We’ve Got You Covered! Breaking Down the Role of Automobile Insurance in a Personal Injury Case

We sit down with Personal Injury Attorney, Terrance Hogan, to discuss the relationship between a personal injury case and automobile insurance, and what you should and shouldn't do in the event of an accident. In this interview, Terry discusses the following:

•    The types and minimum amounts of automobile insurance that are required in Oregon.
•    Understanding how minimum and maximum coverage works in an accident.
•    What bodily injury and property damage liability covers.
•    The difference between liability coverage and personal injury protection (pip). 
•    Coverages that pay if you or your passengers are injured in an accident, regardless of who is at fault.
•    When you should and shouldn’t talk to insurance companies in the event of an accident. 
•    What you need to be very aware of when providing a recorded statement.
•    Understand that the other person’s insurance company is your adversary.
•    What happens if the other driver is uninsured.
•    Why you may need the assistance of an attorney even when talking with your insurance company about the accident.

If you would like to speak with one of our attorneys, please call our office at (503) 227-0200, or visit our website at https://www.pacificcascadelegal.com.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this communication is intended to provide legal advice nor does it constitute a client-attorney relationship, therefore you should not interpret the contents as such.

Transcript

Intro:
Welcome to Modern Family Matters, a podcast devoted to exploring family law topics that matter most to you. Covering a wide range of legal, personal, and family law matters, with expert analysis from skilled attorneys and professional guests, we hope that our podcast provides answers, clarity, and guidance towards a better tomorrow for you and your family. Here's your host, Steve Altishin.

Steve Altishin  
Hi, everyone. I'm Steve Altishin, Director of Client Partnerships at Pacific Cascade Legal, and today I'm here with our personal injury attorney, Terry Hogan, to talk about personal injury cases and automobile insurance. Hey, Terry, how you doing this morning?

Terrance Lee Hogan  
Doing pretty good Steve. As with most mornings, at this time of year, we're being poured upon by the clouds in the rain. So it's a little bit wet today. But that's why they call us Oregon duckers. Because we're acclimated to the water, to say the least.

Steve Altishin  
We are and I am also totally ready for sunshine. So Tara, you've been literally doing personal injury work for decades, and have run into probably I have but imagine any case you can have an any kind of insurance issue you can have. So I'm going to talk to you first about the just the basic question that even I get asked sometimes from people, and it's what types of automobile insurance are actually required in Oregon.

Terrance Lee Hogan  
In that situation, Steve, we have what are called minimum limits. And then depending upon what the consumer purchases from the insurance carrier, you can have graduated levels of limits of insurance to protect you in case of bodily injury, property damage, and that you find people that are well set in their careers, and in their homes, and quite often will purchase even higher limits to protect themselves. And all the way up to half a million to a million dollar umbrella policies, which is in this day and age isn't unheard of, they weren't as common when I was a young lawyer in the 90s. But now they're becoming a lot more common because the smaller limit policies just don't have any value. And and we'll talk about that in a minute. But the minimum one that's in Oregon are 2550, meaning that you have $25,000 per person for bodily injury in a car accident. And then depending on the type of policy, up to usually about 25,000 for property damage. And, and the minimum limit in Oregon on an automobile which is very good, is the personal injury protection plan that is part of your premium. That's $15,000 worth of coverage for medical for reasonable unnecessary medical expenses for injuries sustained as a result of an automobile accident. And it also pays temporary disability payments up to a certain level. And I believe it's like 75% of the loss. And then at the end of a case involving a personal injury. If we go to trial or as part of settlement, we pick up the last piece that they didn't get reimbursed for for that temporary wage loss. But we're certain call policy, you can also purchase increased tip coverage, some policies I've seen all the way up to $50,000 for personal injury protection, which for the amount of coverage that it gives you with with what where we are these days with over with overburdened traffic and people not paying attention and all these things that diverts the drivers attention and in all injury cases, it's all about careless conduct. And that means that that the person didn't get up that morning with the intention to hurt somebody that they their focus was where it should be and as we know, in any car accident, the main elements are always focus and attention, failure to maintain control and reasonable speed based on circumstances and patience and focused drives. All three elements are very complex and so The bottom line is, is that when you purchase your insurance, you want to purchase more than minimum limits. Because if something bad happens, you're there's different scenarios. And we're going to talk about those here today, Steve, involving uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist and, and, and the interplay. And when you purchase your premium, you pay for those other elements. Beyond the bodily injury, you purchase uninsured motorist and underinsured so that you can actually use your insurance policy to protect you from motorists that, that are carrying minimum limits that cause very bad injuries and related issues. 

