If you are injured in an accident caused by the negligent actions or wrongdoing of another, then the law provides a way for you to recover for the harm you have suffered due to the accident. This is done through pursuing a personal injury claim for your damages, usually brought with the insurance company of the person who is found to be responsible for causing the accident.

Unfortunately, however, the insurance claims process can take a prolonged amount of time. The time it takes can feel much longer as you incur expenses caused by the accident. Medical bills can pile up all too quickly. This can be incredibly stressful, especially if you have lost wages due to having to miss work because of your injuries. With medical bills rolling in and a settlement that can seem much too far away, you are likely wondering, how do I pay my medical bills until I get my settlement?

How Do I Pay My Medical Bills Until I Get My Settlement?

Waiting for an insurance company to pay you what you are due for the damages you sustained due to the negligence of their insured will likely not happen as fast as you would like it to. This can bring a great deal of stress and anxiety, especially as you will probably have medical bills rolling in. These medical bills are expenses that should be covered under your settlement, but how do you pay them in the meantime? You might have several options depending on your circumstances.

In some cases, your treating medical providers will come to an understanding with you that they will be paid once you receive your settlement proceeds. This is especially true if you have health insurance that you can list as a backup payor. Alternatively, sometimes health insurance can be billed. Give your health insurance information to your doctors and you can list it as a backup payment method. Should health insurance be billed, however, you will still need to repay them for the amount they paid out for treatment for your accident injuries once you receive your settlement.

Additionally, you will likely have some car insurance coverage that will help you cover the costs of medical care until the other insurance company pays you your settlement. Pennsylvania is a no-fault insurance state which means that all drivers are required to carry personal injury protection insurance. When injured in a car accident, the first to pay for medical expenses is your own auto insurance provider regardless of who is found to be at fault for causing the accident.

Another option may be personal injury loans. While these loans are highly inadvisable most of the time because of the incredibly steep interest rates they usually carry, they can also provide critical financial relief to those in need. With these loans, you are essentially borrowing against your future settlement.

Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorneys

At Cooper Schall & Levy, we put pressure on insurance companies so that they pay you full and fair compensation in a timely manner. Contact us today.

Negligence is a legal theory upon which most personal injury claims are founded. It is the basis for the majority of civil lawsuits. Laws pertaining to negligence are set at the state level. The basic theory remains true, however, throughout. Negligence is when someone else owes you a legal duty to act with a certain level of care, that duty is breached, and you suffer harm as a result. The negligence analysis can become increasingly more complicated in a number of different ways. For instance, what happens if more than one party is found to be negligent in causing an accident? Usually, the person at fault is responsible for compensating the injured party. What if more than one party is at fault and more than one party is injured? This can vary from state to state.

Is Pennsylvania a Comparative Negligence State?

Different states will handle situations in which more than one person is found to be at fault in causing an accident. For instance, in pure contributory negligence states, if a party is even just one percent at fault for causing an accident, then he or she is barred from filing a lawsuit to recover damages. This is far and away from the minority rule that is now applied. In fact, only five states still follow pure contributory negligence.

Alternatively, there is pure comparative negligence. In a pure comparative negligence state, a party found to be partially at fault for causing an accident can still recover compensation for the injuries sustained in an accident. In fact, a person can be 99% responsible for causing an accident and still recover damages. The damage award will, however, be reduced by the person’s percentage of fault. This means that, if the person really was found to be 99% at fault for an accident, he or she would only receive 1% of his or her damages award.

Pennsylvania, however, is neither a pure contributory negligence state nor is it a pure comparative negligence state. Pennsylvania is, in fact, a modified comparative negligence state. In a modified comparative negligence state, a claimant still has the right to pursue a damage award as long as he or she was not found to be more at fault than the other parties. Pennsylvania follows a 51% rule. This means that, in Pennsylvania, you can recover damages as long as you were less than 51% at fault. You can be no more than 50% at fault for causing an accident. It is important to note, however, that under a pure contributory negligence standard, Your damages award will, however, still be reduced by your percentage of fault.

Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorneys

While these kinds of state-specific negligence laws can be complicated, they also have a significant impact on your ability and right to collect full and fair compensation for the damages you sustain in an accident. As you can see, Pennsylvania’s modified comparative negligence law makes it even more important for you to have a trusted advocate by your side to fight for your ability to recover compensation. Establishing fault is a complex and important part of the personal injury claims process and the trusted personal injury attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy are here to help. Contact us today.

When a person is injured due to the negligent or wrongful act of another, the law provides a way to seek compensation for the harm suffered from the negligent party. This is accomplished by pursuing a personal injury claim. Establishing who is at fault in causing an accident is a critical element to a personal injury claim as fault will determine who is liable for paying damages incurred by the injured party. Fault, however, can be complicated. First, it is not always clear who is at fault. Second, there are times when there may be more than one person at fault for an accident.

What Happens If I’m Partially at Fault for an Accident?

One of the very first steps in a personal injury claim is determining who is at fault for causing an accident who, therefore, will be liable for paying damages. It is a fact-specific analysis that may involve looking at things such as any laws that were violated, dangerous driving behaviors, or other indicators that someone was acting negligently and that led to the accident resulting in injuries.

When more than one person is found to be at fault for causing an accident, each state has its own laws dictating how the claim should be handled. Sometimes, a person may retain the right to file a claim against another party despite being partially at fault for an accident. Other times, partial fault will act as a bar to making a claim at all. This, however, is the exception rather than the rule.

You see, pure contributory negligence is a rule that means that even if you are the smallest bit at fault for causing an accident, you will not be able to file suit to seek compensation for the harm you have suffered as a result of the accident. In the alternative is the pure comparative negligence rule that states a person can file a lawsuit despite being partially at fault in causing an accident, but the final damage award will be reduced by their percentage of fault. On the other side is the fact that, under a pure comparative negligence standard, a person partially at fault for an accident will only have to pay for damages equal to the percentage of fault he or she has been assigned. Approximately one-third of states use the comparative negligence rule.

Pennsylvania uses a modified comparative negligence rule, as do most states. States applying the modified comparative negligence rule will either enforce a 50 percent rule or a 51 percent rule. Pennsylvania follows a 51 percent rule which means that a person can only seek damages from an at-fault party if he or she was less than 51 percent at fault in causing the accident. In other words, in Pennsylvania, you cannot be more than 50% responsible for an accident if you want to try and recover damages. 

This means that, if you are partially at fault for an accident in Pennsylvania, you will still be able to seek recovery for your losses if you were 50 percent or less at fault for causing the accident. If the other at fault party seeks to recover a damage award against you, their damage award will be reduced by the percentage of fault he or she was assigned. If you seek damages and are successful, your damage award will be reduced by the percentage of fault you are assigned.

Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorneys

Personal injury laws can be complex and difficult to understand. They do, however, have a significant impact on your ability to recover monetary compensation after being injured in an accident. The knowledgeable attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy are here to help. Contact us today.

When you think of a personal injury claim, you may have visions of serious courtroom drama. There may be charts and other exhibits along with vehement arguments asserted and expert witnesses being cross-examined. The reality is, however, that most personal injury claims are settled out of court. A demand letter detailing a person’s injuries along with the details of the crash and the harm suffered by the victim is sent to the insurance company and negotiations will usually then ensue. As previously stated, the claim is usually settled prior to the need to go to trial. There are, however, several circumstances where a personal injury claim may be more likely to go to trial.

Will My Personal Injury Claim Go to Trial?

While most personal injury claims do not go to trial as a settlement agreement is reached prior to the need for litigation, some claims do proceed in going to trial. This is nearly always because the insurance company refuses to pay a fair amount on the claim. When the insurance company will not budge and refuses to increase an otherwise too low settlement offer, then a claim may go to trial.

An insurance company may refuse to pay out on a claim or offer an unfairly low settlement amount if there are complex liability issues. If there is a gray area regarding liability, an insurance company will almost certainly work to exploit it. An insurance company will refuse to pay out on a claim or make a low settlement offer because there are issues as to who was actually at fault for causing the accident that led to injuries. They may gamble on the fact that a jury would side with them and that is why they have little incentive to pay out on the claim before going to trial.

