Law Have Mercy!

From Fear to Fairness: Overcoming Reluctance and Filing a Claim with Chaz Roberts

• Chaz Roberts

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Ever wondered why so many hesitate to file an insurance claim after a car accident? Join me, Chaz, as I unravel this perplexing reluctance through Mike's story—a client torn between seeking rightful compensation and avoiding trouble. Many individuals downplay their discomfort, assuming it's not enough to warrant action, or fear the consequences for the other driver. Yet, those aches and pains might conceal more severe injuries waiting to surface. This episode promises to demystify these common misconceptions and underscores the importance of filing a claim to secure the compensation you deserve for damages, medical treatment, and lost wages, without any guilt attached.

In our journey, we stress that pursuing your legal rights isn't about punishing anyone but about ensuring your own recovery and justice. I make a strong case for legal representation as a means to navigate the complex negotiations with insurance companies, ensuring a fair settlement that covers your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. By engaging a lawyer, you can protect your rights and well-being, turning a daunting process into a pathway to securing the compensation you're entitled to. This is not an act of greed but a crucial step for you and your family. Tune in and let’s explore why taking action is a responsibility to yourself and those you love.

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This show is co-produced by Carter Simoneaux of AcadianaCasts Network, Chaz H. Roberts of Chaz Roberts Law and Kayli Guidry Bonin of Beau The Agency, and Laith Alferahin.

Speaker 1:

Hey, this is Chaz, back with another episode of Law. Have Mercy, today we're going to have some fun. Let me start it off with a story. Okay, I get a call from a guy named Mike and Mike says, chaz, I've just been involved in a bad wreck and my car is messed up. And I said, well, I'm sorry to hear that, are you hurt? And he says, yeah, I mean I'm okay, but you know I don't feel quite right. I said, okay, well, look, you've come to the right place. I can definitely help you with your car and I can help with your injuries and, and you know all you do, come, come meet with me in my office. Let's talk about it. Chaz man, I don't know if I want to go through with this. Okay, that's what we're going to be talking about today.

Speaker 1:

For some reason, when people get in wrecks, they don't think that they want to actually go forward and make an insurance claim and hire a lawyer, and so I'm going to give you four reasons why people don't make the claims, and I'm going to tell you why you should, even with all those objections, why you should still do it. And what it really comes down to is you shouldn't eat the bruises. You shouldn't just eat it, okay. All you are doing is making an insurance company more money, a billion dollar company headquartered in New Hampshire and shareholders of a publicly traded company more money, and you are eating it. Okay, why don't people file claims? The number one is they don't think they're hurt enough, okay. So when people say that they're okay, what they mean is they survived, they didn't lose a limb, they are not relegated to a bed in an ICU, and so they escaped near death, and so they don't think that they're actually hurt enough to pursue a claim. You know what the definition of hurt is in our office? It's discomfort or any type of soreness or anything other than if you're not 100% where you were before the wreck. You are hurt. You are hurt. Okay, were before the wreck. You were hurt. You were hurt, okay. So why would you eat that bruise? That was caused by someone else's negligence. They were texting and driving, they were drinking and driving. They were yelling at someone in the back seat and weren't paying attention. They were being reckless and careless, and now you have some type of injury. Let's call it what it is an injury that you did not have before, okay.

Speaker 1:

So what happens is thousands of pounds of steel and metal and aluminum are colliding at a high rate of speed, and a high rate of speed could be 10 miles an hour, could be 15 miles an hour, could be 50, 60, 70 miles an hour. And that is going to cause trauma to our little human bodies. And we're so fragile and frail and we are not perfect, right. So we're 30 years old, 40 years old, 60 years old. Our bodies are not meant to take that type of quick trauma and things happen in our spines and so anytime you have some soreness or discomfort, that is an actual injury. You don't know the extent of the injury, probably till you take an MRI and you can look at your vertebrae, right, the x-ray is not going to show it.

