What Is a Car Accident Settlement Actually Worth in Fresno?

[00:06] McCartney: Welcome back to Car Accident Attorney with Robert May. I'm McCartney, and today I'm here with Robert May from The May Firm. Good to see you, Robert. Thanks for being here today

[00:14] Robert May: Nice seeing you again

[00:15] McCartney: So today we're talking about what a California car accident settlement is actually worth here in Fresno. It is the question every injured person asks first, and the one insurance companies work hardest to keep low. We're going to walk through what really decides the number, the pieces that make up a claim, and how to make sure a case is valued for everything that it's worth. Medical bills are usually the first and largest number in any claim. How do medical bills factor into what a car accident case is worth?

[00:41] Robert May: Medical bills are just the easiest way for people to factor valuation on cases because it's right in front of you, it's associated with a treatment. You know, if you have a... Whatever medical treatment you get, there's going to be a code associated, and then medical doctors, hospitals, et cetera, they bill relative to the code provided for the treatment provided. So in some ways, if you're looking at it from a defense attorney or if you're an insurance company, it's just the easiest way to see a case because you're gonna see claim number, name of client, name of claimant, and then what codes, what treatments, what bills are associated with the treatment that they got as a result of the accident. So medical bills are critically important to cases, and they tell a story. Oftentimes, I think, become a really simplified version of what somebody's going through. But yes, they are very, very important your lawyer will, will have them, know them, look at them before they're provided to the other side

[01:37] McCartney: In addition to that, time off work is real money, and a lot of people forget to claim it. If someone missed work after the crash, how are lost wages worked into the claim?

[01:48] Robert May: There's two different ways. There's sort of the simplified way, and this becomes easier with people that are paid hourly or even potentially salary, and then they're kind of using vacation time, et cetera, to get paid. But, um, a simple way to say it is you're right. People do overlook it a quite a bit, and the simple way to do it is just say, you know, make up a number, "$22 an hour," let's say you work at Costco or something, " and you miss nine days of work," you go nine times eight, 72 times 22, and you have your past, uh, uh, loss of earnings calculation pretty simple. So those ones are simple. It becomes more complex when people are business owners, when they are self-employed. becomes a little more amorphous, uh, to pr- to prove the losses. Oftentimes, that's when your attorney is going to want to hire a vocational rehabilitation expert or an economist to come up with the valuation of those losses when it comes to earnings

[02:41] McCartney: So this is the part of the claim people find hardest to picture as a number. What does pain and suffering really mean? And how does anyone put a dollar figure on it?

[02:49] Robert May: even the jury instruction says there's no specific way to make a calculation. So the way you do it obviously is to be able to list some of those, um, losses. So when, you know, talking pain and suffering, I'll even read a couple of them for you. Think o- think of pain and suffering like this. We always... There's like really specific categories to it that are often missed as well. You know, I'll read-- Let's read a couple 'cause maybe you've never heard them. It's physical pain, mental pain, mental anguish, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, physical impairment, inconvenience, grief, anxiety, humiliation, emotional distress. So these are the different subcategories of pain and suffering. So pain and suffering is so broad, but like what does it really mean? Those are a lot of the ways to sort of identify pieces of it and make a calculation. But again, the calculation comes down to how credible is the client? Are there people around the client or the plaintiff that are able to verbalize what they've seen many of these losses look like in person? And does your lawyer know you well enough to create a narrative, an authentic narrative, but know this, know you as the client, know your story well enough to take those concepts, then assign a value, and then communicate the value to somebody else where they go, " Yes, I believe that that number is true and correct." Because just remember, people don't want to give your client money. They don't just do it 'cause they're good, you know, even jurors. You have to give them true, real reasons to accept a valuation that you as the attorney have provided to them, and then carry that out in opposition to whatever the defense is saying, which you can, I can promise you is going to be discounted on a massive level relative to what your attorney says it's worth

[04:29] McCartney: So those are the pieces that build the claim, the medical bills, the lost wages, and the harder to measure pain and suffering. Now let's follow the money the other direction, because what the case is worth on paper and what actually lands in your pocket are two very different numbers. The settlement number and the take-home number are not the same thing, and liens are why. How do medical liens and unpaid bills come out of a final settlement?

[04:52] Robert May: At the conclusion of every case, you're gonna have a settlement. Let's make up a number. We'll say it's $100,000. So from that, you're going to pay your attorney's fees, a percentage. You're gonna usually reimburse costs, so those are out-of-pocket expenses your attorney has paid along the way during the course of the case. That could be for subpoenas, filing lawsuits, hiring experts, um, even something as simple as ordering a police report that costs $20, whatever it might be. Those are your costs. And then subsequent, there's something like medical bills that need to be paid. These are often called liens in many, in many instances. So you're gonna have global 100, then you're gonna have attorney's fees, some costs, and then whatever medical expenses you've incurred that haven't been paid back that are still owed at the end of the case are also, um, taken from the global amount of the 100,000

[05:41] McCartney: Subrogation is a word almost no one knows until it takes a bite out of their settlement. What is subrogation, and how does a health insurer take a piece of a recovery?

