Personal Injury FAQs

If you get injured in an auto accident, you should always call the police. You can also make observations of nearby houses and businesses to see if they have security camera footage that may have captured this incident. If you get injured in a premise liability case, you should notify the store or property manager immediately. Most of the time they will file an incident report and be able to preserve surveillance footage of the incident.

As long as you are injured in an accident and the other party is at fault, you have a valid personal injury claim. The true question is: Do you plan on treating? If your answer is yes, it is in your best interest to consult with a personal injury attorney.

For bodily injury claims you recover what is coined as a “pain and suffering” award. This award will encapsulate compensation for your injuries (how long you suffered and how long you treated), the medical bills that you have to pay for, any lost time from work or loss of earnings, and any permanent impairments that you might have suffered as a result of your accident. In cases where a full physical recovery was not made, we can also recover future potential earnings.

In New Hampshire, if you are of the age of majority, most personal injury claims have a three-year Statute of Limitations, however, this does change based upon which type of case it is. For this reason, it is best to contact an attorney right away to get a personalized plan and approach. In New Hampshire, as for a minor, they have until they turn 18 plus two years. With minors, it is especially important to contact an attorney as there may be required court filings before a settlement can be accepted.

Yes, the vast majority of our cases are settled before having to file a formal lawsuit with the state. The small percentage of our cases that we file suit on are due to either saving the Statute of Limitations, or if we do not feel that our client is receiving a fair settlement offer.

Negotiations begin after you have been medically discharged by your doctor for accident-related care. To begin negotiations, we prepare and send the insurance company a demand packet which explains all of your treatment and medical expenses to date, and can sometimes include lost wages and other expert opinions. By this time, we will have a ballpark estimate for what your case should settle for, so we will demand a higher amount. In most cases, the insurance company will come back with a low-ball offer as their initial settlement offer. From here, I will be in active discussions with my clients to give my recommendations for our next negotiation move which usually includes reducing our demand amount in an attempt to have the insurance company increase their settlement offer. This will continue until we reach the value that my client deserves.

Your medical bills should primarily be covered by your health insurance or, if injured on the job, by the workers compensation carrier. If you have a personal auto policy you will also be entitled to Medical Payments Coverage and/or Personal Injury Protection coverage. This amount, however, is usually nominal so it is best to run your treatment through your health insurance.

As long as you are not more than 50% at-fault for an accident, you are entitled to a damage recovery, however, your recovery will be pro-rated depending upon the fault percentage you are assigned.

This varies case to case. It is all dependent upon how injured an individual is and how much treatment they need. Once our client is done treating we can generally have their case completed within 6 months.

The most important documents you can have are a police or incident report, pictures from the scene of the accident, pictures of your injuries (bruising, deformities, stitches, scaring, etc.), and medical records to support your treatment and injury claims. It is also helpful to have the name, address, and phone number to any witnesses that saw the incident as their testimony can sometimes be helpful in the future.

25 years

Our practice typically handles car accidents, mass casualty incidents, slip and falls, premise liability cases, and dog bites.

100%. If I take your case on, I fully believe in your case and story. I always do and will always make sure that my client walks away with a proper settlement.

Yes, I primarily work with Insurance companies to obtain a recovery for my clients, but at times they will send files to their local counsel. I have a very good knowledge of the common insurance defense attorneys and their firms used in my area, and have worked with many of them to obtain settlements for my clients. Additionally, I was an insurance defense attorney briefly after graduating law school. During this time I gained valuable first-hand knowledge of how insurance defense attorneys think and work.

I attempt to set maximum value expectations factoring in any potential permanent injuries and lost income.

Yes, if we believe we can be successful, we fight hard for our client.

When a potential client is interested in hiring our firm, we present them with a fee agreement outlining two ways that they can pay us: Hourly or Contingency Fee. My hourly rate is currently $375/hour which must be billed and paid monthly, but a vast majority of our clients choose to pay me by our contingency fee of 1/3 (33.333%) of their settlement. Any fee over $300 requires our client’s approval and will only be spent if necessary for the case.

My staff and I try to keep our clients’ costs as low as possible. The main fees that will be charged to a client’s file will be their police report and the cost of obtaining their medical records and bills. In some cases, we will also hire experts such as an architectural expert, an accident reconstructionist, or medical experts, but these are all done after having in-depth conversations with the client to determine if these costs are warranted.

There is no charge for your initial consultation and meeting.

After our initial intake meeting, clients are given a welcome packet which gives them the contact information of everyone in our office. They are told to reach out to our office with any questions that they may have. During the treatment portion of our client’s claim, there isn’t too much communication other than general check-ins on how their treatment is going, but once they are finished treating, we are in constantly communication with our client regarding our record and bill collection process and settlement negotiations.