Speaker 1:

So number one is, they don't think that they're hurt enough to pursue an actual case or actually file a claim. And I'm going to tell you that there are people who come into this office that are merely sore a couple of days later and ended up needing a surgery eventually because the injury was so bad and just never got better. You will not know the day of the next day, three days later, the extent of your injury. So, number one do not allow that. You don't think your injury is severe enough to deter you from hiring a lawyer and pursuing a claim. You are eating the bruise and the insurance gets off scot-free.

Speaker 1:

Number two, not wanting to cause any kind of trouble or drama or bad karma to the other driver, okay, ah, you know, I don't want to pursue a claim against them because they think the shoe could be on the other foot. Well, I'm here to tell you, if the shoe were on the other foot, they would definitely make a claim against you. They don't care about you. They didn't care about you when they were texting and driving. They were driving recklessly, they were speeding, they disregarded that stoplight, okay. So again, why are you going to eat the bruises?

Speaker 1:

And so look, the bottom line is that person that was reckless and, by the way, looking down texting and driving is reckless behavior. We know that that's illegal. They have insurance. They should have insurance. I hope they have insurance. Knock on wood, they do have insurance. You're not suing them or making a claim against them to take their home and take their vehicle and take their bank account. You are pursuing them to go after their insurance that they paid for in the event that something like this would happen. Okay, so you're going after State Farm, allstate, geico, all these types of insurance companies. You're not going after John Smith, okay. So the big lesson to learn about that is there's no karma, that something's going to happen to you if you pursue claims against others. Because I know you're a defensive driver, I know you're a good driver. I know that you are a 10 and 2 and don't text and drive. I know you're a good driver. I know that you are a 10 and two and don't text and drive, so it shouldn't happen to you. Don't eat the bruise. You are going after their insurance and you need that to compensate you for your wrecked vehicle, for the treatment that it's going to take to get you right, for your lost wages, for the time that you're away from work.

Speaker 1:

Number three not wanting to commit to treatment. One reason why Mike may not want to come to our office is because I say, mike, you're hurt. Okay, we know the doctors who can fix you. We know the chiropractors or the doctors or the MRI machines or the specialists or the physical therapists or whoever who can actually fix you. Ah, man, that's an aggravation. I got too many things going on in my life. I have. You know we got. I'm coaching sports and I got a busy job. Okay, mike, suit yourself.

Speaker 1:

But here's the deal, mike that neck injury, that back injury, could severely limit your activity later on if you don't resolve it now. Remember, mike, you have a duty to mitigate your damages. That's an asshole lawyer way of saying if your roof blows off in a storm, you better go put a tarp on your roof so that your whole house doesn't flood roof, so that your whole house doesn't flood. If you're hurt in a wreck, you have a duty to seek care, to fix yourself as soon as possible. Okay, that's in the law. You need to mitigate your damages. If you don't get yourself taken care of now, what's going to happen is you're going to settle your case for a thousand dollars $2,500, and you're going to settle your case for $1,000, $2,500, and you're going to have a nagging neck injury or back injury or arm injury or shoulder injury or knee injury for the rest of your life.

Speaker 1:

Are you doing right by your family? Are you doing right by your kids? Are you doing right by yourself to just eat it? You don't want to commit to the treatment now, but it's going to bite you sooner or later? What if you? What if missing work, an hour of work a couple of times a week now, would add years of your working life later? What if you're so disabled later on because you're beat up and you got arthritis in your neck and your back from not treating it, you lose five years of your work. Have you thought about that, mike? Take care of yourself. Take care of yourself. It's worth taking care of yourself now and not eat it. And, by the way, if you take care of yourself now, the insurance company is going to pay for it. The auto insurance company is going to pay for your treatment and give you money for pain and suffering and give you money for the time you're away from work. If you eat it later on and you give them an out later on, you are going to be eating it in whole. You're going to lose the three years of your working life, the five years of your working life. You're going to have to pay for your surgery. You're going to have to pay for all this out of your own pocket. Insurance company has moved on Number four.

