About Us

If you have a “larger” personal injury case, you can usually get what is called an “advance” on your case. This is usually easier to arrange in auto accident cases because issues of liability and damages tend to be more straightforward. You should keep in mind, however, that personal accident lawyers are never allowed to loan money. This is against the ethical rules that lawyers are required to follow in Utah (they are also the same in most states). There are a number of companies, however, that will do this. Be aware that their interest rates are quite high, so at the outset, you will want to be sure that this is what you want to do, doing your research on their rates and payback terms. Finally, they will only offers advances if you have an attorney, since the attorney has to pledge to pay back the company as part of the settlement of the client’s case. As an example, if a client wanted to get an advance of $1,500 with an advance company we have used in the past, they would owe the company $2,100 up to six months after the advance is given. While the interest is high, it is much less than that charged by some of the pay day lenders.

It depends. If your injury is significant and there is only a small amount of insurance money (say around $25,000 or $50,000), the settlement could happen quite quickly. In fact, in many situations, the insurance companies, once they learn of the severity of the injury, are actually calling us to see if they can pay their policy limits and settle the case. Honestly, in these cases, you really don’t need a personal injury attorney to receive insurance money—although you would probably benefit from having one for other reasons, such as negotiating medical bills or Medicaid liens. In situations where your injury is not as severe or where the policy limits are high (say $100,000 or more), then the claim will generally take longer to resolve. In these cases, we wait to see what the full scope of your medical treatment is. We wait until we have all of your medical bills. If the treatment looks like it will extend into the future, we will ask your doctor to give us an opinion letter outlining the expected costs of those procedures. In certain cases, we will also send our client for a medical examination to see what level of impairment they might have.

Firing your personal injury attorney is something that you should carefully consider. Sometimes, even if you feel like your attorney is not doing their job, the detriment to doing so may greatly outweigh the benefits to be gained. For example, if your attorney has started negotiating with the insurance company and they have made an offer, then that attorney will probably have a “lien” on your case. You can find out by looking at the retainer agreement that you signed with them. A typical agreement will allow the attorneys to have a lien of 30% on cases that they get a settlement offer on. Typical language also allows them to make a claim for the value of the time they have put into your case. So, if they can claim that they put 20 hours into your case, then at an hourly rate of $200 per hour, they have a lien of $4,000. Not a small amount. The problem arises for clients who have large liens because of the problem of finding an attorney who will want to take their case with a lien attached to it. This is so because the second attorney will basically be working for the first one to get their lien paid before the second attorney can get a fee on the case. Unless the lien is well below the expected value of the case, most attorneys will not want to get involved. Some attorneys don’t want to get involved anyway on the assumption that you are a “problem client” or “damaged goods.” This is why on a number of occasions, I have attempted to talk prospective clients out of leaving their attorney.

In Utah, insurance companies are required to provide their own customer, or insured, with certain basic benefits. These are called PIP benefits. PIP stands for “personal injury protection.” They are designed to cover you if you get injured in a motor vehicle crash – even if the crash is your own fault. There are three components to these benefits. They are: (1) $3,000 for medical bills, (2) one year of lost wages (this will be the amount of your actual wages or $250 per week, whichever is more), and (3) household services reimbursement of up to $20 per day.

First, the $3,000 is used to cover medical bills which are directly related to the crash. (Some policies may actually have higher limits, although all must have at least $3,000 available.) This is why after the crash, medical providers will ask you to give them the name of your insurance company and the claim number. They ask for this because they will bill your insurance company directly. Some health insurance companies, such as IHC, will not begin to pay any benefits until they are satisfied that the $3,000 from your insurance is used up. Also, if your insurance company suspects that your treatment is not related to the crash, they might cut off benefits and have you examined by one of their insurance company doctors. You should keep in mind that this coverage is available to you even if you caused the crash to happen.