There are many things to watch for after a crash that may mean trouble is brewing.

  1. Your neck/back didn’t initially hurt, but pain creeps in several days to weeks later. Whiplash or cervical sprains and back sprain/strains can take time to hurt, but it’s important to address them early for best long-term results and care. Seek out medical treatment at the first sign of pain.
  2. You haven’t heard back from a property damage or other adjuster or it seems to be taking forever for the other insurance to accept liability. It may be time to go through the main number to get a supervisor. Getting your car paid for can hinge on this liability determination, so it’s important it happens somewhat quickly, but occasionally it doesn’t. Be sure to follow up on this.
  3. The insurance company is trying to apportion some fault to you. Insurance companies are contractually bound to defer to (to some degree) and protect their insured. Sometimes, people’s version of the same accident may vary and the insurance companies may disagree about fault. Sometimes this is perception and sometimes someone is flat lying. It’s time to call a lawyer if you haven’t already. Trouble is brewing, and this determination will haunt you through every stage of the case. If you are headed into a liability dispute, there is evidence you may need that can disappear if you don’t jump on it fast…. think video surveillance footage from nearby businesses, dashcam video, skid marks, 911 calls, phone records, and black box data (yes, you can pull black box data from most cars on the road now). But if you wait too long, this evidence disappears. Call a lawyer sooner rather than later if a liability dispute is brewing.
  4. You have strange symptoms creep up, especially once the pain from the immediately most painful injuries draws back a bit. I’m talking about difficulty concentrating, sleeping, ringing in your ears, jaw pain, wrist pain, numbness or tingling anywhere, confusion, trouble with words or memory, moodiness, depression, headaches that persist, blurred vision, or trouble focusing. All of these can be symptoms of more significant injuries you will want to ask a doctor about and follow up with any referrals.
  5. Your insurance company wants you to do a PIP IME (independent medical exam). This one’s a big red flag and you should contact a lawyer immediately if you don’t already have one. This means there’s trouble brewing regarding your medical bill coverage. Some insurance companies are faster to do these than others, but ultimately, this means they think you are treating too long, or they don’t like the type of treatment or something, and they want you to go to a doctor they pay for to do an exam to determine whether your ongoing injuries are still related to the crash. If not, they will discontinue paying your bills. Spoiler alert – it is extremely rare these go in your favor, and most of the time the doctor will say if you’re still experiencing pain, that it’s not related to the crash and cut off your benefits. There’s a whole area of law dedicated to fighting your own insurance company for PIP benefits that I won’t get into here, but it’s time to lawyer up and hope you have health insurance as a backup plan while you fight with PIP for a while.
  6. The insurance company is low balling you on the car value or refusing to pay diminished value or rental car. This piece can also go awry, especially these days with car parts taking so long to get, and getting your car fixed may take months. Meanwhile, either you don’t have enough rental car coverage under your own policy, or the at fault has decided they are done paying for your rental car, it’s time to seek outside help. A lawyer can tell you what you are or aren’t entitled to in this range and answers can vary. Do your best to mitigate your own damages by borrowing a car, riding a bike, or coming out of pocket for a rental, possibly a smaller car. You can try to get your money back later on when you are dealing with case settlement, but in the meantime, sometimes this one ends up out of pocket in the short run and can be a messy area. Time to call that lawyer.
  7. If there are multiple people that might be injured in the crash, you should call a lawyer ASAP. We deal in insurance policy limits, and there are complicated caps that sometimes come into play where you might be competing with everyone else for a limited pot of money based on the nature of everyone’s injuries. You will want an advocate on your side that knows what they are doing to make sure you have a fighting chance at that pot.
  8. If a lawyer tells you he/she can represent multiple people in the car, I’d say this is a yellow flag but not necessarily a red one. Sometimes we can and sometimes we can’t. It depends on whether there’s an actual vs waivable conflict to do so. This is one that won’t hurt to have an in-depth conversation about conflicts with the lawyer on or call another lawyer for a second opinion. We can’t represent more than one person in the same car if it is likely a conflict will develop. This happens usually under 2 scenarios that a good lawyer should be looking for in our first call. First, if there are multiple people in your car (usually a family that all wants to hire the same lawyer), is there a good chance the driver of that car will be hit with any portion of fault? That creates a potential conflict between the passengers and driver and generally the passengers should find a different lawyer. The second situation is if there are multiple cars involved, multiple people in all the cars that might have claims, injuries may be larger, or if my client doesn’t have much in UIM insurance. These are risky cases to take on more than 1 injured person and usually others should be referred out to be sure every person can get the full compensation their claim is worth.
  9. If your chiropractor is burning through your PIP too quickly, especially if you do not have an MD overseeing your treatment or may need an MRI, it might be time to start paying better attention to the amount of the bills and if there will be enough $ left on your PIP to pay other providers. Like everything else, there are good chiros and bad. I’ve seen overbilling with chiropractors, massage therapists and acupuncturists, so it may be worth a second opinion on what your provider is charging for your treatment! This is somewhat more regulated in OR than in WA, so keep an eye on those WA bills!
  10. The insurance company calls you in the weeks following the crash to offer you some amount of money to close the claim. NEVER DO THIS. Call the lawyer. Unless you are quite sure you aren’t injured, won’t need treatment and everything is paid for, this amount of money will virtually never be enough to fully compensate you for a claim so early on when you likely have no idea of the nature and extent of your damages. Insurance companies do this to limit their exposure and save money, not to look out for you!
  11. As always, if something seems amiss in general, there are plenty of other red flags, always feel free to contact a lawyer in this area. Consults are always free!