How to Handle an Auto Injury Claim

And we are back and as I promised, Attorney Jed Dietrich is with us and we thought we would talk about Jed the stuff you are the most busy with is people calling you after a car accident and I still think it is unclear to some people why they might need an attorney after a car accident.

Good to see you again Linda. Nice to see you too sir. It is a great day to be a Buffalonian right? Look at the sun shining after the rainstorm yesterday and we have got a couple of nice days coming up. Yes, we do.

But again, what you actually have to do is be protected after an injury accident. We are here to help people at (716) 839-3939. Your insurance company pays your medical bills if you are rear-ended which does not make sense. Why should your insurance company pay for your injuries when the person behind you caused the problem? Well, that is the New York No-Fault law in our state. It was set up to minimize lawsuits, so there were not cases in court to argue about a couple hundred dollars or so. The problem is it created a situation where the insurance companies are really in control. Your insurance company is in control of how much treatment you get and your own treating doctor may say that you need an MRI but your insurance company might say “well, we do not think that you need an MRI,” and then there is a fight between you and your own insurance company. So, we are there to help you with that fight, we work with your doctor and then we fight your insurance company to get your medical bills paid and get you the treatment you need so that you can get recovered and on your way back to work or whatever you do. Now, there is kind of a double-edged sword because your insurance, after you have this accident, may come to you and say right away “well here is a check because we want to help you take care of yourself,” it happens all of the time. And you think, well that is good, they did not fight me on that but then you might realize, you know what, I am a lot more hurt than I thought, which happens in time which you figure out and you are done.

Now the first thing you need to do after a car accident is call the police and get a police report because if there is not a police report that can be a red flag and it makes it a very difficult case to bring if you are injured, if there is not a police report filed, so that is the first thing. The second thing you need to do is go to the hospital and get checked out, even if you do not think that you are that seriously injured, go get an x-ray, make sure nothing is broken and then see how you do over the next couple of days. We like to get involved right after that at (716) 839-3939. We will assist you with filling out the No-Fault application, your own insurance company requires you to fill out this application, it has to be made in a timely manner, which means quickly. Shortly after an accident, there is a call to action, you need to contact us right away and then we can assist you with your interactions with your own insurance company and the interactions with the other insurance company because obviously if someone rear-ends you that is a simple situation. You are at a red-light, you are stopped for that red-light and the person behind you rear-ends you, it happens all of the time and probably 80% of my cases are those rear-end cases. Who is going to pay your medical bills? Your company is. But who is going to pay for the damage to your car? The other person’s insurance pays for that. So, we assist in all of these areas.

If you decide that yes, I need Jed’s help on this and you start working with Jed and then all of a sudden your insurance company calls you should you just refer them to you? Yes, that is what we like to say and again there are three things about my office that are different than the other firms in Buffalo. Number one, we treat our clients the way that we want to be treated, I live by the Golden Rule, my parents taught me that growing up and that is what I live by, that is number one. Number two, we think before we interact with our clients and we listen to them to that we understand where they are coming from. And number three, we work hard on their behalf to try to get the best result possible.

I give every single one of my clients my cell phone number and a lot of lawyers I talk to – and again I have been out of law school for about 20 years – and they say “how can you give everybody your cell phone number,” and it is because we contact our clients proactively, at least once a month, we have a very close relationship with our clients. So, our office is on John James Audubon Pkwy in Amherst and we encourage clients to come over, even without an appointment, come on in and we will help you out. Obviously if I am busy with something else my assistant will help you out or if I can get free then I will sit down with you. We are there to give you personalized service after a personal injury which is very different than a lot of the other organizations in Buffalo that do the same type of work.

Yes, and you know you do not want to cheat yourself, if something like this happens, do not short shift yourself and say “well I think that I am going to be ok,” by all means, get an expert’s opinion on this. This is exactly what Jed does and his entire law firm. The Dietrich Law Firm, P.C. they are located right there on John James Audubon Pkwy in Buffalo, simply go to calljed.com or as Jed says pick up the phone and give them a call at (716) 839-3939.