Who Pays Medical Bills in a Car Accident Claim?

After a car accident, you may have extensive medical treatments to undergo. This can lead to costly medical bills. If you were not at fault during the accident, who is responsible? If you are filing a claim against another driver, what happens with your bills in the meantime?

Should You Accept an Early Offer?

The medical bills are beginning to stack up and you feel like you may drown in them. This is what many people feel after a serious accident. Most do not have money to pay medical bills easily. If you have insurance, this can help you with the bills before you can reach a settlement. If the other insurer offers you a settlement right away, you need to think hard about it. Odds are, you should not accept it.

Early offers are tempting because you want the money as soon as possible. No one wants to have to go through a long trial process before receiving any compensation. This is why it is important that you hire a good personal injury attorney, like a personal injury attorney in Washington, DC, to talk to whenever an offer comes up. Your lawyer can calculate the appropriate settlement amount. If you accept a low amount, you may cover some of your initial medical bills and none of the treatments that you need later. You may receive far less than what you deserve.

Should Your Attorney Pay the Bills?

There is a misconception about medical bills during a car accident claim and these misconceptions involve the attorney paying your bills. Your lawyer does not pay your medical bills before you receive your settlement. When it comes to your bills, you are responsible for them initially. It does not matter if you are in the middle of a lawsuit with the other driver or not; the hospital still looks to you for payment. 

While you do not usually have to pay your lawyer until after you receive your settlement, it is not your lawyer that pays the bills in the meantime. You are responsible for your bills until you receive your settlement. Medical bills can stack up quickly and even with insurance coverage, you may feel like you are going into deep debt due to the bills. This is why it is important that you do not accept an offer right away. You need to make sure that you receive the compensation that you deserve to pay the medical bills off later. In the meantime, you may have to pay out of pocket or with insurance.

Thanks to The Lawfirm of Frederick J. Brynn, P.C. for their insight into who pays the medical bills when someone is filing a car accident claim.