Hi,
When I was 12 years old I was involved in a near-fatal roll over car accident. I was hospitalized for 3 weeks, and I was left with two very large scars from my operation.
We had a lawyer that was handling the insurance claims case.
It took him about 4 years to come up with a settlment for us, and for 1.5-2 of those years we lost contact with him. I now came to learn that he switched firms, and that he moved around a little bit.
The drivers insurance policy had a $15,000 limir per injury, and of course I was offered this amount as a settlement.
Since I was a minor at the time, my mother was handling this case on my behalf, and she did not speak english very well at the time.
About a year ago, a few months before my 18th birthday, i met with that lawyer for the first time, i wanted to ask him a few questions on all of the options i had, because 15,000 seemed like a very small amount for the extent of my injuries. During our meeting my lawyer kept pressuring us into signing the release of liablity and accepting the settlement. I told him that we're not going to sign anything today and he automatically got up and told us that he's leaving my case and that we will have to take it from there, and he would also put a lien on my settlment.
I have recently turned 18 (may 2008) and i have taken over this.
My first question is, am I still able to collect the money from the insurance?(i understand that the statue of limitations expires two years after my 18th birthday)(I live in san diego, california)
and also, is there any way i can get the full 15,000...and possibly take off the lien that my lawyer has put on my case, i've taken a look through my file, and all it has is all of my medical records from the hospital, police reports on the accident...and a few letters of communications from the insurance company requesting my release of liability...so my lawyer did not do any work..and i dont feel that he has earned his wages...
and it took him an awful lot of time to contact us back with any updates...like i said, we lost contact with him for almost 2 years
i'm already getting a very small settlement for my horrible injuries...
any help/advice would be highly appreciated
When I was 12 years old I was involved in a near-fatal roll over car accident. I was hospitalized for 3 weeks, and I was left with two very large scars from my operation.
We had a lawyer that was handling the insurance claims case.
It took him about 4 years to come up with a settlment for us, and for 1.5-2 of those years we lost contact with him. I now came to learn that he switched firms, and that he moved around a little bit.
The drivers insurance policy had a $15,000 limir per injury, and of course I was offered this amount as a settlement.
Since I was a minor at the time, my mother was handling this case on my behalf, and she did not speak english very well at the time.
About a year ago, a few months before my 18th birthday, i met with that lawyer for the first time, i wanted to ask him a few questions on all of the options i had, because 15,000 seemed like a very small amount for the extent of my injuries. During our meeting my lawyer kept pressuring us into signing the release of liablity and accepting the settlement. I told him that we're not going to sign anything today and he automatically got up and told us that he's leaving my case and that we will have to take it from there, and he would also put a lien on my settlment.
I have recently turned 18 (may 2008) and i have taken over this.
My first question is, am I still able to collect the money from the insurance?(i understand that the statue of limitations expires two years after my 18th birthday)(I live in san diego, california)
and also, is there any way i can get the full 15,000...and possibly take off the lien that my lawyer has put on my case, i've taken a look through my file, and all it has is all of my medical records from the hospital, police reports on the accident...and a few letters of communications from the insurance company requesting my release of liability...so my lawyer did not do any work..and i dont feel that he has earned his wages...
and it took him an awful lot of time to contact us back with any updates...like i said, we lost contact with him for almost 2 years
i'm already getting a very small settlement for my horrible injuries...
any help/advice would be highly appreciated
