Personal Injury Law Update

What Is Personal Injury Protection?

Personal Injury Protection or “PIP” as it is commonly referred to is insurance coverage that is mandatory for most automobile insurance policies in Oregon private passenger cars. It is a type of insurance designed to pay your medical bills and certain other expenses, including lost wages, in the event that you are injured in a car accident.

In Oregon, the minimum medical expense coverage is $15,000. Thus, injured drivers generally have $15,000 of medical coverage regardless of fault. This coverage is designed to pay your bills regardless of who is at fault in the accident. The main question in PIP coverage is whether your injuries are related to the auto accident.

Oftentimes, there is a dispute about fault in an auto accident. Injured parties seek the immediate medical attention that they need and incur medical bills. Meanwhile, it can take months, and even years to resolve who is at fault for an accident and to get the responsible party (or their insurance company) to pay the bills. During this time, the various medical providers have given service and rightfully deserve to be paid. Many people do not have enough savings on hand to cover costly medical bills. Depending on the medical provider, and the amount of time it takes to get the bills paid, an innocent motorist can have their credit rating severely damaged by the accumulation and non-payment of these medical bills. PIP was designed to pay the bills right away so that, regardless of fault, a motorist can avoid having their credit ruined and the hard working medical professionals can be timely paid.

One aspect of PIP that many people are unaware of is how very little additional premium they will pay to increase their PIP coverage. With most companies, for only a few extra dollars, the amount of PIP can be significantly increased. With the expense of medical testing such as MRIs and X-rays and the skyrocketing costs of staying in the hospital, having an additional $10,000 - $15,000 worth of PIP coverage can make a significant difference. It is always wise to speak with your insurance broker, or sales representative when buying or renewing your auto coverage. In addition, you should ask how much more you would have to pay to increase your PIP coverage.

Determining the Value of a Personal Injury Claim

I take calls from the general public every day.  Many callers have been recently injured, but their doctors have not yet diagnosed the full nature and extent of injuries.  Yet, a frequent question is, “how much is my case worth?”  In order to the evaluate monetary “value” of a personal injury claim, the attorney must thoroughly review all of the facts and medical history surrounding a particular injury.  And often people don’t yet have a clear picture of their injuries.  So, nobody should be surprised if an attorney says, “I don’t know how much money your case is worth right now.” 

Unfortunately, insurance claims adjusters are not obligated to follow the same high ethical standards as attorneys.  Many times people ask “how much is my case worth” because an insurance company has offered a sum of money to compensate the caller for his or her claim.  And too often the offer comes well before the full nature and extent of injury is known to the insurance company, or the caller, or the caller’s doctor.  It may be the “job” of the insurance adjuster to try to settle valid personal injury claims before an injured person’s doctor knows just how injured that person really is, but it is rarely wise or ethical. 

The public needs to become more aware that they do not have to settle claims before the full nature and extent of their injuries are known to their doctor or themselves.  The insurance companies may give the false impression they have a crystal ball to see the future and can accurately calculate how much money can even begin to make up for the unique losses someone suffers when, for example, a person is about to be stuck in bed during for 3 months because of a broken leg.  Will an infection develop?  Will the person’s employer decide they can’t afford to pay them for time off?  Will his daughter make the baseball state championships but he can’t watch? 

As the Oregon Supreme Court put it almost a century ago:  “There is no fixed standard as to the amount that the plaintiff should recover for his injuries.  That is a question of fact for the jury, and different juries would return different verdicts under the same state of facts.”*  The compensation must be fair, just, and reasonable.  That will mean different things for different people.  The point is that people should generally not jump to quickly settle claims with insurance companies who pretend to see the future of medical conditions that a doctor can’t even see. 

*Malpica v. Cannery Supply Co., 95 Or. 242, 248, 187 P. 596 (Or. 1920).