Our whole team works collaboratively on your case and any one of us can be reached at any given time. You will mostly work with my paralegal and legal assistants, but I am always available for meetings when clients would like to check in with me.

We try to pride ourselves with quick response times. In most instances you will get an answer by the end of the business day, or within 48 hours if the matter is more complex. While I sometimes spend many days in court, my office is always fully staffed and ready to answer any questions that you may have regarding your case!

We constantly communicate with our client on statuses. Our clients are also welcomed to call or email us as often as they please.

We most often communicate through email and phone calls, but always welcome in-person meetings when warranted.

If you are considering hiring an attorney to pursue a bodily injury claim, we typically ask that you only communicate with the other party’s insurance regarding your car claim. If they ask if you were injured, it is safe to say “yes”, but we advise you to not go into detail about your injuries. We have years of experience talking to insurance companies regarding your injuries and know exactly how to handle them. They can sometimes ask self-probing questions that might appear innocent, but they can actually be used to hurt your claim later.

Yes, but as soon as you start to feel pain or realize that your muscle aches are not going away, you need to be seen right away. The longer you wait, the less likely an insurance company is to take your injuries seriously and they could start to blame other factors if you wait too long to treat.

We ask our clients to refrain from any mention of their accident on social media and even through text messages. A post that may originally be meant as harmless can be taken out of context and used against you by the opposing side when it comes to settlement negotiations.

You should take pictures of your vehicle at the accident scene to show the damage. Additionally, if you have bruising, lacerations, or scarring, you should take initial pictures, and then period pictures showing the healing process. Otherwise, your medical records will document your other injuries, so it is important to make all your follow-up visits.

If the at-fault party does not have insurance, you can either sue them civilly for your damages, or you can make a claim through your personal auto policy’s Uninsured Motorist Coverage. Most clients choose the latter option, but we are here to discuss all of your viable options.

Yes

Your employer is responsible to provide workers compensation coverage for work place injuries. A homeowner will typically have a homeowners policy for injuries on their property.

If you are more than 50% at fault, you do not have a claim. If you are less than 50% at fault, your damages will be apportioned based on your percentage at-fault.

Yes, we handle many cases for minors and incapacitated individuals. As long as you are the legal guardian or Power of Attorney for an individual, you are able to hire us to bring a claim on their behalf.

The first stage will be your treatment. Once you are done treating and medically discharged, we will then start to collect all of your medical records and bills. This process can take a few months all dependent upon how long it takes hospitals to return our requests. Once we have gathered all your records and bill we can then create your demand letter. After your demand letter is drafted, you will receive a copy of it for proof reading. Once you approve this letter, my office will prepare your demand package and mail it to the insurance adjuster. Once mailed, it is all in the insurance adjuster’s hands to deliver their initial offer. When they deliver their initial settlement offer, the negotiations process had begun. From here, I will work with you to go back-and-forth with the adjuster until we reach a settlement point that is beneficial for all parties.

I personally speak to the insurance adjuster and receive their first offer. Then I communicate with the client and decide on a counter offer. This process continues until the case settles or suit is filed.

We would then file suit.

Not unless there was fraud or duress, but it would be up to a superior court judge. Upon settlement, the insurance company (or the tortfeasor directly) will require you to sign a “Release of Claims” document. The basis of this document is that you care accepting their settlement as full and final settlement of your claim and that you are never able to go after the insurance or their insured for further and future damages. For this reason, we take a conservative approach to cases as we want to know about all of our client’s injuries and future complications. It would be a disservice to our clients to rush settlements.

You do not have to pay taxes on most personal injury settlements for injuries. There may be tax liability for lost wages. It is always best to discuss this with your attorney before settling.

Yes, we include that in our demands.

If your injuries are long-term, we would hire a doctor to do an Independent Medical Examination (IME) to give their opinion as to either a permanent impairment under the American Medical Association’s guidelines to permanency, or as to their recommendation for future surgeries and treatment. We can then factor these opinions into our client’s pain and suffering award. After settlement, however, we always tell our clients that it is of the utmost importance to maintain their health insurance. In some instances, particular health insurance plans require a “set-aside” account, but your Attorney will understand your health plan and will guide you through that processes should it be necessary.

Liens and outstanding medical bills come out of our client’s portion (66.667%) of the settlement. Of course, we will always try to negotiate these amounts down.

We mainly deal with injury claims. We ask that our clients deal with their property damage on their own.