It is also more likely for a personal injury claim to go to trial if the injury victim has preexisting conditions, especially if those preexisting conditions have similar symptoms as the injuries claimed to have developed as a result of the accident. In these types of cases, it is more than likely that an insurance company will assert that the injuries are not known, but are preexisting conditions or injuries that the accident victim already suffered from. Based on this assertion, the insurance company may deny the claim in full or in part.

A trial may also be necessary for accidents involving catastrophic injuries. This is because the damage award stands to be a substantial amount. When there is more money on the line, you can be sure that the insurance company will likely put up a fight to get out of paying. They will throw vast amounts of resources in trying to devalue the claim as much as possible. Because of this, it is more likely in catastrophic injury cases and those cases involving potentially large damage awards for trial to be needed.

Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorneys

The tenacious personal injury attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy do not back down from a fight with insurance companies. We stand up and fight for our clients to help make sure that they are properly compensated for the harm they have suffered. Contact us today.

While you may have heard the term “personal injury law,” you may not know exactly what it means or entails. Personal injury law is a specific area of law that, as the name suggests, deals with those who have suffered an injury. It is a civil area of law established as a means for the injured to seek a remedy for the losses they have sustained as the result of an accident or incident. For more details on personal injury law, read on.

What is personal injury law?

As stated above, personal injury law allows an injured party to seek a civil remedy for the losses sustained in an accident or incident. The intent of personal injury law is for the injured party to receive the compensation that will “make them whole” again after suffering harm due to the negligent or intentional conduct of someone else.

The majority of personal injury claims are based on a theory of negligence. Every person has some level of responsibility to avoid putting other people at risk of harm. While not all harm is avoidable, the harm resulting from a person failing in their duty they owe to someone else may result in legal liability. For an injured party to seek damages from someone else for the harm he or she has suffered, the injured party must be able to show that the other person owed them a duty of care. The injured party must also be able to show that the person breached this duty and this was the direct and proximate cause of the injury.

Once negligence has been established, the injured party may seek compensation from the negligent party for harm suffered as a result of his or her negligent action or inaction. Damages can include property damage and medical bills. Damages can also include emotional distress and pain and suffering, as well as the loss of income and loss of future earning ability. In some rare cases, punitive damages may be awarded. Punitive damages are different from compensatory damages in that they are not intended to compensate the plaintiff, but are instead intended to punish the wrongdoing party and deter the type of behavior that led to the harm suffered in the future.

While personal injury law applies to accidents caused by a person who has acted in a negligent manner, such as car accidents, slip and falls, and medical malpractice, personal injury law can also apply in situations where a person’s intentional acts caused harm to someone else. For instance, a person can make a personal injury claim against an aggressor in an assault and battery case.

Personal injury law is also included in claims involving defective products, or “product liability” claims. In a product liability claim, an injured party can seek damages for harm suffered due to a dangerously defective product. Personal injury law can also include defamation claims where a person’s defamatory statement causes harm to someone else’s reputation.

Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorneys

The dedicated personal injury attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy are here to stand up for the injured. Whether you suffered harm due to the negligent or intentional acts of another, we will fight for you and your legal right to full and fair compensation. Contact us today.

In personal injury claims, there are many levels of hurt and losses to consider and account for. There are physical injuries. There are property damages. There are also those intangible losses. The hurt that comes from the trauma of being involved in an accident and living with the pain of sustaining injuries. While these mental and emotional damages may not be as visible and may be more difficult to calculate than others, they are still very real. That is why you can include a claim for pain and suffering damages when you pursue a personal injury case.

Calculating Pain and Suffering Damages

Damages can be classified into two main categories, economic and non-economic. Economic damages are those that are readily calculable. You can usually present receipts and bills to support an economic damages claim. Economic damages may include:

• Medical bills
• Cost of future medical care
• Lost wages
• Loss of future earning capacity.

Non-economic damages are much more complicated because there are no real hard numbers to present in support of them. How do you quantify someone’s pain and suffering? Pain and suffering refer to both the physical and mental anguish that can be caused due to an injury. It can include the discomfort caused by living with injuries or even the need to undergo sometimes extensive and invasive medical care to address those injuries. It can include the fear that can come with considering that your life may have been shortened by your injuries. It can account for things like the embarrassment of having to live with scarring or disfigurement due to your injuries. Essentially, pain and suffering damages refer to monetary compensation you may receive for having to live with your injuries and experience all sorts of unpleasantries due to being involved in the accident.