Steve Altishin  
The different coverages, you just kind of talked about three of them, it sounds like they cover not only, you know, stuff for you, to help you if you're hurt or something, you know, it's in your cars or but also to help liability. So I imagine that, that getting the highest value you can get for those is just even if you're just happened to be that person out of focus that day, is really important.

Terrance Lee Hogan  
Yes. And the bottom line is, is that you need more than minimum limits in this society with the cost of medical care, and, and replacing vehicles and everything else. Minimum limbs just doesn't do it. It's from a different age. And, and we're well past that age. And that's where the real problem is, is because you've got to have enough money there to take care if you if something bad happens, because somebody's driving and not paying attention. This careless conduct can be devastating, literally devastating. And with that focus, you need to make sure that you're protected. And you see a lot of commercials about from the insurance companies about that kind of protection. While it's true, you need to put those higher limits in with a contingency being the few dollars that you're paying for increased premiums as well spent, if something bad happens, yeah, yeah.

Steve Altishin  
So let's sort of talk about I've, I've gotten in an accident, and what I should do, especially we've talked about what to do before in sort of general terms, but here more to talk about what maybe we should do, or what you can do if you have insurance. And I guess my first question on that is, why have medical insurance? Isn't that enough? Or should I should I use that? How do these insurances kind of interrelate with your accident? And maybe your your case that you have in hand?

Terrance Lee Hogan  
Well, there's an interplay of course there, but your private health carrier, whoever that may be, whether whether say, in the Portland metro area, we have a variation of medical plans that are available to most folks as employees or or even if you own a business, it can be Kaiser can be providence, it can be Blue Cross, it can be Regency Marriott have carriers to protect, but they don't have a duty to pay your medical expenses for a class and because that wasn't related to the patient cover is the clear answer. But quite often they do and then what we call that is a subrogation claim back against the Act and the the primary carrier for the automobile accident. And when I mean primary insurance company, or the carrier that was has responsibility for the accident, it's all driven by that. And they don't take responsibility right off the bat. They accept liability for their insured having caused the accident, but then there's a battle or a war that proceeds from that point when I was a young lawyer, because of the way the rules are set up for service. A war could take place on just trying to get the defendants served. If you didn't get served, then you lose your lawsuit and your case against the person who caused the accident. Well, the legislature in the 90s responded to that and there being a swamp or a quagmire there that you would get literally get stuck in and not be able to move forward not get your money damages caused by this person. They As the rules have made it very easy to serve these people. So then the war shifted to the adverse carrier attacking you on the scope of the the injuries and the person's damages for medical expenses. And and when we call bodily injury, the bottom line is is that it shifted and and just because they've accepted liability doesn't mean that you're going to get me home. 

Yeah, yeah. What if What if you, I mean, I know my insurance guy says, If you ever get an accident, you pick up the phone, and you call and report to me right now. And is that really what I should be doing? Strike even my own insurance company, who I guess may have to pay for some of my stuff. But should I just call them and make statements and talk to them? Just today, the same day, the same hour? Should I wait for like you to step in? When should I call I guess my insurance company?

