Mike Agruss:
Welcome to the Mike Agruss Law talk show on VSAM 1040. Today’s show will be translated into Spanish for our Spanish speaking viewers. I’m here with my partner Taylor and our legal assistant, Maria, and we are going to talk about car accidents today.
Maria Rodriguez:
[foreign language 00:00:27]… Mike Agruss Law. [foreign language 00:00:33]. Taylor, if you’re involved in a car accident what are the three things that you should do?
Taylor Kosla:
The first thing you should do when you’re involved in a car accident is call 911. You want the police to come to the scene of the accident to get evidence and create a police report. What the police will do is they’ll interview everyone involved in the accident. They’ll interview witnesses to create a diagram.
During this portion, when the police are at the scene of the accident, if you’re not comfortable speaking English, you’re worried about some translation issues, what we recommend is that you actually put a family member or friend on speaker phone when speaking with the officer so that your story is being accurately translated to the officer. But it’s really important that they’re able to come to the scene, maybe take photos, document a report of the actual accident.
The second most important thing to do when you’re involved in an accident is to get treatment. Even if you think you might have just minor injuries, those minor injuries might worsen over the next few hours or even several days so it’s important that you go it to a hospital to get checked out completely. And if the doctor is at the hospitals tell you, follow up with your primary care doctor or see a specialist, whatever they tell you to do, it’s important to follow instructions and continue to get the treatment that you need.
The third most important thing to do at the scene of an accident.. Or not at the scene of the accident, but right after an accident, is to call an attorney. Because after being involved in an accident you’re going to start receiving calls from insurance companies who don’t have your best interests at heart. We will take care of those calls. We will start getting the evidence that we need to work up your case, and we’ll also make sure that you get the treatment that you need to get better. Three things to do after an accident, call 911, get the treatment you need, and call a lawyer. We’ll take away all the headaches that are coming your way after an accident and try and get you back on your feet as quickly as possible.
Maria Rodriguez:
Okay. [foreign language 00:03:04] … Taylor. [foreign language 00:03:05]… Mike Agruss Law. [foreign language 00:04:25]. Mike, should I speak with a car insurance company after an accident?
Mike Agruss:
The short answer is no, and there are several reasons why. The car insurance company who’s contacting you, which is likely the other driver’s insurance company, has their best interests in mind. And insurance companies are for profit companies, they want to get more in premiums then they pay out in settlements.
As Taylor mentioned with the top three things you should do after an accident, one of which is hire a lawyer, those are things that we take care of. Don’t talk to the insurance company, it’s very simple. And if you contact an attorney and hire us, we will deal with your insurance company. We’ll deal with the other driver’s insurance company. We’ll make sure that your property damage is taken care of and we’ll deal with all of those headaches.
It’s very common after a car accident for people to want to talk to the insurance company, and I can’t stress it enough that they shouldn’t because the friendly person on the other end of the line really doesn’t have your interest in mind, and this happens all the time. I mean, we’ve had clients who are contacted by the at fault driver’s insurance company the same day of the accident. I’ve had a client who was contacted in the hospital. It’s wild. The short answer is, don’t talk to insurance, talk to a lawyer first and we’ll take care of everything.
Maria Rodriguez:
[foreign language 00:06:01]… Mike… [foreign language 00:06:14]… Mike Agruss Law… [foreign language 00:06:28].
Mike Agruss:
Maria, let me add something because I don’t want it to sound too harsh. Like, no, you’re never going to want to talk to the insurance company. Look, there are times where people contact us, we give them advice and the advice is, yeah, it’s totally fine. Go talk to the insurance company because you’re not injured, they just want to fix your car. You can figure out how much your car is worth or damaged based on an estimate or Kelly Blue Book, or whatever.
There are times where we talk to our clients and we say, “Look, it’s totally fine to talk to them.” But it’s just best to talk to us first, a lawyer first, so we can give advice to make sure that the client doesn’t say something that comes back to haunt them.
Maria Rodriguez:
Okay. [foreign language 00:07:26]… Mike… [foreign language 00:07:30]. Taylor, what if my injuries are minor? Should I get the medical treatment from the scene of the accident?
Taylor Kosla:
Absolutely. And I specifically can think of one client who is really hesitant at the scene of the accent to get help. They were like, “Oh, I just feel a little achy, but I think I’ll be fine.” And a lot of people feel this way. You’re in an accident, your adrenaline’s flowing, you think you’ll be fine.
She did go to the hospital and ended up being really injured for a period of years. It was soft tissue, but she had concussions, migraines, and this really lasted for two years. And it’s a good thing she went because if she had delayed treatment that really hurts your case [inaudible 00:08:57] because the insurance company’s going to say, “Hey, these injuries weren’t caused by the accident. They waited a week or two weeks.” Those gaps in treatments can be really detrimental to your case. You won’t regret going to the hospital. If you are fine, great, but you will certainly regret not going if those minor injuries get worse.
Maria Rodriguez:
[foreign language 00:09:20]… Taylor… [foreign language 00:09:25]. Mike, can Mike Agruss Law help me find a doctor for my treatment?