To prove pain and suffering damages, you can present a variety of evidence. This evidence may come in the form of a treating doctor’s testimony as to your pain. It may also include testimony from an expert in the mental health field or a medical expert on the type of injury you sustained and the kind of pain a patient with such an injury may experience. You may also present documentation such as your medical records. Oftentimes, you yourself may be able to provide compelling testimony regarding your own pain and suffering stemming from the accident and resulting injuries.

To calculate pain and suffering damages, insurance companies most often use the multiplier method. With the multiplier method, your economic damages are multiplied by a multiplier between 1.5 and 5. The multiplier depends on a number of factors, primarily including the severity of your injuries. Another method, the per diem method, is not often used. With the per diem method, a set dollar amount is paid to the victim for each day from the date of the accident until he or she reaches maximum medical improvement.

Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorneys

If you have been injured in an accident caused by the negligence of another, you have a legal right to seek compensation for those injuries and associated losses. Pursuing your right to full and fair compensation often requires detailed knowledge of the personal injury process and a tireless dedication to pursuing the legal rights of the injured. That is what the trusted personal injury attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy are here to do. Contact us today.

It can be scary to think about your child getting injured while playing school sports. The extensive paperwork and waivers you have to sign for him or her to participate can certainly cause anxiety and thoughts of worst-case scenarios. What would happen if your child was injured while playing school sports? Who would be liable? Could you hold someone liable even though you signed a waiver? These are all good questions which we will address in further detail here.

Who is liable for school sports injuries?

A sports injury may be mild or severe. In either case, a child who has sustained a sports-related injury may be in pain and uncomfortable. Furthermore, the injury may be expensive to treat. Most parents are required to sign waivers of liability for a child to participate in a school sport, which may seem as if signing the form means you are waiving your right to file a lawsuit against the school should a student sustain in injury arising from “ordinary negligence.” Ordinary negligence, however, only means you are waiving your right to sue for injuries caused by the risks inherently present due to the nature of playing the sport.

Other types of risks, such as being injured by the negligence of someone who owed the student a duty of care, cannot be waived. A school, as well as staff, owes a duty to keep students relatively safe from harm. When this duty has been breached, the negligent party can be held responsible for resulting harm despite a waiver being in place. This means the liable party could be subject to a personal injury lawsuit seeking compensation for things like:

• Medical bills
• Cost of future medical care
• Pain and suffering

An example of a breach of this duty owed to students may include if a student is injured during sports-related activities by a piece of broken or defective equipment. If an employee knew that the equipment was broken or otherwise defective, then the school may be held liable for injuries and other damages resulting from the student being injured while using the equipment.

Potentially liable parties may include teachers, coaches, and administrators at the school. These are all people who usually owe a duty of care to students. Should a breach of this duty of care result in a school sports injury, the party who breached the duty may be held liable for damages. Furthermore, under “respondeat superior” laws, a school district, as employer for the liable party, may also be held vicariously liable for damages. Bringing a lawsuit against a school district, as a government entity, can be complicated and involve specific steps and deadlines to be observed.

Philadelphia School Sports Injury Attorneys

If your child has been injured while playing school sports, talk about your options with the dedicated attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy. Contact us today.

The concept of sovereign immunity goes all the way back to old England, back to a time when the king, or sovereign, enjoyed immunity from lawsuits regardless of whether his or her actions resulted in harm to someone else. In modern American times, sovereign immunity lingers and is still fully applicable in some cases. In Pennsylvania, the Sovereign Immunity Act has waived the Commonwealth’s sovereign immunity protection from certain types of personal injury claims. There are, however, still lingering impacts of sovereign immunity in personal injury claims that should be considered should you seek to file a liability claim against a government employee or agency.