You want to give notice immediately to your insurance company. When an accident takes place, and your insurance company or any insurance company doesn't respond to anything until they get alerted that there's been a proof of loss. And in an automobile accident, the proof of loss is a tip application, the personal injury protection application, that's that's where you give a formal written notice to the insurance company as to the scope of the of the accident, and the injuries that you sustained. And whether you have medical treatment and temporary wage loss related to the accident. So that's a very tough question. And usually I respond to it this way speed, if it's you got any way to because there's such an interplay on what this person cause, when you're not involved, that if you have an ability to talk to your lawyer immediately, or call their office and and get some advice, I would do it, it's just that important. But your insurance company is supposed to be in your corner. And and that means that they're supposed to be there to protect you because you purchase that protection. And, and so you just want to be very candid with your insurance company. And usually, it's not your insurance company that's trying to take a recorded statement. It's the adverse one. And so you never want to give a recorded statement to the adverse carrier without having caught your lawyer carrier. Because their whole job is to try to make a finding that, that they're not responsible, their client isn't responsible. So always be very candid, forthcoming with your insurance company so that they can protect you. That's the number one thing, got it, and call them right away it because if depending on the scope of the accident, your car might be totaled, your car might be inoperable, you're going to need to exercise your protections to have a rental vehicle, we're so mobile in our society. And if you have a family, and you have children, and a spouse, and all of those things, you've got to have your horse so to speak, that can take you to wherever you go in the course of a day. And when your vehicles pulled in disabled, then you need to talk to your insurance company right away. So that they can make arrangements and they have the ability to do that to the vehicle delivered to you. Or you go to wherever they they asked you to whether it's any of the car rentals, enterprise or whatever, and get that get your car replaced while they're doing the repairs. And because we're coming out of the pandemic and other things, there's no speed there, your car could be in the garage for a month to six weeks getting repairs, and because of the backlog and what have you and and so that rental vehicle becomes very important you to where you need to go to employment, family, all of those things. So immediately give notice to your insurance company. They're there to help you. They'll bend over backwards quite often to make that happen. And give them a statement. Don't worry about they're there to help if you clearly didn't cause it. Be very candid with them and let them know exactly what happened and in most of these accidents, the insured didn't do anything wrong. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong On time, so you have to trust your insurance company to do the right thing. And most often they do.

Steve Altishin  
Well, that's good to know. I mean, that really is good to know. Because I know people are afraid of either their own insurance company at times, or the other insurance company. I don't think they're quite as friendly and willing to help. But, you know, when I go when I, you know, maybe need an operation or need something in my, you know, with my health insurance, I'll tell the insurance company, so Okay, there you go, we'll pay for it, go get it, I go get it. And four months, five months, seven months later, I needed something else. They go okay, go get it, you haven't like waived anything, because you know, you got it the first time. Does the other insurance company kind of work like that, if they come out and say, go get this thing and, you know, then let's talk?

Terrance Lee Hogan  
Almost never, Steve. In fact, the bottom line is to limit what they have to pay you. And so you can't crush them. And and that's, that's how they operate. And occasionally, I'm, I'm pleasantly surprised. But I've only been pleasantly surprised a few times and 30 years with an adverse carrier. They just don't, their whole job is to limit what they have to pay out because of that loss. And if they can minimize it, they'll do it in a second. So you can trust your carrier in most situations, and you can't trust the adverse carrier. And to do so is, is just poor reasoning, for lack of a way better way to put it. It's an adversarial system. And, and people forget that their job is to limit what they pay, so you can't trust them. And that's the bottom line.

Steve Altishin  
Are there ways we should kind of know, again, if we happen to call them, or they call us and we talked to them before getting hold of you. Are they gonna try to do something under the table?

Terrance Lee Hogan  
They invented the word bad faith litigation. We're not that far removed from the days that they would go into the hospital room and, and somebody's sitting there with a brain injury and talk them into resolving it  for $500, or $1,500, or something like that. They just sometimes they just don't have any ethics at all. So the best thing to do is just not to talk, tell them that Be courteous, and respectful. But Don, that I need to talk to my insurance company, I need to talk to my lawyer, and don't contact me anymore, and go from there. Because you don't you don't have a duty to discuss anything with them. That's why That's why you have your insurance company to take care of it. It's the injuries are that extensive. Contact an injury lawyer like myself, who spends all his time protecting those people that didn't do anything wrong, except be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Steve Altishin  
So you get to talk to the insurance company, I don't have to. Yes. And so what are your interactions with the insurance company? And how does that kind of work in the case?

