Accidents can have a devastating impact on your life. In an instant, something that is not your fault suddenly causes you injury and pain. Your recovery can be long and may never truly end. Oftentimes these life-long injuries require life-long treatments like pain management.
That’s why Farah & Farah has teams of attorneys ready to help clients get what they deserve from insurance companies that make low settlement offers. Our personal injury lawyers work together to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars for our clients from insurance companies who lowball, delay, or outright deny rightful claims.
What Is a Pain Management Case?
In the legal realm, a pain management case is a type of personal injury lawsuit where the client is undergoing injections and taking pain medication to treat their injuries as opposed to undergoing surgery. Insurance companies have consistently been underpaying for this type of treatment, even though it is the treatment that the doctors are recommending and that the clients deserve in order to help with the pain that was caused by someone else’s negligence. This undervaluing of pain management cases is very common in the insurance industry, whether because the insurance company is trying to get out of paying, because they’re delaying the payout, or because they genuinely believe that the case is worth less than it really is.
Pain management cases are often related to car accidents that cause injuries requiring ongoing treatment. We sat down with four of Farah & Farah’s top attorneys, Matthew Grossman, Frank Fratello, Rob Gunn, and Lee Page, to discuss their three recent verdicts involving low-balled pain management cases.
How Much Are Pain Management Cases Undervalued?
Some may not realize that their insurance companies ought to be paying much more than they actually are and will accept offers of $50,000 for medical costs. In reality, they could be getting as much as $100,000 or more, depending on the nature of the injuries and ongoing pain management needs. That means that someone could only be getting half of what they’re entitled to under the terms of their insurance policy. Unfortunately, this scenario occurs far too often.
Leaving money on the table that’s rightfully owed to the injured party is why personal injury victims should consult with an attorney when the insurance company doesn’t meet their needs. Farah & Farah’s team of personal injury attorneys has experience taking pain management cases to trial and winning far more for our clients than what the insurance companies originally offered. This results in insurance companies offering Farah & Farah’s clients better settlements because the firm’s track record at trial lets the insurance company know there is a significant risk for undervaluing our clients’ claims.
Why Is It Important for Pain Management Cases To Go to Trial?
Many people want to avoid going to trial, even if doing so could mean greater rewards. However, even a few cases like this need to go to trial. This “makes getting settlements easier for everyone across the board even if they don’t go to trial because then the insurance company has examples of similar cases that did go to trial—and the types of verdicts Farah & Farah achieves for its clients in similar cases,” says Matt Grossman, a personal injury lawyer at Farah & Farah. It’s clear to clients, insurance companies, attorneys, and the public what pain management cases can be worth, so insurance companies are forced to increase what they offer.
How Does Farah & Farah Handle Pain Management Cases?
Farah & Farah handles pain management personal injury cases like we do all of our cases: with teamwork and a focus on the client. “We may be a large firm, but we’ve retained a small firm culture in that our clients’ needs always come first,” explains Frank Fratello. That means we can listen carefully to our clients’ problems and work to solve them with the resources of our entire team.
Our attorneys are encouraged to collaborate instead of compete with each other, which ultimately results in better outcomes for our clients. This strategy lets us assemble a team of attorneys with different specialties and areas of expertise so that the best possible talent works on each aspect of the case.
What Pain Management Cases Has Farah & Farah Won?
Farah & Farah’s team of personal injury attorneys recently won three different pain management cases. The insurance companies initially undervalued all three, and the amounts we won for our clients were significantly more than the insurance companies had offered. In some cases, because of a tool utilized by our attorneys called an expired “offer of judgment” (or “proposal for settlement”) we have been able to recover attorneys’ fees and other legal costs from the insurance companies on top of the verdicts awarded by the jury.
What Is an Expired Offer of Judgement?
An expired offer of judgment or proposal for settlement occurs when an insurance company allows a formal offer of settlement from a legal team to expire. Attorney’s fees and costs incurred following that expiration may, in Florida and Georgia, be recovered, even in cases that might not normally be eligible. We can take the insurance company’s failure to accept our settlement offer and use it to our clients’ advantage to maximize their recovery.
Recent Pain Management Verdicts:
#1: VALDOSTA, GEORGIA
Our client was rear-ended in Valdosta, Georgia. As a result of injuries incurred in the car accident, they required four epidural injections but never had surgery. The insurance company offered $22,000 to cover the medical costs, which exceeded $50,000. Immediately before we took this case to trial, the insurance company representatives increased their offer to $50,000, assuring us that this case was worth nowhere near $100,000. In the end, the jury awarded our client $393,000 and because of the expired offer of judgment, the final award will likely exceed $575,000.
Matt Grossman and Lee Page were the attorneys leading this case. The accident took place in a small town, where it’s sometimes an uphill battle trying to fight against local lawyers appealing to a local jury. Unfortunately for the insurance company, Farah and Farah attorneys are willing to try cases in any county to fight for a fair result. “The defense attorney tried to argue our client was partially to blame and that only $12,000 of his medical bills were related to this crash. The jury still did what’s right in the end, resulting in a judgment that will likely be over 10x the insurance company’s last offer” says Matt.
#2: JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
In Jacksonville, Florida, our client was rear-ended by a truck and underwent several pain management injections, known as nerve burns, resulting in approximately $65,000 in medical bills. The force of the impact of the truck forced our client’s car into the car in front of them. Despite the seriousness of the crash, the truck driver attempted to claim that they weren’t at fault for the accident. The insurance company never offered anything in the six figures until right before the trial. We also have an expired offer of judgment that will force the insurance company to pay our attorneys’ fees, increasing the value for our client.
Frank Fratello and Matt Grossman led this particular case. “The defendant refused to take any responsibility and even hired a doctor who tried to convince the jury that our client was not injured at all from the crash. The jury saw through these baseless arguments and awarded our client $750,000,” said Matt Grossman.
#3: GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA
Our client was rear-ended in Gainesville, Florida, by a driver who refused to admit responsibility, claiming instead that our client had stopped suddenly. As a result of injuries incurred in the car accident, our client required four epidural injections over a 4-year period.
Frank Fratello and Rob Gunn were the lead trial attorneys for this case. “The defense tried to claim that because our client had received similar medical treatments after a similar accident seven years prior, she couldn’t be injured from this crash,” said Frank Fratello. The insurance company offered this client $50,000 right before the trial, but we were able to win $309,000. Even better, because of the expired offer of judgment we made, the final award will likely exceed $750,000 for our client.
Why Should You Speak to a Personal Injury Attorney?
If you’ve been involved in a car accident or other personal injury case, it’s always a good idea to get a lawyer or, in Farah & Farah’s case – a whole team of lawyers on your side. Insurance companies were offering between $22,000 and $50,000 in our case examples above. Instead of rolling over, Farah & Farah’s team of attorneys won hundreds of thousands of dollars for each of our clients. The juries recognized what these cases were worth, even when the insurance companies didn’t.
Farah & Farah’s team approach places our clients’ needs first, so they can focus on recovering. If you ever feel like insurance is giving you the runaround, don’t hesitate to reach out to us to discuss what options may be available.
