Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer

The answer to this question often depends upon your specific situation. In an automobile accident with fairly minor injuries, sometimes there is Personal Injury Protection insurance or “PIP” coverage that can help pay for your medical bills.

Other times your private health insurance will pay your medical bills. Once we settle your case, we may have to reimburse your private health insurance policy for medical expenses.

In other cases where our clients do not have health insurance, we can arrange medical treatment for our clients using a “letter of protection.” That means that we make an agreement with medical providers that if and when we make a recovery in your personal injury case, then we will pay the medical bills out of the settlement.

In some cases where our clients are unable to get medical treatment otherwise, our law firm will advance the cost of medical expenses in order to assist our client. Exactly how each medical expense is handled in each case will depend on the facts of each case and the circumstances of any potentially-available forms of insurance payment.

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The time it takes to resolve a personal injury claim depends very much on the type of case. We believe that it is important to prosecute claims as quickly and efficiently as possible. We usually like to have our client finish with their medical treatment so that we can fully and properly evaluate their injuries before we attempt to settle the claim. Sometimes we can assist a client with making advances to cover lost wages or living expenses while the client is waiting for the case to be resolved. Typically, automobile accident cases with fairly minor injuries can be resolved in about six months. More serious accident cases usually take anywhere from six months up to a year and a half or longer.

You always have the right to fire your attorney; however, if you have signed a contract with that attorney, you may have to pay that attorney a fee. The answer to that question is very fact-specific, because one of the considerations as to whether you owe the first attorney a fee is whether you have “good cause” for firing that attorney.

What we recommend is, if you are unhappy with your current attorney, try to communicate that to them first. Let them know why you are unhappy so that they have a chance to remedy the problem. If you cannot get in contact with your attorney, or if they are unable or unwilling to remedy the problem, then your next step would be to consult another personal injury attorney. The new attorney can advise you about your contract with the first attorney. If you have “good cause” for firing the first attorney, and you have made an unsuccessful, good-faith effort to resolve the problems with the first attorney, then your new attorney will likely be able to resolve any claims from the first attorney. Such a resolution typically involves the old attorney and the new attorney dividing the contingency fee between themselves so that you do not have to pay double fees.

An attorney who is Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Personal Injury Trial Law must have handled jury trials dealing with matters such as vehicle accidents, workers’ compensation, premises liability, products liability, statutory tort claims, maritime accidents, or social security claims which involve a physical or mental injury to a person. The lawyer must also have extensive knowledge of the law of evidence, procedure, and other substantive law involved in the trial of Personal Injury Trial Law. In order to be certified , an attorney must have:

• Been licensed to practice law for at least five years;
• Devoted a required percentage of practice to personal injury trial law for at least three years;
• Handled a wide variety of personal injury trial law matters to demonstrate experience and involvement;
• Attended personal injury trial law continuing education seminars regularly to keep legal training up to date;
• Been evaluated by fellow lawyers and judges; and
• Passed a day-long written examination.

Kevin Glasheen is Board Certified in Personal Injury and Civil Trial Law.

Personal injury claims are usually resolved by either settlement or by a jury. When a case is settled, it is the client’s decision of whether or not to accept a settlement offer. The lawyer will advise the client as to the potential value of the claim. Lawyers evaluate the potential value of a claim by predicting what a jury would do based on experience with similar claims.A jury can consider all sorts of damages in a personal injury case including medical expenses in the past and in the future, loss of earnings in the past and in the future as a result of the injury, physical pain and mental anguish in the past and in the future, compensation for impairment – that is loss of use, and disfigurement damages. The jury has discretion in awarding the sums. We can give you advice on the value of your claim based on our experience with some of our claims and similar jury results.