically defines moped as a certain type of motorized bicycle that has no larger than a 50cc engine and capable of traveling no faster than 30mph.  This definition includes only the smallest of the mopeds seen on the road today.  75cc or higher motorized scooters that travel above 30mph do not fit this definition.  They are therefore considered motorcycles not mopeds.  If you are in an accident while using one of these “motorcycles” you would not be entitled to $10,000 in  PIP, unless you purchased it as optional benefits.  You would also be uninsured and responsible personally and legally for any damages you caused.

If you own or operate a scooter or moped that has an engine larger than 50cc, shifts gears, or travels faster than 30 mph you are operating a motorcyle, not a moped.  You are required to have that vehicle insured.  Other laws pertaining to motorcycles may also apply.  You should consider purchasing optional PIP benefits. Otherwise you or your family member might not be protected in the event of an accident.

Motorcycle Accident Victims Not Guaranteed PIP Benefits

Much has been discussed about PIP benefits in Kentucky for accident victims.  However, motorcyclists should know that Kentucky law specifically excludes motorcyclists from recovering PIP benefits unless they purchase these as optional benefits.  So, while car drivers in Kentucky are protected by a minimum $10,000.00 in coverage motorcyclists are not, unless they specifically pay for that coverage.  As you can imagine the coverage for motorcyclists is more expensive given the increased chance of injury.

However, just because a motorcyclist does not have PIP benefits does not mean that he cannot make a claim if he is injured in an accident due to someone’s fault.  A claim can, and if serious enough, should be made.  An experienced accident lawyer can then work to help reduce the amount paid to cover medical expenses, including the first $10,000.00 not covered by PIP.