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Posts Tagged ‘auto accident’
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
After becoming a victim in an auto accident, a large “bite” is taken out of your life. This entails bodily injury, damage to your vehicle, and plenty of missed time potentially from work. To the insurance company who deals with these things every day it may seem like an inconsequential “bite”, but to you it will upset completely the baseline world in which you exist.
Your new existence will entail doctor visits, therapy, and mounting medical bills. The injuries you sustain from the accident may take months to heal or even over a year.
Unfortunately you will need to deal with phone calls and estimates to body shops and auto repair centers, as well as dealing with insurance companies. Nobody would call this a fun time, and an experienced personal injury larger can help significantly with all of these issues and your case against the other party. A veteran personal-injury attorney can help recommend when would be the appropriate time to settle your case.
The question is though, do you need to wait until you are healed to seek money or is it appropriate to seek monies earlier? In reality, that is exactly what is in your best interest. Why? The problem is sometimes injuries take a while to surface, such as a long term effect of traumatic brain injury (TBI) or potentially a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Because of this, settling too soon with the insurance company may leave additional monies on the table.
The key to receiving an appropriate settlement that you will not look back on with regret is patience. This is a tough mantra to hold, especially when the accident takes this “bite” out of your life. But patience will help make the “bite” get filled to make you somewhat whole again, as the end result would be a higher settlement.
This is one of the primary reasons insurance company may be pushing you to settle to quickly. Which you truly want to do is to reach “maximum medical improvement” before settling with them. What exactly does this mean? This is the point where the doctor reports that the maximum healing is complete and you have reached the maximum recovery as much as possible. At that point you have a really good understanding of what your care needs will be in the future and your lifelong limitations.
If you are not healed back to complete baseline as before the accident, calculations exist which can help predict future medical expenses which can be added to the expenses incurred to that point. Once all of that is put into numbers, the settlement process can be initiated into realistic numbers. If you have been patient enough to allow these realistic settlement calculations to be generated, this will give you the best chance of making yourself whole again and receiving the highest settlement.
Want to find out more about the best accident attorneys Phoenix, then visit RJ Hurwitz Law site on how to choose the best personal injury lawyer Phoenix AZ for your needs.
Tags: accident, affordable car insurance, attorney, auto accident, auto insurance, car accident, insurance, lawyer, legal, personal injury, vehicles
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Monday, December 5th, 2011
If you were in a car accident as a result of someone else’s fault and ended up breaking some bones along with other medical problems, you probably had to miss work and deal with significant pain and suffering. You go through doctor visits, physical therapy, imaging studies, some nightmares, counseling, and overall it amounts to a very stressful time.
Eventually your case settles and all of your damages are reduced to a monetary amount. Do you then have to pay taxes on that amount? It depends on whether or not the settlement money is being received for the injury or for the loss of economic benefit.
The premise is that basically if the monies are being received for the injury then it is not taxable. if however the money received is for loss of economic benefit than it is included in gross income and subject to taxation. If you are out of work and lost wages and part of your injury settlement replaces those amounts, you would have to pay taxes on that because you would’ve been otherwise working and paying taxes anyway. There has been some precedents with case law as to this, put it is not always clearly defined. This article also is not being written by an attorney so this does not constitute definitive legal advice!
The IRS has a tax code dealing with physical personal injury payments and how they are excluded from gross income. That section is text 2104. It is not extremely clear to find as directors not give specific guidance on the terms “physical injuries or physical sickness”. If the settlement compensation is being received for “physical sickness or personal injuries” than that amount is supposed to be excluded from a person’s gross income amount.
An IRS case in the past known as LTR 200041022 involved in IRS ruling about a woman who got a settlement from her employer as it related to unwanted physical contact. Since the settlement that the woman received was not based on actual physical injuries and there was no “observable bodily harm”, the IRS ruled that the settlement monies had to be included in her gross income.
There was also a United States Supreme Court case section 104, Schleier v. Commissioner. there was a two-step mandate that was adopted by the court with the cause of action need to be a tort type action with the monies received being on account of personal physical injury or sickness.
Since it is not clearly defined, individuals in this situation should talk to a competent tax lawyer to clarify exactly what should be included in gross income or excluded. Since settlements at times end up in the millions of dollars, this should be a definite prerequisite since if calculated incorrectly the IRS may get involved.
Want to find out more about personal injury lawyers phoenix az, then visit RJ Hurwitz Law site on how to choose the best car accident attorneys Phoenix for your needs.
Tags: accident, affordable car insurance, attorney, auto accident, auto insurance, car accident, insurance, lawyer, legal, personal injury, tax law, Taxes, vehicles
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Sunday, June 19th, 2011
Quite simply, Diminished Value is the difference in value when comparing a vehicle which has an wreck background and the same motor vehicle with no vehicle accident record. This is also often called “Loss of Market Value”.
Based on the severity of damage to your auto, a Diminished Value claim can be sent in. There are various of factors like the pre-loss condition, year, make, model, the kind of accident the auto was in, the amount of damages the auto suffered and other factors.
Example: If 2 autos are exactly the same year, make and model. They’ve the same mileage, options and are in the same overall condition. The sticker price of both vehicles is $23,000. Vehicle #1 doesn’t have any vehicle accident record and means 2 had sustained $7,500 collision damages, however vehicle repairs were completed by a quality collision repair shop and you can’t see that there was actually any damage. Car values are based on the perception of the purchasing consumer. As is the case with nearly any item of value, the simple fact that a car or truck had been damaged and fixed is going to have an undesirable impact on its value. As a result the vehicle will now be worth $19,000. That is $4,000 of Diminished Value!
Collision Background: The majority of buyers these days utilize a lot of information resources when making a buying decision. Because of the introduction of several Web-based vehicle history reporting companies, just like CARFAX or AutoCheck, it really is easier than ever in the past to check out the history of a car or truck. These businesses utilize more than 20,000 data sources which includes each and every U.S. and Canadian provincial motor vehicle department plus a lot of automobile auctions, fire and law enforcement departments, accident repair companies, fleet management and leasing businesses, and even more. Consequently, consumers are better equipped right now to immediately assess the state and record of the automobile they may consider buying.
In addition, a lot of car dealerships will simply refuse to accept trade-ins with a damage record because of damage disclosure laws. Vehicles which may be damaged and repaired and then accepted as trade-ins are usually sent to auction for disposal due to disclosure laws and legal liability worries. Just about all major car or truck auctions have to have an announcement of damage prior to public auction.
Bottom Line: If you were not at fault in the automobile accident, the at-fault party’s insurer owes you cash. This is true in all of the 50 states. Even though the insurance companies can try to tell you they never pay back for your repaired car Diminished Value Texas claim, after we deliver evidence of your loss, they’re going to. Don’t let the insurance company tell you otherwise.
You should look into whether you have a situation where a diminished value claim would be of some advantage to you – it may be well worth the time you put into looking into this.
Tags: auto, auto accident, auto accident claim, auto insurance, automobile, Car Insurance, diminished value, diminished value Florida, diminished value Texas, vehicle
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