Mike Agruss:
Yes. Throughout the years we have created a network of doctors who we work with. And as Taylor was mentioning, it’s so important to get treatment after the scene of an accident. But a lot of people, they don’t know where to go or maybe they do know where to go but there’s a two or three week, or even longer delay before they can go see the doctor.
We work with orthopedic physicians, we work with physical therapists, pain management doctors, and we will make sure that our clients get the treatment that they need. And more importantly, we can get people in to see doctors within a matter of a couple of days. And that’s really important because as Taylor was mentioning, you want to get treatment right away. And the reason that’s important is because it will document your injuries, it will document what’s going on, and the insurance companies look at that when they settle cases.
We don’t want clients to worry about getting medical treatment and who to see, that’s part of our process. We make sure that people get treatment. They go to the right doctor and they get the treatment that they need. And look, sometimes people will go to a doctor and two weeks later they’re fine and it’s not a big deal, and that’s great because we want people to get better. Oftentimes though people are injured, they don’t know where to go, what to do, and we can help with that. Literally reach out to us, reach out to you, we will find a doctor near them as part of our network and we get people in within a day or two.
Maria Rodriguez:
Okay. [foreign language 00:11:51]… Mike… [foreign language 00:11:51]… Mike Agruss Law… [foreign language 00:11:57]. Taylor, who pays for the bills, the damages, and the expenses if I’m in an accident?
Taylor Kosla:
When a case is settled, when the other side pays, all that is included in the settlement. They’re paying for your medical bills, pain and suffering, loss of normal life. A whole list of things that they’re actually paying that adds up to the dollar amount that you get at the end of the day. However, until the case settles and you’re getting treatment, incurring medical bills, there’s a couple things that happen.
If you have health insurance, you can submit those bills to your health insurance and your health insurance might get paid at the end as a portion of the settlement. However, if you don’t have health insurance or maybe you want to see providers that aren’t in your network, the great thing is that the doctors that Mike and I have, and the healthcare providers in that network that he mentioned, they’ll treat all of our clients on a lead. That means they’ll give you all the treatment that you need prior to settlement and then they get a portion of the settlement based on the amount of bills that you incurred over that time.
But that’s an awesome service that we provide to our clients, because they don’t have to worry about, oh my gosh, I need all this treatment, these medical bills, I’m getting all these letters. Our network will treat you regardless of whether you have health insurance and they’ll just get paid on the end. That’s why it’s really important to hire an attorney, especially Mike Agruss Law, to make sure that you get all the treatment that you need regardless of whether you have health insurance.
Mike Agruss:
And at the end of a case what we’re going after is we’re going after the other driver’s insurance company. And if the other driver doesn’t have insurance, or they don’t have enough, we’re going after our own client’s insurance company to make sure that they are compensated for these damages, medical bills, and all of that. At the end of the day, we’re going after insurance to pay out our clients in a personal injury case.
Maria Rodriguez:
Yeah. [foreign language 00:14:28]… Taylor… [foreign language 00:15:30]… Mistake, sorry. What did you say about you try to collect from the insurances at the end ultimately?
Mike Agruss:
Yeah. The at fault driver has insurance.
Maria Rodriguez:
Okay. That’s the part-
Mike Agruss:
You as a driver also have insurance, so we go after the at fault driver’s insurance to pay out and then if there’s additional coverage through your own insurance… We’re just going after car insurance companies like State Farm, All State, Progressive, that’s who ends up paying at the end.
Maria Rodriguez:
Okay. [foreign language 00:16:19]. Mike, how much does it cost to hire Mike Agruss Law for a personal injury case?
Mike Agruss:
This is a really good question and it’s super important for the viewers to know this, that we work on a contingency fee, so we don’t get paid unless we get a settlement. And what that means is our services are free. Our clients don’t pay a penny and the only time we do get paid is if we get a settlement. And so there’s no risk to reach out to us, whether it’s to ask about I was in a car accident and I have a question about insurance, or property damage, or I was injured, can you help me? We handle all of our cases on a contingency fee. We will give people free advice all the time, even if we can’t help them. I don’t want people to be discouraged with, oh, this is a lawyer they’re going to charge me so much money. I don’t have the money to pay for it.
The short answer is, its free unless we get a settlement and then we get paid. And we do all of the work on the case for free until we settle the case or win. What that means is we could work on a case for two months, a year, two years, and our clients literally never pay us to dime that entire time. We do all the work, we front all the costs, and when we settle the case is when we get paid. And look, once in a blue moon we don’t win a case and we lose, and even in those situations our clients don’t owe us a dime. The short answer is our clients will never pay us a penny. It is free and we get paid when we settle a case.
Maria Rodriguez:
Okay. [foreign language 00:17:43]… Mike… [foreign language 00:17:46]… Mike Agruss Law… [foreign language 00:17:48]… Mike Agruss Law… [foreign language 00:17:55].
Mike Agruss:
Thank you for watching the Mike Agruss Law talk show today on VSAM 1040 Chicago. Today’s show was for our Spanish speaking audience. I was here with my partner Taylor, and Maria who helped translate, to teach the viewers about personal injury, car accidents, and what to do.
Maria Rodriguez:
[foreign language 00:18:52]… Mike Agruss Law… [foreign language 00:18:53].
Mike Agruss:
Bye, thank you.
