Workers compensation courts are known as the “exclusive remedy” for on-the-job injuries. Once you have won in WC, you cannot recover twice for the same injury in another court. You cannot be compensated twice for the same injury. So, pain and suffering, lost wages and damages for any permanent impairment of your ability to work are included in the workers compensation action – against the employer. If the employer is found to be 100% at fault for the accident occurring, you are done, fully paid.

But if the employer is not at fault for the accident, or is only partially at fault for the accident, you may sue the person who did cause the accident. When you sue, you ask for property (car) damages, reimbursement for medical bills, pain and suffering, lost income, etc. If your employer was not at fault, any amount you get in your lawsuit against the other driver is used to pay back the employer for what they put out in workers compensation benefits. Because remember, you cannot collect twice.

The interaction of the WC statutes and the civil law is complex. If you don’t have a lawyer working on this, you should.

as far as a lawyer, they wont do much unless there is injury, otherwise it’s just civil or small claim court issues

Better talk to your insurance agent ASAP or the claim rep.

A 30-40% cut is better than getting nothing. You should have got an attorney. You may be too late to claim anything.

The biggest factor, is state law – in some states, you wouldn’t be eligible for anything. In others, it would be medical bills only, and chiro bills are heavily discounted.

Actual injuries count. What the ER showed was the problem – and soft tissue injures, well, that’s not a big deal.

Depending on what state you are in, you might be too late for asking for pain & suffering – most states, the statute of limitations is two years. Or less.

The insurance is NEVER going to pay out more than the policy limit, and with two other cars involved, you could have hit that already – you have NO idea how much THEY have received, or what her policy limits are.

You’re best off discussing this with YOUR AGENT, because you didn’t give anywhere near enough information here.

you have the right to take your car whereever you please for repairs. HOWEVER, only at a geico-assigned shop will they guarantee the work – and any shop might use sub-standard parts (and i dunno about you, but i couldn’t tell the difference just by looking), so you’re better off with a written guarantee, imo.
geico generally sends out an appraiser to do an estimate, based on that, they’ll cut you a check for that amount. you go get it repaired and then, if it winds up being more, they will reimburse you.
usually, you can call either company and ask them all sorts of questions until you find an arrangement you’re satisfied with. but remember to be careful about admitting fault. admit NOTHING.

Keep in mind, she wasn’t seriously injured. Also, there was probably NO NEED for “follow up” visits through urgent care. Unless the DOCTOR said she was unable to work, missing a week for soft tissue injuries (bruises) was probably way, way overkill.

I think your friend is being unreasonable. I think $2500 for P&S for minor injuries, is MORE than fair. I have no idea why your friend thinks it’s worth $10,000 . . .

Hard hit accident not in question and Hartfard has admitted fault.

Paramedics will always put someone on a backboard if suspect serious injuries. ER on the other hand after examining her did not take x-rays, so as you said soft tissue strain on right arm/back/neck. They treated her and released her with pain meds which is standard also. The 4 follow up visits to urgent care I suspect was for more pain meds, since many urgent care will not write RX or just give you possibly a few day supply each time you visit for fear that someone is abusing the system for pain meds. She also had minimum physical therapy of 5 sessions. As for lost work, unless the doctor at the ER or urgent care said she should not work due to her injury, they will most likely consider 1 or 2 days most.

So what she has is a strain, glass cuts that healed and a little bit of pain from this accident. Even though this was a hard hit, she sustained minor injuries period. If your friend expects that somehow she could get $6.500 to $10,000, she will be waiting 2 years from now with the original $2,500 offer.

All adjusters have “ranges” which mean a high/low of the value of a settlement. So my guess is that the range is $2,000 to $3,000 max. She does not have to take this settlement, but she can counter her offer. So say she counters $6,500, they might counter $2,600 and so forth back and forth, or the adjuster might say the maximum we value your injury is $3,200 and that is it. She can get a lawyer to fight it, but the lawyer will take 1/3 and if he were to file suit, then can take 40%, so even if they were to go as high as $4,000, then subtract out 1/3 or 40% and guess what, she ends up with less than the original $2,500.

Pain/suffering is calculated on the injuries period. If she had had surgery, PT for months, broken bones etc, then her idea of $6,500 to $10,000 would be expected.

good luck