The Houston Auto Accidents Attorneys at DeSimone Law Office quite often hear from victims of traffic accidents who after an accident have tried to deal with the at fault driver’s insurance company themselves to recover their property and personal injury damages.  How does the old adage go? A lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. The same can be said for a car accident victim who thinks he can represent himself on an auto accident and get a fair shake from the at fault driver’s insurance company. The insurance company representative seems friendly enough when you call. The insurance representative will say let us just take a recorded statement to clear everything up. What the unwitting claimant does not realize is that this statement is taken in an attempt to twist the injured party’s words around so as to relieve the insurance company from having to pay any or at least a part of any valid insurance claim.  After a few days the insurance company announces to the injured claimant that they will not be paying or will only be paying for part of the injured party’s damages. The injured party having never dealt with this situation before is furious. They are hurt with typically no way to pay for medical treatment, their car is not drivable, and they do not typically have the funds to repair the car or arrange for alternative transportation.  If that person is fortunate enough to call DeSimone Law Office , usually we can clean the situation up to get the person the medical attention they need and transportation until their car is  repaired. The other situation that is more devastating goes as follows.  When the insurance company realizes that its’ years of tactics in denying claims will not stop the fact that they have to pay, they will offer to settle the whole case immediately. For anywhere from a couple of hundred to a thousand dollars they will offer to settle the injury claim immediately.  Unbelievably many injured parties’ accept these settlements having bought into the insurance company propaganda that the injured pary  will be well in a few days with some hot baths. Of course this does not happen. Not only does the pain from the accident not subside, it get s worse. The injured party, who probably needs thousands of dollars in medical treatment, now calls DeSimone Law Office wanting to know what they can do to get the medical treatment and compensation for their injuries they deserve. In most cases nothing. The chances of proving that a settlement agreement once signed is not binding on the parties is almost nil. The injured party has signed away all their rights.

If you have been in an accident, do not deal with the insurance company and sign away your rights.  Call the lawyers at DeSimone Law Office. We will make sure that you get the compensation you deserve.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The Houston Auto Accidents  attorneys at DeSimone Law Office have been involved in numerous cases where another negligent driver’s vehicle has failed to yield right of way from a stop sign, parking lot or at a red light. Many insurance companies for the negligent driver will try to either deny one of these claims or attempt to reduce their insured’s responsibility for the accident.  Texas is a comparative negligence state.  If the insurance company can put less than one hundred percent of an accident on their insured driver,  they will save themselves money and deny benefits rightly belonging to the victim of the negligent driver’s failure to yield.  How do they accomplish their objective?  The first thing they try to do is procure a statement about the accident from the victim of the accident before they hire a lawyer.  They will confuse the victim of the traffic accident with questions about times and distance.  For example, they will ask confusing questions about  how long before the accident was it when the victim first saw their negilgent insured’s vehicle, how far away was the other vehicle before the victim saw it, as well as what the victim did to try to avoid the accident.  When an accident happens in a split second there is no way to really know the answers to these questions but the insurance company hopes for an answer that they can use to prove the victim was not paying attention, did not hit their brakes in time or took some other faulty evasive action.  If a victim starts giving times and distances even though these estimates are likely to be way off, the insurance company can use these statements against the victim to either deny the claim or put some negligence on the victim.  If the insurance company can put just ten percent negligence through their trick questions on every victim, imagine the money they save on each claim.  When you have an accident and the other person’s insurance company calls, they are not calling to help you.  Their goal is to minimize the amount of money that they have to pay for the car accident.  Taking statements from naive accident victims who do not have an attorney is one of their methods.