Speaker 1:

Some people are worried that their insurance rates are going to go up. Well, lucky for us in Louisiana, and actually most jurisdictions. If you make a claim on a non-fault wreck, meaning someone else was at fault, someone else rear-ended you, someone else side-swiped into you, someone else ran a red light, someone else swerved into your lane and hit you, and we can prove it. If you make an insurance claim, whether it be your collision policy to fix your car because you don't want to wait for the other insurance company, or we dip into your uninsured motorist coverage because the other person was uninsured or doesn't have enough insurance, they cannot raise your rates. Your insurance company cannot raise your rates. They cannot drop you. That is a Louisiana law. What is that law Lath? Yes, rs-22-1284. Rs-22-1284. Okay, we'll put it on the screen. If your insurance company raises your rates because you made a claim on your collision or your uninsured motorist coverage or your med pay coverage when you were not at fault, guess what? You have a legal action against your insurance company for penalties, and I would be too happy to make that claim for you. Okay, that's why you pay for insurance. That's why you pay for uninsured motorist coverage to cover you when the other person is at fault and doesn't have enough insurance or has no insurance.

Speaker 1:

Man, I have seen so many hit and run wrecks in the last year. I've seen more people I used to say this around COVID that a lot of people were uninsured. There was a moratorium that gave people an opportunity not to pay insurance for a while. Well, people got so used to not paying for insurance, they just stopped paying for insurance, and so I've seen more uninsured drivers and hit and run wrecks in the last year than I've seen in my entire career probably combined. When you see a hit and run, you could be better damn sure that they don't have insurance. Okay, so you need to have your own insurance and you should not think twice about making a claim for your insurance, because they cannot raise your rate, they cannot drop you. If they do, we have another claim for penalties against them.

Speaker 1:

What's the real cost of not pursuing your case? Cost of not pursuing your case? Well, number one is you are going to have to take on the medical bills for the rest of your life for those injuries out of pocket. Out of pocket, you are going to have to deal with the pain resulting from those injuries and you will not be compensated for it. And you also have to understand that you will be filled with regret for not addressing the pain and the injury sooner, where you could have got physical therapy or chiropractic treatment or whatever, 10 years earlier, 5 years earlier and the insurance company would have paid the medical bills and they would have paid you pain and suffering. So you'd actually got some money in your pocket for your, for your aggravation and your time and all that good stuff. Another thing is the lost wages. If you miss time from work dealing with your injuries down the road, you're gonna be stuck, you're gonna eat it. You could have been paid for your lost wages of the time that you took away from work to go get treated in the course of the case. You are making insurance companies a lot of money by eating it, whether it's through guilt or karma or ignorance and I'm not calling anyone ignorant. I'm saying ignorance in the legal sense that you don't know better. Now you do because you're listening to this podcast. All right Now.

Speaker 1:

Another type of objection is I don't want to go through court. I don't want to have to go to trial. I don't have to give depositions. Well, look, one out of 10 cases actually goes to actually filing a lawsuit. A lot of the cases we have is just an insurance claim, where we exchange letters and phone calls and we're able to sell the case before even filing suit. And then, of the ones that file suit, probably one in a hundred actually go to trial. Okay, so very few people have to give a deposition. Very few people have to of that subset. Very few have to go to trial because we know you weren't at fault and so the insurance company doesn't want to risk a jury assessing a lot of money in a runaway jury to you. So they're usually going to come correct and pay you what the case is worth.

Speaker 1:

Closing statement If you've been involved in a wreck, don't let these fears stop you from getting what's yours. Call me, call a lawyer, get involved, allow us to represent you, allow us to guide you to where you need to go to get yourself better, and allow us to negotiate with the insurance company to not only compensate you for those medical bills, for your time away from work, but for a fair settlement for your pain and suffering, for what you've been through. It is not greedy, it is not ugly, it is not tacky, it's none of those things. It's the right thing to do. You owe a duty to yourself. You owe a duty to your family to get the compensation you deserve if you've been hurt by someone else's negligence. Hope you learned something today. It's not an easy subject to cover, but if you need anything, please give me a call. Chaz Roberts, law 337-504-3202. Hope you enjoy this episode of Law. Have Mercy.

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