Motor Vehicle Accidents
Auto Accidents
If you are involved in an automobile accident or other type of vehicle accident, you need the assistance of a qualified accident attorney as soon as possible. If you wait to speak to an attorney, critical evidence may be lost, witnesses cannot be found, vehicles are crushed or repaired and physical evidence fades or vanishes. The insurance companies defending the at fault driver often start an immediate investigation and can gain an advantage in the claims handling process. When we agree to represent an accident victim, we immediately begin an investigation to secure the accident vehicles, document the physical evidence and contact important witnesses. You should talk to an experienced accident attorney before making any statements to an insurance claims investigator.
Motor vehicle crashes killed more than 41,000 people in the United States in 2007. In California, more than 300,000 people are injured each year in traffic collisions. For over 40 years, we have represented accident victims to receive funds to pay for medical expenses, lost income, disability, pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. We have the experience, expertise and resources to battle the insurance companies and corporations to obtain a winning verdict or settlement for accident victims.
At Van Blois & Associates, we accept a limited number of cases, so that we can devote our full attention and resources to our clients. We operate as a team with all lawyers and paralegals working together on each case. Your case will not be assigned to an inexpeienced junior associate. We immediately investigate our accident cases, retain qualified accident experts at the beginning, assist our clients in obtaining appropriate medical treatment and prepare the case for trial. Most accident cases settle and do not have to go to trial. Our law firm has consistently achieved maximum awards because the insurance companies and corporations know we will be completely prepared to go to trial to achieve a large verdict if the case does not settle for a fair and appropriate amount.
We work to achieve a maximum net recovery for our clients and continue to represent them after the case has settled to reduce or defeat medical liens or claims from our client's health care providers who aggressively pursue reimbursement of the cost of medical treatment. Although the cost of medical treatment is normally covered by private insurance or an HMO, medical providers demand reimbursement of medical costs. Kaiser Foundation Hospital retains collection attorneys who demand repayment of medical expenses. Often an injured person cannot be fully compensated because the negligent party has inadequate insurance coverage or there may be comparative fault that reduces the recovery. Each year we successfully reduce medical lien claims for our clients. In a recent case Kaiser Hospital demanded payment of $333,000 for reimbursement of medical expenses, although our client only recovered $500,000 because no other insurance was available. We defended our client by maintaining that the medical treatment was below the standard of care. We were able to get the entire Kaiser lien eliminated.
In another case, Kaiser sued our client in State court for reimbursement of all medical costs. We defeated the lien claim in court and then sued Kaiser for malicious prosecution and at trial Kaiser paid our client and us over one million dollars for their abuse of the legal process. In another case, our client was seriously injured when her vehicle went off Interstate 80 in Auburn at a curve that had no guardrails. We reached a settlement at trial for one million dollars with the State of California. Kaiser then demanded over $350,000 for claimed medical costs, although their representative had informed us the costs were significantly less than that. Kaiser sued our client in State court which we defended and won a Motion for Summary Judgment that eliminated the entire Kaiser claim. Although we cannot guarantee that all medical liens will be eliminated or substantially reduced, for example, government liens by Medicare and MediCal are more difficult to reduce, we use our experience and resources to reduce or eliminate medical reimbursement claims to increase our clients' net recovery.
