Should we lawyer up? (Page 3)

Lawyers need food too, I suppose.

I agree that the OP should tell his side of the story to their insurance company, and let them duke it out with the dojo's insurance.  Insurance companies are for profit...they make more profit if they can prove another insurance company should pay the bill.  For this reason, insurance companies have their own lawyers...so let them use their own resources.  In essence...you're already paying for their lawyers through your premiums.

The OP only needs to get involved is if they want to sue for additional damages.  In that case, the OP's insurance (and their lawyers) could care less about proving you deserve additional compensation as they aren't going to see a dime of that money, so hiring a lawyer would be in the best interest of the OP.

skipg - 2012-02-18 12:19 AM

lifejustice - 2012-02-17 6:19 PM This is why America is doomed.

Don't think you needed the red

Fixed.

This happens. I received a letter last week from someone representing my insurance carrier. I had gone to the chiropractor last year for ART related to my chronic piriformis issue. Sure enough they wanted to see if it was accident related and if there was another party involved.

The person I talked to laughed when I said it was self-inflicted and closed out the file.

Go and tell the truth....simple as that. And you will get compensation if your entitled to it.

 What specifically do you want a lawyer there for? 

Be mindful of lawyers.  I fell into a trap of getting a lawyer once.  All it did was cost me more money for lawyers fees.  Lawyers always say you should hire them...no matter what....they need to work too!    You can always get one at a later time if you don't like where it's going or want to pursue the matter further.

Not sure what the specifics of your case is, but we spar'd in "white belt' or level I or whatever you want to call it.  Distancing between opponents takes a while to learn and to be comfortable with, but it starts very early.  The reason is that you need to be to close/to far to start to realize the reach of your punches/kicks and make the distancing second nature mimicking a real fight/competition...but you have to start where you started.......messing up is how you actually learn.  I guess if he was negligent in his safety procedures?  But from your original post, not sure where the fault is without more information.

I would be extremely careful of commitments like this.  Alarm bells just go off.....would you blindly trust the same from any other profession....so why this one?

As soon as she gets treatment on her medical insurance and they find out that this occured in this type of even they and their lawyers can investigate and file suit if they feel it's worth it.  It's like being hurt in a car accident with a broken leg your insurance doesn't want to eat if they don't have to. 

At the end of the day the OP is at fault for knowingly putting himself in this situation.  Don't get me wrong it sucks for you bro but that's martial arts.  Wait until you worked your way up to tournament teams.  My brother took Judo for years and at every one of his tournaments at least one person left with a bad bone break.  It ain't ballet.

This is both true and untrue.  As the plaintiff you must pay expenses like copies, filing fee, depositions (if needed), etc but in the end the idea is that you come out ahead and the 1/3 contingency fee is enough to cover any out of pocket expenses like medical, time off from work, and the "profit" that all the lawyer commercial say they will get you is hit.  IF you don't prove liability then you don't pay the attorney anything except expenses. 

Not that anybody has requested it - but below is how things currently stand.

The owner's insurance performed their due diligence, in the form of interviews with my wife and several witnesses.

They sent us a letter stating that while they determined there was no fault of the insured, we could apply for coverage under the premises medical payments portion of the owner's policy.  We didn't expect anything different.

I read this as just a part of the insurance company's negotiating tactics - basically a stick/carrot approach.

In the end, we took the carrot.  We tallied up all the out-of-pocket expenses incurred to date, and sent copies to the insurance company, as well as the outstanding balances from the hospital.  A few days later we received a check, and so did the hospital.

Reasonable people can disagree over the issues of fault and assumed risk, but I guess I would say the system worked. 

Glad to hear things worked out.  I think when you come in with reasonable requests it makes it a lot easier.

Along the lines of above...everyone is forgetting one thing...there are TWO parties with out of pocket expenses...not just the OP...also the medical insurance company.  Since the OP settled without their knowledge (I assume) doesn't the medical carrier have a claim to some or all of the med-pay dollars received by the OP?

Probably horrible PR to try to get it, and potentially not worth it, but just an interesting sideline that only one person in this thread brought up that I can see.  If you are injured in any type of accident, I think your medical insurance carrier is the one that gets to subrogate for repayment, not you.

Good points, but I don't think they (our medical insurance) have a claim on the money we received.  That was reimbursement for copay's, & deductibles.

Now that I say that, maybe there's exposure on the money that was paid (past the deductible) towards the out-of-pocket annual limit. 

I know early on that we did have to fill out a form for our insurance describing the event, I assume to determine whether they should litigate.

...And also probably for any other issues related to this case, meaning if your medical ins. ever had an intention of going after them, you unknowingly shot that opportunity (I think, again, I know only enough to be dangerous).

I'm not criticizing and support your overall move...medical payments is in these policies for just this scenario...quick and easy fix direct to victims.

My wife banged her head on the liftgate of our car and needed stitches.  4 months later my medical went after my car insurance and got re-imbursed.  So, along the lines of the form you filled out...they may just not have gotten to it yet...or maybe I'm just bringing up a bunch of nothing, I don't know. 

What you really need is a professional engineer...I know because I am one.  I don't do this kind of work, but when I did I really helped, alot, and more.

So my view is that if it's my insurance company then I will talk with them freely.  I will ask them about recovering my personal expenses from the other party if my insurance company seeks moneies from the dojo's insurance carrier.  If it's the other persons insurance company I request the questions in writing ahead of time.  I answer the ones that are relavent to the accedent in writing.  If there are irrelivent questions and they seem suspicious then I would either choose not to answer the questions or then seek a lawyer before answering the questions.

But in reality in this situation I wouldn't consider attempting to recover my money.  It's an expensive lesson in personal responsibility and the fact that accidents happen.  TKD is a combat sport, you know for hurting and killing people.  Yes we practiced not hurting and killing people while practicing moves to hurt and kill people, but in the end accidents happen.

X2

So again, the key distinction is that the "no sparring for white belts" is just supplementary in nature.  Though perhaps you haven't taken TKD instruction before - there's no opting out. (I mean, of course you could . . .  but you're trusting the black belt at the front of the class.  Say no, and you're likely excused from the class/test)

The primary issue is that it's the instructors' responsibiity to maintain safe conditions for whatever activity is occurring under their instruction.

When I have observed free-sparring pairs (from the audience), the instructors are actively monitoring the participants' actions, as well as the conditions, particularly so (regarding the latter) for younger/less experienced participants.

A & B were sparring, C & D were sparring.  In my humble opinion, it is not A's responsibility to keep C from tearing her ACL.

I don't believe fault is necessarily absolute.  My wife absolutely assumed some risk when she signed up.  But she didn't assume all risk.  There shouldn't have been a dozen pairs sparring in a space that can only comfortably (and safely) hold 6-8.  Some folks should have been sitting/standing against the wall and waiting.