[05:50] Robert May: So subrogation, um, think of it like this. Let's say you have Anthem Blue Cross as your health insurance, and you get in a car accident, and you go to the hospital, and the bill's 40,000 and Anthem pays 12. Well, at the end of the day, Anthem's going to come at you, client or lawyer if you're represented, and say, "Hey, we still have this bill that we paid that's $12,000. We want our money back." And your lawyer, it's their responsibility to know the laws and know what Anthem is actually entitled to be paid back and what they're not. Because what you'll see in unrepresented cases is Anthem will contact the insurance company, their name will go on the settlement check. So if you are a plaintiff and you get a check for $30,000, it says made out to John Smith and Anthem Blue Cross,you can't cash the check until you negotiate that $12,000 bill with Anthem in this case.

[05:50] you, you don't know what you're supposed to pay. So there's a better chance you're gonna end up sending them a check for $12,000 when you might only owe them $4,200, depending on the specific, uh, facts surrounding your case, timeline, cities, what state you're in, et cetera, et cetera. So, it's actually a very, very time-consuming process. at the main firm, we've developed our own AI platform that analyzes every, uh, expense we've made to medical providers over the last 12 years. it utilizes, all the updated, uh, cases that have come out that assist or give advice or show what is and what isn't what, what, um, insurance companies are and are not entitled to. Um, so we... Because this is such a significant situation and because clients at the beginning of the case have no concept of it, and it's a very difficult concept to communicate. but anyways, our system is basically meant to expedite the process from settlement to clients getting their check in the shortest amount of time because nothing's worse for the client.

[05:50] They've waited all this time, their case is now over, and now they keep getting calls from the lawyer saying, "We're trying to negotiate this bill. We're negotiating that bill," whatever it might be. We've created a system that virtually cuts it down to like a quarter of the time. We can negotiate with 25 providers in 10 minutes versus three days. So it's pretty revolutionary what we've built. But it's very important for the clients, and clients get way more when their lawyer knows how to negotiate that big chunk, that lien, those medical expenses, whatever you wanna call them. When they go from 50 to 12,000, that's a $38,000 difference. That's for the client. So it's very, very important your lawyer knows what the heck they're doing

[08:10] McCartney: And that actually brings me to the question that every client really cares about, No worries. After fees, liens, and costs, how does someone figure out what actually lands in their pocket?

[08:19] Robert May: Sure. t- a simple way to explain this would be, let's say you have a $100,000 settlement, you're gonna have one piece of that's gonna go to attorneys as attorney's fees. You're gonna have costs. Those are like whatever your attorney has paid out along the way. Those could be subpoenas, medical records, hiring experts, what have you. that will be paid back to the lawyer. it's kind of like a 0% interest loan to the client that the law firm makes. And then there's gonna be another piece, which is medical expenses or liens, like we've discussed, and it's a critical skill that your lawyer has the ability and knowhow and the, the reps to negotiate those medical bills down. Because let's say the client has $50,000 in medical bills that you negotiate down to $16,000, well, that's another $34,000 available directly for the client. So your lawyer's ability to efficiently negotiate these medical liens is very, very important to the net result for the client. And if your lawyer has enough experience doing it and skill, they'll be able to give you a very, very accurate estimate, even at the very conclusion of the case, say, once you sign a settlement release, so you have a very good understanding and likelihood of, to know sort of in a pretty tight range what you're going to receive net

[09:32] McCartney: So between the liens, the subrogation, and the fees, there is real work in protecting what you actually take home. Now let's talk about getting full value in the first place because here in the Central Valley, there are specific reasons a Fresno case settles for less than it was worth. Most under settle- most under settlements are not bad luck. They are a handful of avoidable mistakes. One of the most common reasons Fresno crash victims end up settling for less than the case was worth

[09:57] Robert May: The most common reason is so simple. It's that people have... They've gone through something traumatic, they want it to be over. They're also have usually incurred some version of a loss, like, um, could be an ambulance bill, a hospital bill. They're so worried about that, that dis- that, that gap that's been created, that debt that they now owe, that when the insurance company calls them... This just happened to us a couple of days ago. Wonderful client, he thought he had signed something that said, "Hey, we're gonna pay the bills you have now, but in the future, you just keep, you know, sending your bills as you- as the case goes along, we're gonna pay you back." It's of course not what the release said. So we get what the client signed. They think it's a nothing, it's totally the end of the case. So the- nothing's worse than signing a release without getting legal advice first. n- there's nothing that even comes close to it, honestly. It's the worst, and it happens all the time. The don't sign anything. Like, no- nothing can kill your case faster than signing anything the insurance company gives you, period. Full stop

[10:52] McCartney: That is great advice. So that covers it from every angle. What builds the claim, what actually survives liens and insurance reimbursement claims to reach your pocket, and the local traps that shrink a Fresno settlement if nobody's watching for them. For someone in Fresno who just wants to know what their case is really worth, what is your one piece of advice?

[11:11] Robert May: You just-- Going backwards, you just have to call a lawyer and get some advice before you do anything. Um, going against an insurance company alone is like coaching your own football team against Bill Belichick or something. Like, if you're standing across that field going to battle against somebody that has a million reps and you've never done it, you don't know the base level of where to get started, like going up against that kind of a Goliath is, it's virtually if not literally impossible to do.

[11:34] McCartney: Thank you so much, Robert. If you have been in a car accident in Fresno and you wanna know what your case is really worth, make that call. You can reach The May Firm at 559-385-2090 or at mayfirm.com. Thanks for watching, and we will see you on the next episode of Car Accident Attorney with Robert May

[11:53] Robert May: See ya