If you have been in a car accident in which someone has caused an intersection collison, do not allow the insurance company to call you and take a statement reducing the value of any injury and property claim you have.  Call the Houston Accidents Attorneys at the DeSimone Law Office now.  They have been dealing with auto accidents for over twenty years and they know what to do to make sure all of your rights are protected and that you receive all the money you deserve.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The Houston Auto Accidents Attorneys of  DeSimone Law Office handle many auto accident cases where many hands are in the pot trying to take our clients’ money.  Most of these hands are in the from of  liens, statutory or contractual, which must be paid out of any personal injury settlement.  Any time an injured party is in an accident and goes to a hospital within 3 days of the accident the hospital, any emergency room doctors and any other medical professional that has treated the injured party can file a lien with the county clerk’s office for these medical expenses.  Under the law in the State of Texas these medical providers have to be paid out of any injury settlement.  The problem arises many times in these cases because the hospital bill is many times astronomical and the amount of insurance available for the claim is not. We’ve seen hospital liens that are sometimes more than the insurance policy limits.  These hospital bills are many times what the hospital would charge health insurance.  In other words the hospitals know the law and hope to get many more times for their services out of an injured party’s settlement than they would when being paid by health insurance. Their position is strong. You cannot settle the claim without paying them their exorbitant prices which are well above what is reasonable for their area.   Many claimants are shocked to hear that the hospital wants to get more out of the settlement than they do, and they were the injured party with plenty of lost wages and pain and suffering.  Of course the hospital does not get paid until the injured party agrees to a settlement so the injured party’s attorney, if he is knowledgeable, can negotiate hospital bills down.

If you have been involved in an accident and the medical expenses are pling up, call the lawyers at DeSimone Law Office.  They will make sure you get your fair portion of any injury settlement.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The Houston Auto Accidents Attorneys at DeSimone Law Office represent many clients whose cases would be more easily resolved or would settle for more money if clients took photos at scenes of car accidents and also of any injuries.  With the advent of cameras on cellular phones there is really no excuse to be able to get photo evidence at the scene of an accident unless a person is too injured to do so.  Photos of the traffic accident scene and or any personal injuries can be helpful in several ways. Often there is a dispute at the scene of any car or truck accident about how the accident occured.  Pictures of the positions of vehicles taken immediately after an accident can be excellent evidence to assist in an understanding of how an accident happened.  After the vehicles have been moved a negligent party can begin to spin his lies about the position of the vehicle after the accident. Photos of the position of the vehicles will prove up that the negligent party is lying. Pictures of the damage to the vehicles are excellent in backing up a claim of injury from an accident.  Pictures of both vehicles that show significant damage will put an end to the insurance company argument that the injury claimant is not really as hurt as he and his doctor are saying. Pictures of injuries such as bruising, broke bones, and bleeding are more effective in conveying an injury to a jury than words alone. Insurance companies know this and will pay more for claims where there are good pictures of any insurance claimant’s injuries.

If you have been involved in an accident, call the lawyers at DeSimone Law Office immediately.  They have investigators that will help document how your accident happened and your injuries through photographic and other means.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The Houston Auto Accidents Attorneys at DeSimone Law Office last week talked about what is known as a soft tissue injury to a traffic accident victim’s neck and back. Basically the muscles and ligaments in the neck and back are strained because of a violent front and then back whipping of the car accident victim’s head and body .  Often besides pain that is localized in the neck or back a clent will experience pain that radiates from the neck into the arms or hands. Also numbness in the hands or fingers or a tingling sensation will be felt. Sometimes pain in the low back will radiate in to the legs and numbness may be felt in the feet.  The personal injury that the client has probably sustained is known as a herniated disc.  In between the vertebrae are discs that keep the vertebrae from touching each other and provide a cushion for the back. When one of these liquid filled discs gets out of place and shifts this is known as a bulge or in more severe cases as a disc herniation.  Along the spine run the nerve endings of the back. If a disc gets out of place and impinges on a nerve, this will cause pain in the neck or back along with radiating pain.  Physical therapy and medications will probably not help here and other methods will have to be used to get well.  We will address those in next week’s blog.

