You know Colorado’s best attorney? He’s right here standing next to me. Hello. Phil Harding. Well hello. Happy Friday. Every week you teach us interesting things about the law that impacts our lives. I have learned really truly a lot from you. Good. And we always encourage you to send him your questions. So today, we thought we would actually see what kinds of questions you’re sending in, and hopefully he has the answer, right? You have all the answers? I sure hope I do. All right. What are we starting with? Well, I’m excited about this, and we’re going to go see how many questions we can go over. And let me tell you what we’re starting with. Okay. What are we starting with? What was the question? Well, the question was, if I make a statement after my injury, can they use that against me? Like in an auto accident. I’m going to tell you, if the insurance adjuster on the other side takes your statement within 15 days of the injury, totally inadmissible. I did not know that. Didn’t know that. When I got in an accident a couple years back, the first thing I did that day was I gave my statement. You’re not supposed to do that. Never. And that’s why there’s a Colorado law. There’s Colorado law that says, if someone on the other side takes your statement within 15 days, totally inadmissible. The other thing that it says is, if you settled your injury claim, now not the property claim but your injury claim within 30 days, totally voidable. And while we’re talking about personal injuries, I want to go over some quick dos and don’ts– I love these. –after an injury. Because it’s telling us exactly what not to do. So, what should you not do? Absolutely. Let’s start with the don’t. Don’t sign the medical release for the other side, and we’re going to show this here in just a second. Don’t give a statement. Number one, you saw that there was a law. But number two, it’s not going to help you anyway. So don’t make a statement without an attorney on line. Don’t show your medical bills with reductions it it. What does that mean. You’re going to see this here in just a moment because I’m going to show you a Swedish Medical bill on this. And don’t settle your case until you’re done treating. Now let’s talk about some dos. All right? Okay. Here are some dos. Do, if you’re able to after the accident, take pictures of the scene, including skid marks, damage to the car, all of that stuff. Also, another do is take pictures of your injuries, bruising and the like. Do kind of keep a log as to what’s going on. And most importantly, do follow your doctor’s orders. Because if you don’t, the other side’s going to say you failed to mediate your damages. Now let’s move on. Remember how I said don’t sign the medical release? Yeah. Why is that? The other side, yeah, they want to see your medical records, but they want to see your medical bills more than anything. Here’s one graphic I want to talk about. Now this, I got to tell you, in this situation, this is one bill from Swedish. Swedish billed $29,352 for the hospital alone. Not for the surgeon, but just for the hospital. Your insurance company reduced this amount by $20,803. They said, “We have a contracted rate with you.” So they knocked down that bill. And so they ended up only paying $6000. Now when you settle your case, you may have to pay back that $6000 to you health insurance. Colorado law says that you’re entitled to that full $29,000 to be paid from the other side. It’s called the Collateral Source doctrine. Now if you had signed a release for the other side, they would have seen this entire bill, and they’d only pay you $6000 when under Colorado law you’re entitled to full $29,000. So that’s why earlier you said do not show the reductions on your medical bills. Right. Right. You reduct that section. This one mistake alone, you would have lost $23,000. Really. One mistake. Wow. All right? That’s why you need an attorney. And that’s only one bill on this. Okay. So now we’re going to talk about the recovery. A recovery depends on the other side having insurance, so what if the other side does not have insurance? Yeah, that a great question. That’s a big question as a matter of fact that I get all the time too. And you know this, one out of six people driving in Colorado has no insurance at all. Yes. I know that. That’s crazy. So I’ve got to tell you, here’s the thing that you need to do. You need to take control of– you have health insurance. Make sure on your auto insurance you have something known as UM/UIM, stands for uninsured/underinsured motors coverage, and this is what I want you to know. Unless you signed a waiver, you have that on your car. What we’re talking about right now is insurance coverages. And here’s the thing, unless you signed a waiver, you have Med-Pay. So you have $5000 of medical payments that you don’t have to pay back. You have UM/UIM, uninsured/underinsured motors coverage. When you get UM/UIM, I want you to make sure that you have at least $100,000 on that. That one bill that we just saw from Swedish, $30,000. So make sure you have at least $100,000 on that. $100,000. Okay. And then with your car, if you have your car and either your renter’s or your homeowner’s insurance with the same company, add an umbrella for $300 or $400 more, you can get a $1 million more of coverage. Now, we’re going to jump real quick. I know we don’t have much time. We have one minute. Okay. Statute of limitation. The countdown is on. We’re talking about statute– Statute of limitation. Remember, statute of limitations is, you have to either settle this case or file a lawsuit within this time frame. If you’re on an auto accident, it’s three years. Three years. PLA, Premise Liability Act, that’s if you’re injured on the property of another. That’s two years. But if for example you’re injured on the state capital, you have to give notice, GIA, Governmental Immunity Act, within 180 days to even get the statute of limitations. Now if you’re fired or if you quit and your employer doesn’t pay you, you have to give them notice within 60 days. And if you do that, you get additional attorney’s fees and cost. Call me. I can answer these questions, but here is kind of the rocket docket going over, just a grab bag of questions. Well Phil, it just shows me everything that I don’t know and why I would need a lawyer like you. Is that what you wanted everyone to deduce from all of this? Absolutely or go to Coloradosbest.tv, and you can look at my previous segments. That’s good. You will learn a lot. I promise. So now you know. Phil really does answer your questions. So if you have a question for Phil, go to Coloradosbest.tv and send those questions in. He really will answer them, and he answers them personally by email as well. If you would like to contact Phil at his office, Harding & Associates, call 303-762-9500 and you can get a free consultation anytime. You can also find him online at hlaw.org.
By: Phil Harding