Terrance Lee Hogan  
Well, it depends on the key on the insurance company. And most important thing is I establish a baseline and don't come across. And and I'll tell you, if you're across it all puts your right back crossed it. And that's as a lawyer, especially an injury work with the adverse carrier, they know where the word is. And usually they don't do anything that way out of line. Occasionally, you get them trying to explore the factual situation in order to gain an advantage. And so it's my job to try to push them back or rub it in their face, literally not reach out with my palm of my hand and rub their face, but push whatever they're trying to do back and just say no. And there's ways we can do that one more negotiations with them. If you're if you're actually negotiating on money damages for an injury case, and they're doing something that's way out of bounds. I have no compulsion about telling them that and using the word bad faith. I've got one I actually walked in this morning and one of the first things I see on an email is a communication from an insurance company on the East Coast that because a policeman wasn't there to to monitor what happened on an accident right out here on on 26th down by the zoo, where a semi truck moved over and a tractor and cause multiple impacts, and my client ended up in a collision with the retaining wall. So I had three impacts, concussion, loss of consciousness, multiple soft tissue injuries, and I prepared a settlement demand, and they come back and attack us all, there wasn't any policeman to see this, you can't prove it, etc. And, and my client didn't do anything but driving to work in the Portland early one morning to go, but he was a store manager and to open up to the store and hear it's just devastating accident. And, and the insurance company used to be that they, you didn't see these bad faith tactics that you would see at times, with this insurance company, it was like beating through a wall just to get them to, you know, adjust. And so everything, the whole focus with them, and I hadn't seen a lot of this before the pandemic, but it seems like it empowered them to make poor choices, I guess, is how I would put it. And, and the no excuse. And so the bottom line on my story today as I walked in, and and when they gave us a garbage offer on the case, a couple couple of weeks ago, and then I got permission from the client to send them back a message, because the the insurance company on the adverse expects you to come down 1000s of dollars in a settlement demand while they go up 500 bucks. And, and so I sent him a message, I sent him a message. And the message is, is the offer they had given us didn't even take into consideration the 15 or $16,000 in medical expenses. And and just made us an offer on bi Well, who's going to pay the docs, pay the people. Because in this situation, there was no tip file. And people can make poor choices at times, and or if they live out of the state of Oregon and move to Oregon, they can actually wav files, which is for lack of the payment of a premium that really isn't that much they can come back to roost in your house, because you you made a choice not to purchase something that was there to benefit you. And that's the key. So to wrap up that story, I sent them a very strong message by only coming down couple of 100 bucks from our total demand and they realize it and wrote me back and there's there's a counter offer that still doesn't take into consideration the 1000s of dollars that are outstanding, and in medical expenses. So that tells me that that insurance company and that whole situation that they're using a lot of bad. Y

Steve Altishin  
Yeah. Was there anything you can do about it? With all of these these coverages you just talked about, I mean, can any of them ever cover like the attorney fees that are going to they're going to be running up because of their bad faith?

Terrance Lee Hogan  
There is second party bad faith and there is a second party bad faith statute in Oregon, for negotiations on settlements and things like that. So eventually, if you put everything together you can sue that carrier for the bad face but but the problem is, is that a lot of the carriers trade that black hat, that bad faith hat at different times. Since I've been practicing it since the 90s. It's it's they seem to change and somebody else, they they drop that stuff and then suddenly you've got a different carrier that wasn't doing that that's now doing it. So the courier that I'm that I'm mentioning in my story is not one of the ones that we usually see on the TV that are advertising to protect you. It's a different one. But but but you're right Steve, it increases when you've got an insurance company operating in bad faith in increases and increases the amount of time that I have to spend getting my client to the finish line and getting them money to as compensation and getting the medical expenses paid and what have you and and and some of this converts into but I have to get the client to the finish line. Then, at that point. We don't usually represent the Insurance Company for that same primary position with our client, that they're the insured and getting them reimbursement there's a whole process for inertia in inter insurer arbitration to to get, say, if it was hypothetically State Farm involved, and they insured my client and and when a client burned up to $15,000 in their PIP file between temporary disability payments and medical expenses, then they can they can do enter insurer arbitration with the other insurance company and ensure that they get paid. And, and so there's mechanisms to take care of that. But you have to get your client to the finish line and get their damages. So and when you've got an insurance company, playing bad faith against you, or not taking responsibility, because they're maximizing their return for their shareholders, then you're having to spend increases your work exponentially. That means that by the time you get your client to the finish line, whatever you get is minuscule compared to what you should have got, yeah, yeah, just labor wise, because a lawyer, we measure our time by hours that we put into it. And even though we're not working on an hourly retainer, at a certain rate, our time is very valuable. And if the insurance company doesn't respect anybody, because that's, they don't, at times, then that lack of respect is increasing the hours that I have to put in and takes away our profit margin, and, and limits what I can get for the client. And so you have to really wait for some real bad Bates, before you sue for it in a way, because it's very hard even to prove that they're bad. Yes. So it's just a system, that doesn't work well, for a person who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Steve Altishin  
Right. And it obviously doesn't work well, for any person who has a serious accident that they're not at fault with to try to handle this themselves, it seems.

