Personal Injury & Uninsured / Underinsured Motorist Claims

If you have suffered any kind of personal injury, we can help you take on the insurance company, get the medical care you need and recover the compensation you deserve.

After a Crash, the Insurance Company Is Not on Your Side

Nearly all of us pay a premium to be insured against accidents. What people forget is that the company answers to its shareholders too, and it will avoid paying a dollar more than it has to.

That is how injured people end up victimised a second time: first by the crash, then by a carrier treating a serious injury as a file to close cheaply. The adjuster who calls the next day sounding sympathetic and asking for a recorded statement is not calling to help you. Talk to a lawyer before you give it.

Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Claims

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, usually written as UM/UIM, is optional coverage you buy on your own auto policy. It is there for the case where the driver who hit you had no insurance at all, or had a policy too small to cover the harm they caused.

The part that surprises people is who the claim goes to. On a UM/UIM claim you are claiming against your own insurer, and your own insurer owes you the same duty of good faith on that claim as on any other. It has to investigate fairly, treat you honestly, and pay what it owes within a reasonable time.

In practice, some carriers begin treating their own policyholder as an adversary the moment a UM/UIM claim is opened: the injuries get questioned, the treatment gets called excessive, the file goes quiet. A carrier owes duties to an accident victim whatever the insurance status of the driver at fault, and we hold it to them.

What You Can Recover

It depends on the case and on what the policies cover, but generally you can recover for your injuries: medical bills already incurred and care you still need, income lost while you could not work, and, where warranted, pain and suffering. If a family has lost someone, there may be a wrongful death claim too.

Where the insurer's own handling of the claim has been unreasonable, a bad faith claim can sit on top of the injury claim.

How We Help

Doug has spent 25 years on the plaintiff's side, most of it opposite insurance carriers, and he handles these files himself. We work out who is at fault, put the medical picture together properly, and deal with the adjusters so that you do not have to.

Consultations are free, and we work on a contingency basis. If we do not recover anything for you, you do not owe us a fee. Call (602) 528-4700 or send us a message.