Akron Personal Injury Attorneys | We Have The Answers
As brain injury attorneys, we counsel our clients and tell them that their goal is to get better. Do whatever you need to do to get back to normal or as close to normal as possible. Our goal at Willis, Willis & Rizzi is to handle all of the legal ramifications of the brain injury. No one can do the treatments for you; you have to do the treatments to get better.
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If you have been injured in an accident and you feel like you are stuck on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere with a pirate ship full of insurance adjusters and their mumbo jumbo lobbing cannon balls at you, the personal injury attorneys at Willis, Willis & Rizzi are the equivalent of the entire US Navy Seventh Fleet coming over the horizon.
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We are a boutique law firm; we get 100% behind the personal injury cases that we decide to accept. That is where the difference lies between Willis, Willis & Rizzi and other law firms you may be considering for your defective product liability case.
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When you are injured in a motorcycle accident it’s imperative to hire a personal injury firm that realizes motorcycle accidents are not your typical rear-ended motor vehicle collisions. These are serious collisions with serious injuries, where the insurance company is hoping to portray you in a negative way, and to make the jury believe that since you ride a motorcycle, you must have been reckless and that was the cause of the accident, not their insured.
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It is a tough conversation when someone is badly injured or killed and there is very little insurance to cover the mountain of medical bills, the lost earnings, the shattered dreams and the other life altering events that are coming down the road. In the State of Ohio, $25,000 per person in liability coverage is all that is required by law to be legal to drive. Is that enough coverage for you if you are seriously hurt by another driver?
Concealed carry firearms and permits are a hot topic. I have heard people state that the reason they carry a firearm is not because they expect trouble but that they don’t expect help if there is trouble. So, they are protecting themselves. I ask though, what is more likely, getting into a serious collision or getting into a situation where you would actually pull a gun to defend yourself? I believe the odds are more likely that you are in a collision and need good insurance coverage as opposed to getting into a situation that compels you to pull a gun.
The bottom line is, if you are not insuring yourself for an amount that you believe you are worth, why are you expecting others to do that for you? If you don’t expect help in a gun fight, why do you expect help in a collision? Why are you not protecting yourself in this situation?
As an example, we will discuss a recent conversation I had with a client who was hit head on by a lady who went left of center. He was badly hurt. He spent 2 months in a hospital, was finally released home but needs a lot of physical therapy still. He can barely walk with a walker and can’t lift one arm. He is not going back to work and will be applying for social security disability. His medical bills to date are over $500,000. The lady who caused the collision has $300,000 in liability coverage. That puts her in a very high category. You could watch the next hundred cars go by and would be hard pressed to find someone with more liability coverage. Still, it is not enough in this situation.
Her insurer is willing to pay the entire $300,000 limits BUT in exchange they want a full release of the lady who caused the collision. My client exclaimed that $300,000 was not enough. I asked how much coverage he had to see if there would be any additional coverage available through his insurer. He only had $50,000 in coverage. In Ohio, his insurer gets a credit of the at fault driver coverage, (in this case $300,000) toward their coverage so since $300,000 is more than $50,000 my client’s insurer is not obligated to pay anything.
So, my client is not too happy about the situation. We could file a lawsuit and in a few years get a trial and win a verdict that is turned into a judgment and then try to collect from the lady who caused the collision who by this point would have filed bankruptcy. So, there is very little point in spending more money and time to pursue a judgment that will take years and garner no real results.
If my client had underinsured motorist coverage for say $1,000,000.00 then he would have up to $700,000 available from his insurer. A one million dollar umbrella that provides uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is not as expensive as you might think. It is worth asking your insurance agent about this coverage.
But make sure it includes uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
Article by Mark Willis, Attorney
At Willis, Willis & Rizzi we have handled enough claims as wrongful death attorneys over the years that the courts are comfortable with us doing the work and accepting what we present to them. This only comes from years of experience and trust between the probate court and the wrongful death law firm.
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When you have been in an accident, it can be difficult to know if you should hire a personal injury attorney to represent you. If you have sustained injuries and will have medical bills, you will also have legal issues associated with your personal injury claim.
If you’re not injured and there is not much damage to your vehicle, you can generally handle these types of situations without too much bureaucracy or insurance claim investigation. But once you start incurring medical bills due to personal injuries, then these claims can get very complicated, and you will have legal issues for which you will need an experienced personal injury attorney. Whomever is issuing those medical bills for your injury treatment will be looking for payment, and if your health insurance provider is paying them, your health insurance will be looking to you to get reimbursement.
We have had many situations with clients where they have handled their claims on their own and thought everything was resolved and settled until they hear from their health insurance provider that they need their money back, often for more money than the client received in the initial settlement. There are many legal issues involved in personal injury cases like the one described above.
The reality is personal injury cases have rules that have been defined by the insurance companies, and unless you have a qualified and experienced personal injury attorney like the team at Willis, Willis & Rizzi handling the case, it would be very difficult to handle the claim on your own and have a favorable outcome.
Call us today at 330.535.2000 and speak directly with one of our attorneys and see how we can help you.
After you have been in an accident or have incurred some other personal injury that requires an insurance claim, and you have reached out to the insurance company, or they have contacted you, the first conversation does not go like this:
“We’re sorry our insured hit you. What can we do for you? Let us stop by and pick up your medical bills. Let us drop off some money to cover your lost wages. Let us know when you have picked out a new car, and we’ll go down and pay for it.”
What you will typically hear in that first conversation is “the claim is under investigation”.
What does that mean?