Sovereign immunity and Personal Injury Claims

In waiving its sovereign immunity in certain types of personal injury claims, Pennsylvania opens itself up to being sued for damages. All other states, like Pennsylvania, have chosen to conditionally waive sovereign immunity by passing laws that fall in line with Pennsylvania’s Sovereign Immunity Act. As previously stated, however, Pennsylvania has not fully waived sovereign immunity in injury claims, but only in certain types of cases such as:

• Vehicle liability (including car accidents)
• Medical malpractice (including toxoids and vaccines)
• Care, custody, or control of personal property or animals (including police dogs and horses)
• Premises liability (including commonwealth real estate, highways, and sidewalks)
• Liquor liability (such as those that fall under the state’s Dram Shop laws)
• National Guard
• Negligent maintenance of roadways (including dangerous conditions caused by potholes and sinkholes)

In addition to the requirement that a claim fall under one of the above situations, the injured party must observe a strict set of deadlines and procedural rules in order to bring a personal injury claim against a government entity.

The injured party seeking to bring the claim must have sustained an injury that was caused by the negligence of a local government agency or an employee of a local government agency acting within the scope of his or her official government duties. Additionally, the damages sought by the injured party must be those ordinarily available to him or her had the injuries been caused by a non-governmental agency or employee.

The injured party must send written notice of their claim to the applicable government agency and, if the claim is against the state, the Attorney General. This notice must be given within a limited timeframe that is specific to the governmental agency involved. The notice must include the name and residence of the injured party making the claim. The notice must also include the date and time, along with the approximate location, of the accident. Additionally, the notice must include the name and office address of any attending physician. If the injured party fails to properly and timely send notice, then it is likely to result in dismissal of any lawsuit that is filed later on.

It should also be noted that the Sovereign Immunity Act places a limit on the amount of money recoverable by the injured party against the government. The government’s liability is capped at $250,000 per any one claimant per a single incident. Furthermore, there is a $1 million total cap over a single incident.

Pennsylvania Personal Injury Attorneys

While bringing an injury claim against the government is possible, it can be difficult and requires strict compliance with all filing requirements and deadlines. The dedicated attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy are here to fight for your legal right to recover compensation from the government for any injuries their negligence may have caused you. Contact us today.

While it seems like much of the world has simply come to a standstill in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, things do continue to move forward. Some people are still required to go to work. We all still need to go out for food and essential supplies. As a result, there are still accidents occurring every day, resulting in injured persons that need continued medical treatment. This, however, is an especially complicated time to be seeking medical treatment. Hospitals all across the U.S. are feeling the strain of the heightened demand placed on them by the spread of the Coronavirus.

Do I Still Seek Medical Treatment After an Accident?

If you have been injured in an accident, seeking medical treatment is often critical to your health and recovery. Seeking emergency medical treatment as soon as possible is recommended as failure to have injuries diagnosed and treated in a timely manner can have devastating, even fatal, consequences. The fact that we are all in the middle of a pandemic does not change the fact that accident injury victims will require emergency care. 

Going to the ER right now does, however, present unique challenges that have not been present in the past. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities are operating over-capacity. Facilities are more crowded than usual as healthcare demands have rapidly increased as the Coronavirus has spread. ERs and local hospitals, as well as other urgent care facilities are, however, still serving those in need of emergency medical care that may not be experiencing Coronavirus symptoms. If you are in an accident and have concerns about going to a medical facility right now because of fears of being exposed to COVID-19, you can request a mask or gloves. You should also avoid touching your face. Practice proper hand washing as often as possible. Keep your space from others. While fear of the Coronavirus is very real, you should not jeopardize your health in other ways in an effort to avoid it. If you have been injured in an accident, go get medical attention.

Additionally, you should make every attempt to follow your treating doctor’s recommendations for any necessary follow-up care. This will often require treatment that can occur outside the hospital setting. For instance, you may be able to get treatment from smaller offices such as from local chiropractors and physical therapists. Seeking consistent medical treatment is not only important to your health and well-being, it is also critical to your personal injury claim. A pandemic will not stop insurance companies from undervaluing claims. Any lapse in treatment will still be used to justify not paying your claim or paying you less than your claim is worth.

Pennsylvania Personal Injury Attorneys

At Cooper Schall & Levy, we are dedicated to providing continuous, reliable legal support to our injured clients. If you have any questions or concerns during the chaos that has seemed to envelop the world during the Coronavirus pandemic, know that we are here for you. Contact us today.