Host:

 

So you’ve probably seen the advertisements of how you could be entitled to thousands of dollars in a personal injury accident. Well, Katherine Stone from Injury Florida Law is here to set the record straight, and to discuss how it may not be as easy as you’d hoped for.

 

I’m digging this segment already, because I think we’ve all seen those ads out there.

 

Katherine

 

Well, we’ve heard them on the radio, that you may be entitled to up to ten thousand in past lost wages or injury benefits.

 

And they make it sound so very easy, that if you’re involved in an auto accident, that you’re going to get you’re just going to automatically get that money. And that’s not the way that it works.

 

So they’re under the law – Insurance Law. We’ve talked about PIP before, Personal Injury Protection. So, your standard Personal Injury Protection Policy is a ten-thousand-dollar policy.

 

You can utilize that policy to help pay for medical bills. They typically pay eighty percent of the contracted rate to the medical providers, up to the cap of the ten thousand dollars.

 

Host:

 

Okay.

 

Katherine:

 

Or, you could choose to spend a portion of that to reimburse yourself for lost wages.

 

And so typically what we’ll do, if we know that we have someone who’s been pretty injured, and we know they’re missing time from work, and it’s not a workers’ compensation case, so they’re not getting workers compensation, and maybe they don’t have enough PTO time, or maybe they’re new on the job. . .

 

Host:

 

Yeah.


Katherine:

 

So what we do is, we gather all the information that we need – the thirteen weeks of their wages prior to the accident.

 

We get a statement from their employer about how much they’ve missed from work, we do the math, and we calculate it, and we submit it to the PIP insurance so that they can be reimbursed back.

 

Again, you won’t be reimbursed fully for what you’ve lost but you’ll be reimbursed for a percentage of what you’ve lost.

 

So those are the two ways that you get that money. So A) if you’re not going to the doctor and incurring any medical bills, or, if you’ve had no loss in wages, you’re not going to be entitled to any of those benefits.

 

Host:

 

Which is really interesting, the comparison between, like you say, the workers’ comp which I’m used to you talking about how you need the paystubs, and to hear you say, in a personal injury, that’s very interesting.

 

Katherine:

 

You still need documentation. In fact, I’m, you know, waiting on some documentation now from some clients that I know they have a wage loss claim.

 

But I need the information to be able to submit that. Either by way to the PIP insurance company, and sometimes we’ll tell PIP, okay, look, we only want a certain percentage that you set aside for lost wages, so that it doesn’t all get used up from the medical providers.

 

So that they can at least get that money back, to be able to help pay their bills.

 

But we’d have to know that up front, and tell them, put fifty percent aside to lost wages. You may not use all that fifty percent, but you’ve at least carved out a portion of it. And if you don’t do that early on, well, it’ll just get eaten up by the medical bills.

 

Host:

 

Which, that’s just what I was just thinking. You’ve got to make that decision early, so that doesn’t happen with medical. Which means, again, getting someone like you on your side, pretty early out of the gate, right?

 

Katherine:

 

Yes. I mean, again, it’s always very helpful, especially in the very beginning, you know. Coming several months later, too much has probably transpired that I can’t go back and undo, basically.

 

Host:

 

Okay, so again, urgency, and I know there’ve still got to be deadlines that you’ve got to hit too when it comes to all of them.

 

Katherine:

 

And with regards to PIP you know, you’ve got to get in and see an emergency medical physician – we call them EMCs – or have a hospital visit in order to qualify for that PIP insurance.

 

So there’s a 14 day time limit. Otherwise, they cut it down from the ten thousand dollars to twenty- five hundred.

 

Host:

 

Oh dear, that’s a big cut. That is a big cut. Well, again, it’s so important to have someone like you on people’s sides.

 

If you are interested in more information and what we just talked about with Katherine, or anything else, she definitely wants to hear from you. Injury Florida Law. There’s the information for you to get in touch with her today. Website, phone number.

 

As always, Katherine, Thank you for coming in and chatting.

 

On screen:

 

INJURY FLORIDA LAW FIRM, P.A.

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