Speaker 3  
Oh no, these people do it every day. And and, and they prey upon you and tell you anything you want to hear and then they don't come through. So technically, your insurance company usually will bend over backwards to help you. And that's what they're there for. But once they become adverse, watch out.

Steve Altishin  
Yeah, exactly, exacty. And it kind of leads back to what you said, especially in the coverage that covers yourself and your passengers, or, you know, like uninsured voters, is that, you know, get as much as you can, because you know that pot is not probably as angry as the pot that is out there with the other insurance company.

Terrance Lee Hogan  
Well, the real problem is, is that the whole system is controlled by the insurance company.And so what you get you're not being made whole by this proces, it's a real problem. And when you empower companies like that it's just a poor choice. We should have a system, and and it's kind of broken, for lack of a better way to put it.

Steve Altishin  
Yeah, yeah. So we are unfortunately out of time. Just goes by too fast. Before we do leave and say goodbye, is there any one last little quick tidbit or something you would want to leave in someone's mind about this whole thing?

Terrance Lee Hogan  
Always explore the highest limits that you can get in order to protect you and your family-- your family is that important. And yourself is, and if you're the primary wage earner in the family, then they can't afford to have you disabled because of somebody not paying attention or because of careless conduct. So please spend more on your insurance don't get minimum limits get limits of 51 5100 or 100 300. It's well worth the coverage and and the protections that it will give you if something bad does happen and we see more and more of it because of society. Too much crap fit people in a rush, all of these things. So please focus on spending a little bit more money on your insurance coverage, so that you have some protections there that you can rely on. If you're out on a morning when somebody's not driving, and using theory, their focus and their attention when they're driving their automobile. You know, Steve, that that's a that's to get hit by an automobile is really bad. Yeah. And it's real easy to sustain soft tissue injuries and spinal injuries. So coverage, the whole system is run by coverage, please spend a little more to make sure that you have adequate coverage. I would tell every client that, Steve.

Steve Altishin  
Yeah. Well thank you. Thank you so much, that was wonderful. So really, again, before I take off, before we take off, thank you for joining us today to talk about this, Terry.

Terrance Lee Hogan  
Thank you, Steve. And I want to thank our staff, Miss Elena for help setting this up and doing a fantastic job so that we can get this message out to the public and to prospective clients so that they can make some good choices, whether or not they were to stay with us, or to come to us to seek advice and protections that we give to maximize downages because we just want to see them make good choices. Get lots of protection so that you don't have to be in a bad situation because of a careless driver.

Steve Altishin  
That's great advice. That's just really great, personal and legal and helpful in any way advice. So thanks again, and everyone else. Thank you for joining us today. Until next time, stay safe, stay happy and be well.

Outro:
This has been Modern Family Matters, a legal podcast focusing on providing real answers and direction for individuals and families. Our podcast is sponsored by Pacific Cascade Legal, serving families in Oregon and Washington. If you are in need of legal counsel or have additional questions about a family law matter important to you, please visit our websites at pacificcascadelegal.com or pacificcascadefamilylaw.com. You can also call our headquarters at (503) 227-0200 to schedule a case evaluation with one of our seasoned attorneys. Modern Family Matters, advocating for your better tomorrow and offering legal solutions important to the modern family.