And you are left wondering “What is there to investigate? The police already investigated and cited the other party.” The insurance company will also tell you “We need to take your recorded statement.” This recorded statement is usually not to investigate and determine who was at fault, it’s about the insurance company trying to contain and control your claim and to delay paying the claim as long as possible. The insurance company knows that you need the claim settled so you can get a rental car or have your car repaired or replaced, or get your medical bills paid. It’s simply a tactic to delay paying the claim or get you to accept less on the claim so that you can get the issue resolved.
When an insurance company insists they execute a recorded statement with you as part of the personal injury claim investigation, they will ask for a lot of background information about you, as well as inquire about your injuries. During this investigation process, the insurance company is gathering information about you and making an evaluation regarding if they feel you are someone that a jury would sympathize with, or that a jury would not like. They are listening to you speak and gauging your level of vocabulary and education, they are getting information so they can do a background check on you.
When an insurance company says “investigation” and you may be thinking it’s an investigation to process the claim, it’s really a tactic by insurance companies to evaluate you and decide how they are going to handle the claim, and how much they feel they can get away with not paying on the claim.
When you are faced with an insurance claim investigation whether for property damage or personal injury, what can you do to prepare for the investigation? The process is all about the documentation generated as part of the claim, and one of the key pieces of documentation is the police report. The police report usually lists out what the contributing factors are in the accident, who caused the collision, and who was cited. These are all important items to know regarding your claim and case.
At Willis, Willis & Rizzi we help our clients understand that most times, insurance claim investigation is really a keyword for “delay”. It is said in our industry that insurance companies live by the “3 D’s”: delay, deny, defend. When you have the sense that an insurance company is simply trying to delay processing the claim instead of trying to help you, that’s a strong indicator that you need to hire a team of personal injury attorneys.
It’s our belief that clients need to be focusing on recovery and getting back to their pre-injury state of health in both mind and body. Let the team at Willis, Willis and Rizzi deal with the bureaucracy and administrative “junk” associated with insurance company claims investigations. We have the experience and expertise to handle insurance companies and position our customers for the best possible outcome in your personal injury or accident claim investigation.
Call today 330.535.2000 or fill out the contact form on this page.
Be sure to read our other articles related to insurance companies and personal injury litigation:
When you have a small firm like Willis, Willis, & Rizzi who is dedicated to the practice of law and takes each personal injury case personally and very seriously, it can be a real benefit to clients who need a strong advocate fighting for their best interests.
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When you have been injured and unable to work, it can be a very stressful and frightening time. At Willis, Willis, & Rizzi we help clients every day to navigate the uncertainties of personal injury situations and to position themselves for the best possible outcome. In situations like these, it’s important to understand that you are facing two issues: you have medical issues as well as legal issues. In our experience, nothing can really happen on the legal front in terms of resolving your personal injury case until you resolve the medical front. You have to get better! Priority number one is you have to get back to your pre-injury state of health.
It’s also very important to have a team in place representing your interests. There are multiple other sides in your personal injury case including hospitals, healthcare providers, and insurance companies who already have a team in place working towards a result that is in their best interest. While you are working to regain your health, these other teams are on the ground running toward their goals. You need to have someone working on your behalf for a result that is in your best interest. While you are working on getting back to health, there are legal issues that need to be resolved. Willis, Willis, & Rizzi is here to help you.
When you are out of work due to a personal injury you will be facing both medical bills as well as non-medical bills. On the medical bill front, the team at Willis, Willis, & Rizzi can help to ensure that hospitals and medical providers are directing their billing to the appropriate parties.
For non-medical bills like rent, utilities, and other living expenses sometimes there are things we can do based on how a clients’ coverage is written to help clients get some money to help cover these items. In other situations, we can write letters to landlords for our clients asking for an agreement that they be paid out of the personal injury case. There are avenues we can explore but it is important to remember that there is nothing in the law that states these parties have to cooperate with you.
In the State of Ohio, we have workers compensation. If you suffer a personal injury at work, workers compensation is there to help with a percentage of lost wages and to cover medical bills. If you have on-going long term injuries, workers compensation can provide some disability to help you.
Many workplace injuries happen due to the negligence of someone other than your employer. For example, you are driving a company vehicle and you are hit by someone who runs a red light or stop sign. You are still eligible for workers compensation and can avail yourself of the entire workers comp system, but you also now have a claim against the driver of the other vehicle. It’s important to have a team like Willis, Willis, & Rizzi on your side to help you navigate these complex situations.
Willis, Willis, & Rizzi is uniquely positioned to help clients in their personal injury cases. You will see many personal injury attorneys and law firms advertising on TV and other media. These attorneys and law firms do mass volumes of personal injury cases. While these entities know how to do personal injury work, due to the volume of work they are doing it’s like being on an assembly line and you are put at the end of the line. In many situations these entities are taking in a thousand personal injury cases a week, which means they are settling a thousand cases a week. You become a number not a name and do not get personal attention.
At Willis, Willis, & Rizzi we concentrate on personal injury work and we push on our client’s behalf for an outcome that is in their best interest. We have had victories in the Ohio Supreme Court, Federal Courts, Federal Courts of Appeals, State Courts of Appeals, and trial courts. We work tirelessly to expose coverages where claims were made that no coverage existed and challenging health plans when they say they are entitled to take their money back from you.
When you have a small firm like Willis, Willis, & Rizzi who is dedicated to the practice of law and takes each personal injury case personally and very seriously, it can be a real benefit to clients who need a strong advocate fighting for their best interests. Our fee is no different than any of the big advertisers. Using the big advertising firms is akin to eating fast food but paying prices of the best steak house in town. If you are going to pay for the best steak house in town, you ought to get the steak that goes with it.
The big advertising firms claim to have collected millions for their clients – they have – by handling a large volume of clients. We have collected millions for our clients as well – only we do it with large recoveries for a smaller set of clients. Would you rather your attorney be thinking about how best to maximize your recovery or thinking about their next advertising campaign?
