If you want compensation for stress or mental anguish...you'll have to bring a law suit at this stage in the game. You should have let your insurance company represent you in this matter. They would have advised regarding this type of claim and represented you directly if you wished to file such an expense and/or claim. Chubb will only pay for the actual medical costs...unless you can produce actual medical documentation that you and/or your husband needed meds and/or medical attention for stress and/or mental anguish directly related to this accident. If you or your husband fear that you may have future medical or mental problems related to this accident...DON'T sign a release on this claim. I don't know how much State Farm can do for you now...but it's worth a call to them...and if I were you...I'd make that call.

It may depend on your state. In something like half the states, there is modified no-fault insurance. In some, there is a monetary threshold for injury that must be met before you can expect to receive anything for pain and suffering. In other states, they have a threshold that has to do with the quality of your injury, eg., you can seek pain and suffering damages only for death, serious injury, or dismemberment.

If you're not in a no-fault state, you can ask for pain and suffering, but you should be ready to document it. You don't get reimbursement for hours spent on the phone dealing with the fallout of the accident, only for pain and suffering caused by actual physical injuries from the accident. (In fact, if you're not physically injured, you're not entitled to pain and suffering damages.)

I hope your DH is doing well - sounds like you did a great job negotiating the payment for the car!

In Idaho, we prepare and submit a "demand for settlement" (send certified so we have proof of date of service) package way before we initiate a lawsuit. In some cases, statutorily, they have 60 days to respond/make an offer. (Every state probably has a different time frame) After the 60 days are up, we file suit. General "rule of thumb" is we try to obtain settlement of 5 times the total medical bills/lost wages. That covers medical bills (or reimbursement to the insurance company who paid the bills), our fee and costs and puts some money in the client's pocket.
Our Statute of Limitations is 2 years from the date of injury. If you don't file suit within your State's SOL, you are, well, SOL!

Angelaid - Five times - I am impressed! We used to ask for six and settle for three, but that's been going down over time.

Your lawyer should be handling this for you. Then you don't have to spend 'hours on the phone'. You let your lawyer do that. You don't even look at medical bills, you forward them right to your lawyer.

First off, if your jurisdiction is like mine, you've probably got two years to settle this--DON"T BE IN A RUSH. Your husband may yet discover he has longterm damage that needs to be addressed. Once the claim is settled,it's really difficult, if not impossible, to reopen it.

When my dd was rear-ended, she was immediately okay (but thoroughly checked over at the hospital). She eventually was diagnosed with a degenerative spine injury caused by the impact. We turned the case over to our lawyer within hours of it happening. Our lawyer took care of all the negociations--all the paperwork, handled getting DD a rental car, a very quick check for the value of her totalled car--getting us MORE than book value for it. Her medicals were another thing. She was paid for all her medical bills (and they ran up to a pretty extensive amount) and about $50,000 for future medicals and pain and suffering.

Please, it's late to be getting him in on this but don't try to do this on your own. Not only is your lawyer more experienced with negociating settlements, what's generally allowed in this sort of case in your area, but you MUST have representation when you go to the depositions you'll probably have to give.

This is the sort of thing where it may cost you a bit to have a lawyer, but it will cost you much more not to have one.

This post was edited by azzalea on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 18:00

Is this a responsive forum or not! Thanks to all of you.

We have no need for an on-call attorney, and I am not looking to gouge the insurance company. It seems we will get the bills paid, and that's IT! Filing suit would only add more muss and fuss.

Can we give Little Miss Probably-Texting a good scold? I'd include her lawyer-father. He approached my DH right after the accident, not to offer sympathy, but to tell him the girl was 'very upset'. Daddy was driving ahead of the her, so was right on the spot. Girl was cited for failure to yield, and Daddy was cited for the SUV having an expired Illinois license.

I will inquire how long we can wait -- just in case something physical pops up -- but I can't see that anything could be easily traced to this incident, as opposed to, say, 'old age'. We are both past 70.

As you know, Joann, each case certainly has its unique set of circumstances, and some insurance companies are way easier to negotiate with than others. In my 23 years in our office, we have only gone to trial on about a dozen PI cases and every single one of them was the SAME insurance company! And, knocking wood, we have never lost at trial! Would never insure with them. My premiums should be put to better use than spending two years in, costly, litigation over a 25,000.00 policy limits claim. One gal's claim (not one of our clients) was dragged out almost ten years before she was finally awarded the limits in arbitration. Its a very frustrating job at times.