If you have been injured in a car accident and have pain in your back that radiates, call the lawyers at DeSimone Law Office.  They will make sure you can obtain the medical treatment you need and the money you deserve.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The Houston Auto Accidents Attorneys at DeSimone Law Office have represented many clients in traffic accidents involving impaired drivers.  Impaired drivers usually means drivers who were intoxicated  from drinking alcohol and were involved in DWI accidents.  If the alcohol concentration in a driver’s blood, breath or urine is .08 percent or higher, then the driver is considered to be legally intoxicated.  If you are the victim of an accident with a legally intoxicated driver, you are not only entitled to your medical bills, lost wages and monies for pain and suffering but additional monies for the gross negligence of the intoxicated driver for getting behind the wheel while impaired.  The question is how do you prove the other driver was impaired at the time of the accident. The simplest way is if the other driver takes a breathalyzer or blood test administerd by law enfocement and the test shows that the other driver had a blood alcohol content of .08 percent or more.  If the other driver refuses to take a test, then cooperating with prosecutors to get  a criminal conviction against the intoxicated driver would be another way. Filing a lawsuit and requesting the intoxicated party’s hospital records after the accident could provide information on an intoxicated driver’s blood alcohol content after an accident.  This information is important because sometimes police do not arrest intoxicated drivers for DWI even when the offending party is guilty. Also an intoxicated driver can be impaired from substances other than alcohol such as cocaine, marijuana and other illegal drugs.  These drugs would show up in an intoxicated driver’s medical records. Now there are many drivers who are impaired by prescription drugs causing car accidents on the road.  Proving those cases up are hard but the difference between proving the case up or not is sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars on a typical car accident case.

If you have been the victim of a car accident involving an impaired driver, call the lawyers at the DeSimone Law Office immediately. They will take the steps necessary to prove the impairment of the intoxicated driver and obtain you the money that you deserve as a result.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The Houston Auto Accidents  attorneys at DeSimone Law Office have been involved in numerous cases where another negligent driver’s vehicle has failed to yield right of way from a stop sign, parking lot or at a red light. Many insurance companies for the negligent driver will try to either deny one of these claims or attempt to reduce their insured’s responsibility for the accident.  Texas is a comparative negligence state.  If the insurance company can put less than one hundred percent of an accident on their insured driver,  they will save themselves money and deny benefits rightly belonging to the victim of the negligent driver’s failure to yield.  How do they accomplish their objective?  The first thing they try to do is procure a statement about the accident from the victim of the accident before they hire a lawyer.  They will confuse the victim of the traffic accident with questions about times and distance.  For example, they will ask confusing questions about  how long before the accident was it when the victim first saw their negilgent insured’s vehicle, how far away was the other vehicle before the victim saw it, as well as what the victim did to try to avoid the accident.  When an accident happens in a split second there is no way to really know the answers to these questions but the insurance company hopes for an answer that they can use to prove the victim was not paying attention, did not hit their brakes in time or took some other faulty evasive action.  If a victim starts giving times and distances even though these estimates are likely to be way off, the insurance company can use these statements against the victim to either deny the claim or put some negligence on the victim.  If the insurance company can put just ten percent negligence through their trick questions on every victim, imagine the money they save on each claim.  When you have an accident and the other person’s insurance company calls, they are not calling to help you.  Their goal is to minimize the amount of money that they have to pay for the car accident.  Taking statements from naive accident victims who do not have an attorney is one of their methods.

If you have been in a car accident in which someone has caused an intersection collison, do not allow the insurance company to call you and take a statement reducing the value of any injury and property claim you have.  Call the Houston Accidents Attorneys at the DeSimone Law Office now.  They have been dealing with auto accidents for over twenty years and they know what to do to make sure all of your rights are protected and that you receive all the money you deserve.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The Houston Auto Accident  Attorneys at DeSimone Law Office have and are currently representing clients that have suffered Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.  Most people that have suffered a mild traumatic brain injury are unaware inititally that they have suffered the injury. Mild Traumatic Brain Injury happens when someone has a loss of consciousness of less than 30 minutes and less than one day of amnesia.  The reason that most persons are unable to immediately recognize they have suffered a mild traumatic brain injury is that you do not have to have lost consciousness to have suffered the injury.  Also normally an auto accident victim is given  medications that affect memory so the injured person does not realize that memory loss is due to the injury from the accident but thinks that it must be the medicine they are taking.  However as time goes on and the person quits taking the medication they realize that they still have memory loss. They cannot remember directions for example. Old routes they are driving on are no longer familiar. They are unable to remember phone numbers or important events in their life. They may start to inexplicably suffer from depression. A qualified neurologist will be able to identify the injury after interviewing the injured party.  Normally a referral will be made to a neuropsychologist who will do testing to identify the deficits of the injured party.  The neuropsychologist will also provide coping mechanisms.  Many attorneys have clients that have symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury but fail to recognize it because of their lack of awareness of the symptoms of a mild traumatic brain injury.  Failure to recognize the symptoms will result in a much lower settlement for a client than to which the client is otherwise entitled.

If you have been involved in a traffic accident and think you may have suffered a mild traumatic brain injury, call the lawyers at DeSimone Law Office.  They will make sure you get the medical attention you require and the settlement you deserve.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The Houston Auto Accidents Attorneys at DeSimone Law Office have seen a a laundry list of personal injuries suffered by traffic accident victims through out the past 23 years.  The most common type of injury seen are injuries to the neck and back.  Normally during the time from  immediately after an accident to a few days later a car accident victim will start experiencing pain in their neck and back area.  The victim has suffered a strain in his neck and back muscles that is causing the pain. Victims not familiar with this type of injury will often try to live with the pain  assuming it will go away shortly. They will take some over the counter pain reliever to try and combat the pain and suffering they are going through.  They have been conditioned by the false propaganda of the insurance companies into believing that such injuries are normally made up by accident victims and that taking a hot bath should relieve the pain.  They are even embarrassed to admit such an injury because of the insurance company propaganda.  Most of these accident victims realize after about four to six weeks that they are not getting any better and call DeSimone Law Office for help. While waiting four to six weeks to see a doctor seems reasonable in the real world often times in the legal world it is not.  The insurance companies and their lawyers whose propaganda convinced the accident victim that their injury should heal without medical treatment now will argue to a jury that if a person is really hurt then they would see a doctor immediately and not wait four to six weeks.  Juries who are also brainwashed through the media that neck and back injuries are just made up for monetary gains will often buy this argument and not award the money that they should to compensate the accident victim.

If you have been a car accident and have suffered a neck or back injury, contact the lawyers at DeSimone Law Office immediately.  They will advise you of your rights so that you can get well as quickly as possible and obtain the money to which you are  entitled for your personal injuries.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The Houston Auto Accident Attorneys at DeSimone Law Office often hear from injured parties who have hired other attorneys to handle their car accident cases.  A majority of these calls are from injured parties with personal injury claims who state they cannot get their lawyer to talk to them about their case. They state every time they call they are told the attorney is out and the secretary with whom they talk cannot explain to them what is going on with their traffic accident case.  Another common complaint is that the attorney has told the client we are handling your injury claim but we will not do anything to help you with getting paid on your car damage or for any rental charges you may incur.  Another complaint is that the they have not even ever met the attorney or talked to him or her.  Also some of these clients state that the attorney has not even got them to a doctor for medical treatment.  After laying out the complaint they then ask if they can fire the attorney and hire our law firm.  We tell them that under Texas law they are at the mercy of the attorney that they hired. Once you sign a contract with an attorney he can enforce that contract to its’ fullest extent. If you hire another attorney, you could be on the hook for payng two lawyers.  The only way to get out of a contract with an attorney on an injury claim is if he let’s you out of it voluntarily.

If you have been in an accident recently, call the lawyers at DeSimone Law Office. You will talk directly with an attorney and will  have your medical and transportation problems addressed immediately.  After you are well we will obtain the money to which you are entitled for your injuries.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites