What to Do After a Car Accident: Legal Insights

Welcome in to Judica County Radio. Coming up this week, what do you do if you're in a car accident? That's right, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, and pricing attorneys here in North Carolina. We're diving in.

What if you're in a car accident? What do you do? That's coming up next on Judica County Radio. Joe Hamer are your hosts. They're the managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, the power behind this program, and their practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They've got offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay-Varina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City for your convenience. Coming up on today's program, we are going to talk about what happens if you're in a car accident.

What should you do? We'll cover all angles. We'll also give you an opportunity for a complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer. And we'll tell you more about that as we move through the show. As we always do, we open up the show. Gentlemen, welcome in.

Josh and Joe. Josh, how was your week? You know, I feel like I always say the same thing. I think I always say so far, so good.

I think that's all I, that's the best answer I've been able to formulate for that question is, hey, it's been all right. Yeah, at least you don't, you know, say it's been crap, Morgan. It's awful. It's just been the worst.

We let Joe do that. Morgan, life is pain. Everything is terrible. And yeah, it's been good, man. It's been a pretty good week. I've got zero complaints, man.

Zero complaints. You know, last week it was in the 80s and 90s and it dipped down to the 70s. So it's more, it's more spring like, but beautiful. It's beautiful out there right now, man.

Yeah, it was awesome yesterday. Yesterday we were we were in the 80s, but you know, I was gonna mix it up this week. You know, we spent a lot of time talking about estate planning. And, uh, cause we get a lot of questions about it, but one area where we get a lot of questions where me and Joe don't always have the, have, have, uh, well, I won't say that, but we, we've got today, we're going to have a special guest when we go into segment two after the break, we're gonna have a special guest.

We're gonna have Aaron Lowe and he is an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer and his, his, uh, his, his, uh, his area that he practices in is we call it as attorneys. We call personal, we call it personal injury. And Joe, there's a lot of, uh, there's a lot of different kind of cases that would fall under that personal injury umbrella.

Now, these are the attorneys that you see advertising on TV, a lot, you know, uh, about car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, but, um, there are other things too. You know, uh, we call them slip and falls, falls to the punch, man. You're really on your game today, Josh. I feel like you've had your coffee and, uh, you really locked in. So I tell you what, man, I got sick. I think I told you this, I got sick a couple of weeks ago. I had like a cold. It's been more than a couple of weeks.

It's been like four to six weeks. And I don't know what it was. I don't test for anything. If I'm sick, I'm just sick. And, uh, yeah, whatever I got, I got, you know, what are they gonna, what's anybody gonna do about it?

You know? Um, but I could not stand the taste of coffee. I'm a guy who drinks like a pot of coffee a day. Could not stand the taste of coffee.

Sounds like the worst sickness of all time, man, for, for several, for several weeks. And I'm drinking it again, but I only had one cup today, but I'm on the hot chocolate today. You're on the hot chocolate. Yeah. Yeah. So no, so only one cup of coffee, one cup of hot chocolate. That's all I got in me. So it's interesting. So for you, not good, not good, not good. Yeah.

So you get, you, you obviously had some kind of illness, some kind of bug, and it, it impacted your taste buds and you did not like coffee and you went to hot chocolate. Yeah. Yeah.

I can still do coffee though. I can do coffee now, but, um, but like I said, we're gonna, we're gonna bring in, uh, we're gonna bring in Aaron Lowe. Uh, you know, he's got 20 plus years of experience handling, uh, personal injury. So after our commercial break, we're gonna, we're gonna kind of talk about what your personal injury attorney, what, what he or she would want you to do if you're in a car accident.

Right. So we're going to take you through, Hey, you just had the car accident. What do you take pictures? Who do you notify? Did you have to go to the hospital? So we're going to talk about what you do kind of at the scene and immediately thereafter.

So we'll do that. And then we'll move and we'll talk about what the, what a personal injury attorney does for you as far as gathering medical records, you know, looking at your injuries. Do you have future injuries, loss work? Do you have med pay? What is your insurance cover?

You know, underinsured, uninsured motorist coverage. We're gonna, we're gonna kind of talk about the, how do you build your personal injury case? How do you, you know, how does your attorney negotiate for you? And then I think in, uh, in our last segment, we're going to kind of play it on out to litigation. You know, what does litigation look like? Uh, timeframes, you know, some of these personal injury cases. If you're, if you're injured bad enough, take, take a long time to come together.

You've got to, you know, recover, at least have a good idea of what your future looks like. And, um, and so Aaron, our, our attorney, um, who works with us at Whitaker and Hamer, he lives in this world every day. This is, this is, you know, what he knows. And so I think that's what we're going to focus on, uh, today, Morgan. Well, I was going to ask you guys this question, just an open-ended question about the practice itself, your, your law firm. Uh, you have said many times before on the program that a lot of estate planning is done with this firm, but you guys handle all the different areas. Where would you rank the personal injury, uh, piece of your practice?

I mean, is it a very active area? Uh, and, and obviously we see a lot of advertisements for other attorneys on TV, but how active is personal injury for your firm? You know, me, me and Joe, we built this, we built this law firm, you know, kind of our, Rob Rick. We did, we did that, but we built this law firm to kind of represent your, your everyday person. Right. We, we, we wanted to have attorneys familiar with all different practice areas that your average normal everyday person would need from an attorney.

Right. So anything from a traffic ticket, car accident, estate planning, you know, civil litigation, um, real estate, you know, we, we, we, that's how we've tailored our, our practice. And so the attorneys that we brought on, I've known Aaron since 2000, 2001, and a lot of the attorneys, like I've known Joe since he was eight, like a lot of our attorneys we've, we've known for a long, long time.

Very confident in their abilities and their, and their knowledge base, Morgan. Well, that's kind of what we've kind of, if you call us, we can handle most any issue. We have the attorney for you that can handle that issue.

So it's very rare. We talk about some of the things we don't do. Right. We don't handle bankruptcy.

We don't handle immigration law. There's a few areas of law where we're not going to be well suited to help you and we'll get you where you need to go. But for the most part, if you have a legal problem, we've kind of built our firm to be able to help you. Yeah. And, um, and so to answer your question, personal injury is a call we get a lot.

You know, I was in a car accident, um, you know, and, and, and, and it's an area of practice that is heavily advertised. Right. So you're not going to see us on, on TV with cartoon dogs or standing on top of a tractor trailer.

That's not the approach that we've taken to our practice of law, but some of those commercials are a little crazy. I know Joe's seen some of those. Yeah. I watch television, man. Yeah. I've seen them.

They're a little crazy. We like to keep our commercial game real classy, man. And, uh, you know, but, uh, all that's important, but I, you know, we haven't really talked about our personal developments, man. And there was a huge personal development that you haven't touched on in, in, in our lives.

And that's Josh Whitaker coming out of retirement and playing basketball again for the first time. Oh, wow. Yeah. Years and years. We need to, uh, we need to get some play by play on that.

How'd that go? Look, man, I don't, I was there. I saw it.

I witnessed it firsthand. And have you heard of, um, this basketball player? His, his name is, um, Stephen Curry. You heard of that guy before?

Steph. Yeah. Yeah. It's basically the same.

It was basically that different body type, uh, different motor to get there. But one of the purest jump shots you've seen, man. Yeah.

More low to the ground, more, more of a set shot. Yeah. We didn't have any, uh, NBA scouts there, unfortunately. But if we did, they'd be like, who's this near 50 year old man out here.

And how have we never heard of them? It'd be like if Bill Murray and Space Jam, he gets a few shots off and Jordan tells him he could really make it one day. Yeah. It was great, man. That's what I tell the kids. I was a big man growing up, work on, work on your jump shot because everything's going to leave you.

But if you have your jump shot, you've got something to contribute. It was there, man. Josh brought his kids out too, man. Some talented kids. Oh wow. Brought a crowd.

I like it. He brought his son and, and, but he didn't, he didn't have shoes. He had Crocs on.

So, uh, I felt real bad about it because you don't want to take advantage of a young kid in Crocs. And, um, but good time, man. I was impressed with you out there, Josh, your cadaver ACL that you had repaired really.

It swole, it swole up afterwards. Yeah, but you could have never known, man. I was very, I thought you were going to be, I thought you were going to be a little bit compromised, man. And you looked like a real true to life athlete out there. So I just want to give you props on that. That's good. That's good. I'm very, very proud of you, man. Got to get you some compression socks if you're going to, you know, do this on the regular.

Just a compression body suit probably. I also wanted to, I wanted to go back. You were talking about just how you, uh, brought the team together. Uh, and, and you've known Joe since he was eight.

Uh, what kind of courtroom presence did Joe have at eight as he got into the business? Formidable. Yeah. Yeah. I started, uh, I started logging in at eight years old, man.

For formidable, formidable courtroom presence. I was at my best. Those are my best years, man.

I've really gone downhill since then. You know, uh, Judica County radio, we have, we have our chuckles for sure. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer law firm, the power behind this program. They're also practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Coming up on the other side, we've got attorney Aaron Lowe going to join us. And we're going to talk about personal injury.

What happens if you are in a car accident? Again, we want to remind you too, that Whitaker and Hamer has offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead city, complimentary consult. Again, available to you with Whitaker and Hamer. If you've got a legal question you're facing, you can get answers. Again, call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. They'll line you up for one of those complimentary consults.

800-659-1186. We've got more Judica County Radio coming up. We are back on Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. Managing partners Whitaker and Hamer law firm, which is the power behind this program. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.

They've placed offices convenient for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead city. I'm Morgan Patrick. My pleasure to go back and forth with the attorneys each and every week. And this week we have a special guest attorney Aaron Lowe joining us from the firm.

He deals with personal injury. Josh, take it away. All right, Morgan.

So we've got Aaron joining us. He's down in the, he's down in our Gastonia office outside of Charlotte, but this is, um, you know, our plan for this, this segment is I wanted to start, I've got a, I've got a 16 year old who's just starting to drive and, you know, I was kind of thinking, you know, I'm telling him like, Hey, if you're, if you're in a car accident, just trying to give him some practical advice. And, uh, Aaron, I figured, you know, that's pretty much the best place to start. You know, you're, you're in a car accident. Uh, you know, from a, from a personal injury attorney, from your attorney's perspective that you will eventually hire to represent you. You know, what, what do you, what do you want folks doing?

Yeah, thanks, Josh. Um, I, I do deal with auto accident cases every day and, um, I do consultations, um, uh, as you've advertised for here every day, uh, for, uh, auto accidents. And when I first started working, um, as an attorney, uh, I went to an insurance defense firm, cause that's one of the only places that we're hiring at the time. And, uh, basically we, we represented, um, people that had been in car accidents from the side of the insurance company, um, as to, uh, you know, determining whether or not we're going to pay for it, or we're going to go forward and try the case.

So I've been on both sides of this now with Whitaker and Hamer, I work from the plaintiff's side, meaning that I'm the one that, uh, fights with the insurance companies to, uh, cover accidents and to cover injuries that people may have. Now, as for your question, Josh, about, um, what to do if you're in an accident, and the answer is always, um, it depends, but let's just take a typical auto accident that takes place in North Carolina every day. Um, let's say you're driving in your car and, uh, someone hits you from behind, you get a, a rear end collision, um, let's say it's a little bit serious, serious enough to, uh, uh, destroy your car or, or make significant damage to your car. And, um, uh, the first thing that I would do if you're in this situation and you're, you're driving in your car and you were, you were hit is to number one, call the police.

Okay. Um, and the reason why you would do that, not only because you want to, you want to help with the traffic situation and, you know, make sure everything's okay, but you also need a report from the police officer, um, that is, uh, given in every accident in North Carolina that will investigate the accident and say who's at fault and, um, you know, interview the witnesses and observe the crime scene. And all that information is going to be put into a police report, um, that is going to be important for, um, you, if you want to make a claim to any insurance company about this accident.

So that's number one, you want to call the authorities to come and get a police report. Um, and Aaron, sorry, I, uh, I wanted to jump in real quick. The, I see that, I see that a lot, you know, we've had a lot of clients call us and the other driver approaches them and is like, Hey, you know, I'll cover this.

Let's keep insurance out of it. And, uh, you know, it might be like a big deal, but, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's like a busy thoroughfare and it, you know, it kind of puts you in a weird spot and I've, I've had some folks, some clients who were not at fault, but kind of agreed to kind of, Hey, let's leave. I got your number.

I'll talk to you. And that never seems to work out really good. Cause, cause like you pointed out, you don't have an accident report. So now it's, you know, without the police coming, without the police doing an accident report, it's your word against the person who, who hits use word. And they may be real nice at the accident scene and offer to pay stuff, but people change a lot of times that doesn't really work out. Yeah.

I know Joe's seen that too. Yeah. The rule of thumb is everybody wants to, uh, pay for it without using their insurance. If it's something they can afford. And when you're involved in an accident, you don't really know until you get in the car checked out, especially, especially if there's significant visual damage, you don't know how much it's going to cost to fix it. Um, I don't, uh, unless you're like a body mechanic and then you were hit, maybe you'll know how much it costs to fix it.

But most of the time you don't know. So an accident report is really important. Um, just like you said, Josh, to, uh, to, to, to, to it not be your word against his or hers, the person that hits you, but also, so you have a record of the accident.

And so you, there's a termination and a speculation actually in the investigation as to who's at fault. And usually insurance companies will take that. And if it's significant damage, um, I guarantee you someone will not want to, um, pay for it if it's more than they thought.

Um, and insurance companies don't have that much of pushback as to, uh, what it costs to repair things. Basically they'll cover, um, what the, uh, mechanics, uh, the body shops that they deal with say, so let me, let me, let me ask you another question. So, all right, you're in an accident. Obviously you're going to have to figure out, you know, um, you know, you're going to call the police no matter how minor it may seem, um, so that you have a document of what happened, right? If the other, if the other driver violated a traffic law, there are the, the cops would cite them, right? And that'll be on the accident report random. We think he ran a red light.

We think she ran a stop sign, you know, whatever that is. So you're going to, that's all going to be working for you. So don't, don't get talked out of, of, of calling, uh, the police and the police will give you instructions. The police may say, Hey, pull the cars off to the side of the road or, or something else or, or anybody who shows up on the scene. So you listen to them, but you want to get an accident report. What, um, what do you say, Aaron photos, do you take out your phone and take photos of what's going on?

Do you, is that helpful for you? Yeah. Um, so, uh, again, depending on the severity, if you're injured in the accident, um, you know, uh, it, it doesn't, um, I would recommend letting the ambulance take you, um, from the scene, um, rather than walking around and taking pictures, but to the extent you're able to, um, if it's a, you know, you're worried about, um, uh, you know, preserving the evidence, absolutely take pictures. If you can, um, uh, if you can, if you can get out of your car, if you make sure everyone's okay, um, and, and take pictures of where the cars came to arrest immediately after the accident, that is important.

Yeah. All evidence is important. So preserve evidence. The best evidence is pictures or videos at the scene, um, showing, um, you know, where the cars came to rest, uh, would be, would be excellent. And, and, um, you know, basically, uh, as I said before, Josh, um, after you've called the authorities, um, and they come out and do their investigation, they talk to the parties, they should, if they, if you were transported by accident or by ambulance, excuse me, after the accident, if you were transported by ambulance, you need to make sure also that your statement gets, um, given to the investigating officer. Um, because I've had it happen before where, you know, if, if you're transported by ambulance, you don't have an opportunity to, um, uh, talk to an officer after the accident because of your injuries, then, um, a lot of times, you know, you, you can't, it's hard to go back and change the investigation. So be sure that you talk to whoever the officer is that's investigating the accident, even if you had to go to the hospital afterwards. And also, as you, uh, another thing to keep in mind here is that at the scene of the accident, you will not get an accident report. The accident report is generated after the investigation is done.

And usually like within a week after, by whatever jurisdiction, whatever police jurisdiction is investigating the accident. So what you would need to do at the scene is you, usually the cops give you what's called driver exchange information form. It'll have each driver's, um, personal information on there, like their names. And, um, usually the, the, the make and model of their car and usually their insurance information as to what insurance company they use and what claim number or what policy number they have not claimed number policy number.

So, uh, when you have this driver exchange information form, that's only a piece of it. And again, the actual accident report you'd have to get later on, but, um, that, uh, the, the police, the, uh, the driver exchange information form is at least enough. If immediately after the accident, you can call the insurance company. That's at fault, whether that be, you know, that be you or whether that be the other driver, hopefully it's the other driver that hit you in this, in our scenario that we're talking about before another driver had hit you. If that's the case, you need to call their insurance company. And again, easiest way to do it is just Google and look at the claims hotline and make a claim immediately.

Um, so that, uh, they can, uh, uh, investigate, do their own investigation and either accept coverage or deny coverage. And that's another piece. And Aaron, let me, let me stop you there before we get too far ahead that, and that's, that's good advice. You're of course, if you, if you retain an attorney to, to assist you, uh, you know, the law office, the attorney will, will help you, uh, get the accident report and, and get the claim, uh, started. So that, that's all things that, that we can help you with, or your lawyer can help you with as well. I know we're coming up against, uh, a break.

So I think we'll, I think we'll end this segment here. And on the next side, we're going to talk a little bit more about putting that claim together, how an attorney values your personal injury claim and go from there. Morgan, you are in a car accident.

What do you do? We have a special guest on the program today, Aaron Lowe, attorney with Whitaker and Hamer joining us. He deals with personal injury. Again, you are locked into Judica County radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts at the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer law firm, the power behind the program. And again, they are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, and they placed offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Farina, and Gastonia where Aaron's joining us from and as well as Morehead city. I'm Morgan Patrick.

We're back on the other side. We want to remind you too, that there are complimentary consults available. All you've got to do to get signed up is call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186.

Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about. Again, a complimentary consult available 800-659-1186. We're back with more at Judica County right after this. Judica County radio.

You're locked in. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts at the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer law firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And they've got offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Farina, Gastonia, and in Morehead city.

I'm Morgan Patrick. My pleasure to referee between the attorneys on occasion, but also legal advice, legal shows. So if you've got questions about what you're going through and you need a consultation, we do have complimentary consultations. All you've got to do is call 800-659-1186.

Leave your contact info and briefly what the call's about. And an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch 800-659-1186. Today we are focusing in on personal injury.

You've been in a car accident. What do you do? And fellow attorney with Whitaker and Hamer, Aaron Lowe, joining us from the Gastonia office.

Josh. Yeah. So we did a good job. Aaron did a really good job kind of giving you some things to be thinking about, like when you're, when, when an accident happens, you know, and if you're, if you're severely injured, there's, you know, you're, you're going to the hospital, there's not a lot you can do, but if you're on the scene, you know, Aaron did a good job pointing out some things that you may want to do. And, you know, I should say, you know, you can give, you know, Morgan always gives you the numbers, but you know, these consults are free. So we're going to talk about kind of valuing the claim, negotiating with the insurance company, kind of what that looks like, what attorneys look for in valuing your claim. But if you're, if you're, if you're involved in that now, right, if you're currently negotiating with an insurance company and you think they're not being fair, really the only thing you can do is, is retain an attorney to give you, to give you some leverage because that's, that's what the insurance companies do.

They have, you know, they have a settlement tactics before you hire an attorney and settlement tactics after you hire an attorney, but, negotiating with insurance companies, even your own insurance company is, is not, is not always fun. But Aaron, what I would, what I would ask you next is, okay, the accident has happened. You know, your car's been towed, you, you started to get treatment. You find out you have, you know, some injuries that might require surgery, that might require physical therapy, that are requiring some treatment. And you sit down with Aaron or one of our attorneys. What are, what are some, what are some questions you're going to ask Aaron? What are some things you're going to look at to kind of figure out what's going on? You know, this, this segment, I want to kind of focus on negotiation, the negotiation stage once, once they've retained you.

Sure. Well, typically, if a client retains us to represent them in an auto accident, and the other party was at fault, then what our next step is, is to get a complete picture of their medical treatment and their injuries and what was done to fix or to get them back to working maximum medical improvement. So what we would do is, is request all the medical records from all the doctors that you treated with. Now, this process usually happens after you're done treating. So the first thing you need to do, again, and this is a step-by-step process, but when you're treated, like, let's say you're, like Josh said, you're treated at a hospital, you're, that's only the first step of the treatment. And you're going to follow up with your primary care, or you're going to follow up with an orthopedist or a chiropractor, however you prefer treatment, and you're going to treat your injuries, depending on what they are.

If you have any, like, major injuries or visible injuries that are clear from the accident, lacerations on your face, or like a compound fracture that's sticking out of your leg or whatever you have, you're going to want to take pictures of that as well, like you said before, because that's part of the evidence, and your medical record typically won't have pictures of your injuries. So you're going to want to take pictures of that. And as for what we would do is, we would get all of your medical records after you're done treating. So you're going to want to do whatever the doctors say. That's the first step.

So good, good, good, good. Yeah, so I think that's what people need to know is this is not necessarily a quick process, especially if you've sustained some serious injuries. You know, we're going to have to, you know, we're going to have to look at what your, you know, there's one, I guess we should say this, you know, Joseph, you, what's the statute of limitations on a matter like this? And what is the statute of limitations? For three years, you have to bring a lawsuit on your claim if you are in an accident within three years of the date of the accident. Not when you're done treating, not when you realize that something's broken that you didn't know before, it's the date of the accident. So you have three years from that date to bring a lawsuit.

That's right. So in the interim, you know, we're kind of in a negotiation stage. So well, after you meet with Aaron, you're kind of, Aaron's going to be in kind of a fact, your attorney's going to be in a fact finding stage. You know, what are your injuries? What is the treatment plan?

Is this something you're going to deal with your whole life? Is this something that in about a year you'll be back to normal? Because you really don't want to start negotiations usually, and I'm speaking in generalities, Aaron, this isn't the same for everybody, but just in general, you really want a good picture of, like you said, when you're going to get back to quote unquote normal or as close to normal as you can get before you start serious negotiations with the other side, because you don't, you don't know what your damages are for sure until you know what that looks like, I guess.

Exactly. And, and, and, and Josh, the, the, the key thing is that everybody, everybody's body is different and everybody's doctors are different. A lot, or a lot of people's doctors are different. So the treatment that you undergo to get yourself back to normal looks different for every injury, for everybody and for every doctor, right? So the key thing that you have to realize while you're treating for your injuries is that you want to follow the doctor's instructions. As far as if you recommend physical therapy, go to physical therapy, even if that's three times a week, you got to go to it because a lot of times insurance companies will look at your medical record and say, well, she only went once a week, but she was prescribed three times a week.

So she wasn't that hurt or something like that. So you have to follow the doctor's instructions. And of course, as you said Josh you don't know how injured you are until you try something to fix it. And if that doesn't work, then doctors often try something else. So you might first start with physical therapy. You might then get steroid injections and you might then have to have surgery. So until you're done treating, we won't know what the value of your claim is because a lot of the value of your claim is based on what is medically necessary to get you back to normal or to reach maximum medical improvement.

Okay. So during this time that you've engaged us, assuming I'm your attorney, I will monitor your treatment, but I can only ask for medical records after you're done treating. When you're done treating, we immediately send it out the request for medical information and we get all the bills and we get all the records from your providers. And that is the main piece of how you value a personal injury claim is how much treatment you had to receive to get back to normal. Right, right. So your treatment support, and I will just throw this in, this isn't personal injury related, but me and Joe played basketball the other day, as he told you earlier. You're not going to sue me for personal injury, are you?

No, no, no, no. But I did, I did as younger, as younger men in my thirties, I had, I tore my ACL in half and I had to get a, that's what they did back then. I don't think they do that now, but they give you a cadaver ACL. And I did not do my physical therapy.

So I'm on here telling you, do your physical therapy. Personal injury context, yes. Non-personal injury context. It's even more important in the personal injury context, because again, just like Karen talked about, you don't want to get in a situation where you didn't follow the treatment plan and, and, and damage your own case.

But yes, generally speaking, we are attorneys and counselors and general counseling in life. Do what the doctor tells you. My cadaver ACL connects in four places and all four of those places burn when I play basketball. And I'm pretty sure that's not how it was supposed to go down. I feel like that pain was fueling you though, man. I feel like the pain made you better. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I was very proud of you, man. Well, when you come out of retirement like that and you put your body to the test, your cadaver Achilles. Sky's the limit for you, man. If you keep playing, if you play four or five times a week, you know, maybe you tear that cadaver ACL, get a new one, the technology advancements, you know, you never know. I don't know if there could be like a robot chip type ACL or just a new leg.

Just give me a new leg. Do we have any background on the cadaver? I mean, do you have any history there or are you, it was, it was a player for sure. They gave us, they gave us, uh, some information and we sent a letter and think that the, the family, um, but no, I don't have a lot of information, but the doctor did say it was a very good specimen. There you go. Well, Judica County radio, a very good specimen when it comes to legal conversation on the radio, we will continue our discussion coming up on the other side. If you are in a car accident, again, things you should be doing, uh, again, stick to it.

Uh, and again, it is very, very important to do so. Judica County radio again, brought to you by Whitaker and Hamer law firm. That's where you can find our hosts, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer.

Uh, the power behind the program is the firm. They are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Morehead city. And our special guest this week is Aaron Lowe, personal injury attorney, and he is out of the Gastonia office. We're back with more at Judica County right after this. We are back on Judica County radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina. They placed offices for your convenience in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Morehead city. We are focusing in on personal injury.

What if you are in a car accident, what should you be doing? Our special guests, a fellow attorney at Whitaker and Hamer, Aaron Lowe out of the Gastonia office. Uh, we want to remind you too. We have complimentary consults and they are available. If you've got a personal injury situation, a question, you can certainly call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information briefly. What the call's about. And an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch again.

800-659-1186. Josh. All right. So we've spent some time talking about what to do, like right when you're in a car accident or immediately thereafter, what a consult looks like with your personal injury attorney and some of the things that your attorney is going to do for you while, while you're treating. And so I want to spend a little bit of time in this segment, talking about kind of the end game negotiation phase with the insurance company and, uh, and even give you just a little picture of litigation. We've talked about litigation in general on the show before, but Aaron, what I would ask you, what, what, what all, what, what factors, you know, we talked about treatment in the insurance company, kind of looking at your treatment and your medical records and your medical bills to help value your claim, but what, what else goes into putting together a value for a claim?

Well, Josh, thank you. Um, there are a lot of factors. And again, I've done this from the plaintiff side and from the defense side to evaluate, um, the value of, of, uh, injuries claims. And, um, it's not just the medical records that they consider. They also consider, um, lost wages. So if you are held up for whatever reason from working from your job, then the amount of time that you're off for that injury is, um, uh, considered as part of your damages, uh, for an injury claim. So, uh, for instance, if, if you had to, um, take off a week of work, um, you should get reimbursed in your, uh, personal injury claim for that week of work, you were off. Um, there are, if you have a disability policy, you may want to apply for that though in lieu of the personal injury, cause it's a lot easier to usually get, but, um, if you don't have a disability insurance claim, um, policy, then you will have to put your lost wages as part of your recovery for personal injury. So that's one thing to, to, to keep track of.

Absolutely. Every minute you're out of work dealing with recovering from this injury or going to medical appointments for this injury, that should be one thing that is also covered on top of medical bills. Another thing that's covered is pain and suffering. And again, this is where lawyers make their money as far as representing people in these personal injury claims.

So anyone can get their medical records and medical bills and, uh, get, uh, you know, maybe get reimbursed for that. Um, when you make a claim on a personal injury policy of insurance policy, however, not everyone can get what you can get from an attorney for these damages that are hard to quantify, which is pain and suffering. So, uh, pain and suffering is, you know, the, the, the measure of your, uh, pain and suffering in monetary value or money value, um, that you would be able to get if the case went to a jury. Um, and there's a lot of, there's a lot of factors that, like you said, Aaron, there's a lot of factors that go in determining pain and suffering.

I know we had a client a long time ago. Um, uh, we had, we had, uh, anyway, had, had previously lost a leg, right. And it was in, it was in an accident where this client was going to lose their, their, their remaining leg and, and did. And the pain and suffering argument was very important in a case like that, because, you know, you lose one leg, you're still, you still have mobility. Like you can still get around.

There's things you can do. You lose the second leg. Then there's immediately things that you, you know, it's, it's a different type of loss and the pain and suffering argument that your attorney makes on your behalf.

That's, that's kind of what it is. What did this injury do? What can you no longer do?

What did you lose the ability to do? Are you going to have pain the rest of your life? Is there, if there's treatment in the future, you know? Um, so there's that, and like you said, that's where an attorney makes their money. That's where a good attorney is, is worth their salt is how do we convey your pain and suffering to the insurance company or to a jury if we've, if we've gotten to litigation, but, but, uh, I like how you put that Aaron. Yeah.

Thank you, Josh. And, uh, it, it, I think, um, a lot of, and again, this is a short segment. This isn't a, a full fledged consultation. Um, but, uh, you know, there's several factors that need to be considered when you make your claim, um, and on top of medical records or medical bills, excuse me, and lost wages and pain and suffering. Um, um, there's also, you know, the, the, the difference between what your insurance covers and if you're uninsured and all that stuff and medical liens. And again, those are things that we can get into a consultation that really, really helps if you have an attorney.

So you're not liable. Um, uh, if you settle yourself, um, because if your medical insurance is paid in your bills, sometimes your medical insurance has a lien or a right to recover some of that stuff that you recover. So an attorney can also help you navigate, um, your medical liens, um, meaning that if you get paid from an insurance company, uh, someone else might be entitled to that money that you don't know about.

Um, and they can come after you if you settle yourself. So Aaron, we, we say that a lot too, on the show, you don't, you don't know what you don't know, right? You don't, you know, and we talk about getting an attorney involved. If you need to hire an attorney, it's important that you hire an experienced attorney, uh, an attorney who knows what they're doing.

Like, like you've said, you worked on it, you worked on both sides, right? So you used to work for the insurance companies. Um, and now, and now of course you work for, we call it plaintiff's work. You work for the plaintiffs. You, you work for the folks who, who have been injured. So you've seen it from both sides, but any area of law where you, you need an attorney, there's things that, that you're just not going to be aware of without the consult of someone who's more knowledgeable, who's been there, who's tried cases. And, and Aaron, that's, that's kind of what you, what you bring to the table for, for folks.

That's true, Josh. And I, I, I pride myself on getting more than the client can get themselves, even if you take out the fee. So that's what my goal is always when representing clients is to get them the best deal they can is if I myself were injured and, or my family was injured and, uh, getting the most from them. And again, experiences is, is, is, uh, the best thing I can offer, which is, you know, litigation experience for 20 years.

So, um, I would do my best to represent all my clients and give them the most they can. So me and Aaron, me and Aaron met in law school. So I've known Aaron since we were in law school. We both went to Campbell university back when the law school was in Buies Creek. We, um, and so I've known Aaron for a long time and, and he has been a litigator, uh, the whole time I've known him and it, it creeps up on us, Aaron, but we're 22, 23, 24 years in at this point. And, um, what was it like practicing law back during the civil war? That's right.

When I first started practicing, you could smoke in the Johnston County courthouse and there was ashtrays on the console. So don't worry. We're going to put you at it. Yeah. I want to, I want to jump in Aaron. Can you shed some light on young Josh?

What was he like back in the day? I mean, we can talk about on the radio. Yeah. Josh was always been my role model.

That's right. That's a cool customer suck up. Well, Aaron, I appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us. And I think this was real, real helpful.

And that's what we try to do every week. We try to bring some, just some basic foundational knowledge on different areas of practice, uh, for our listeners. And, uh, Aaron is available here at the firm. If you call in for a personal injury, console car crash, whether you're just happened, whether you're in the negotiation phase, you're still treating, you know, Aaron is the, he's the guy I'd call, right. If something happened to me or my kids, uh, you know, he's the first call I would make. And he, uh, he practices out of our Gastonia office, but he handles personal injury statewide. Just like the firm.

The firm is a statewide law firm here in North Carolina. And so he can help you out wherever you're located. So if we can be of service to you, um, give us a call, but Aaron, thanks for your time. Uh, we appreciate it.

All right. So listen up, listen up an opportunity to grab a complimentary consult. And if you have a personal injury case and you want to get in touch with Aaron Lowe, all you've got to do is call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information. Say, Hey, I want to consult with Aaron Lowe and the firm will make that happen.

It is complimentary 800-659-1186, and that means no charge. Uh, and again, you'll get to, uh, uh, get some information back and maybe proceed from there. 800-659-1186 for one of those complimentary consults. Judica County radio is going to continue.

We've got one more segment for you. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina are your hosts. They put offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia, and Morehead city for your convenience.

We're back after this short break. Judica County radio. You're locked in Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts of the managing partners of Whitaker and Hamer law firm.

And that is the power behind this program. And both are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They've also placed offices convenient for you in Morehead city, Gastonia, Fuquay, Varina, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, and Raleigh, as well as Cleveland again, for your convenience. And here on the program today, we've been focusing on personal injury. If you are in a car accident, what should you do? If you have a situation you're facing in that category, you can always grab a complimentary consult 800-659-1186, 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information briefly. What the call's about will get you in touch with Aaron Lowe, the personal injury attorney with Whitaker and Hamer based out of the Gastonia office. But again, he handles cases statewide.

Josh, final segment. It's always good when you're talking to somebody. All right. So if you're talking to somebody who knows what they're talking about. Yeah.

I don't, I don't know. I talk to a lot of people, you know, just in the course of a day and you talk to people and sometimes you can tell like right away, like, Hey, that guy doesn't, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Right. Yeah. And then you talk to people like Aaron. Right. And Aaron knows exactly what he's talking about. Yeah. That Aaron has got a future in law. I would say, man, I'm, you know, so, so you better stick around 22 years in it. I feel like you should just play it out, you know, see where it goes.

See where it goes from there. Yeah. He's already pretty invested in this. He is man. He is. He is. But, uh, but that was, that was good.

I was glad to have him. We'll have to have him on some future shows and tackle kind of specific, uh, personal injury again, you know, car accidents, slip and falls negligence claim. Sometimes they're, they're called, but, um, that is a lot of lawyers practice that area. You know, that's a very popular area of practice.

That's where a lot of lawyers can, can really use their litigation skills to kind of make their client more money. And, um, that's why you see so many ads on television and radio for, for personal injury, but it's, it's, um, it's definitely an important one. Joseph, have you ever been in a car accident? Um, man, I feel like you're going to, you've, you've done the ultimate jinx to me now. I'm going to go and I'm just going to get into a wreck, but, uh, nothing very minor, man. Very, very minor. I've been very fortunate. Please, please don't, man.

But, uh, no, man, very, very minor. I've been very fortunate. I try to drive really well, pay attention. That's a pro tip for you guys. Pay attention while you're driving. Um, that's what I try to do, man. It's very important to me.

Yeah. I've been very fortunate to just been in some minor fender benders, you know, I was in one, somebody rear-ended me with my, in my truck and I, you know, we got out and there was no damage, you know, into my truck. And I was like, that's not a big deal. I'm not worried about it, you know, and, and the people insisted, uh, so this is, they insisted on calling the police, but they were at fault.

You know, we were talking about making the police, you know, if you think it's somebody else's fault, you need to call the police. And so I was at a stoplight. These folks kind of rear-ended me. They had a little bit of damage.

I didn't have any damage. I was like, Hey, let's don't worry about it. I'm cool. I'm cool later.

Hey, I'm cool. Isn't that what we just told the people not to do? It was kind of the reverse. It's the reverse. If you do it. Yeah.

It's like, definitely, Hey, be cool. Let's not call the police. But, uh, but you know, there's the cops came out, you know, I was like, all right, you know, I'm fine, you know, and, and they, they gave me a ticket because my registration was out. So somebody reared in me calls, no damage.

Calls no damage. And then I got to, I got the ticket. I, my registration, it was my fault. That's a lesson to keep your registration active. I think that's a very important lesson. Another pro tip for our people. It's a lot of pro tips today, man. Like a basic being alive tip. Yeah, for sure, man.

And I don't follow that tip very well, but, uh, I got a quick accident story for you. All right. All right.

Let's hear it. Yeah. So back in the day, I'm not going to name the city. I don't want to, uh, tie this down too, too much, but it was a while ago.

And, uh, statute of limitations. You're safe, Morgan. It'll be fine. It was new year's Eve and we were on our way, uh, to a, uh, festivity, uh, at a, uh, an establishment, not, not a private home, but at an establishment. And I was riding with my best friend and we were talking. And as you know, back in the day, we were kind of, I was glancing over, glancing over and the light changed and it was wet pavement.

I slid through the intersection and I tapped a car and I could not drive my car. And, um, there was a police officer sitting at the, uh, you know, at the intersection, saw it all, everything was documented my fault, uh, didn't try to say otherwise. But the interesting thing that happened was the female officer said, where were you guys headed?

And I said, well, we were going to, and I named the place in my college room. It's like, probably shouldn't have done that. Probably shouldn't have done that. And, um, and the officer said, well, uh, you're obviously, are you going to call a cab? What are you going to do?

And I said, well, I hadn't really thought about it. I can't drive the car. It's being towed. She was, well, I'll give you a ride to back then they had pay phones.

Those were the days we went to the pay phone. Um, she lets me out of the back of the car and my college roommate sitting in the back of the police car, I make the phone call and, or I'm trying to make the phone call. And finally the officer comes up and she goes, you know what, where are you?

I'll just take you. So she gave us an escort police Uber drove us to the front of this establishment, which was one of the most popular spots to go for new year's or people just waiting to get in. And we pull up in a cop car.

Nice. The cop lets us out. She hands me her card. The bouncer goes, you don't have to wait in line. Anybody that shows up in a police car you're getting it. That's big time right there. So anyway, uh, the police officer was asking for a date.

Ooh, I like that. Did, did not pursue that. But anyway, that was my, that's another pro tip for our clients.

If you have a police officer show up to an accident, you're at fault. Woo them, uh, try to woo. You didn't have to Morgan. It comes naturally to you.

It was like animal magnitude. It comes very naturally to you. You can't help it.

We're not mad at you. Okay. That's true.

Animal magnuses. But anyway, that's one of my fender bender stories. That's a pretty good one. If you're going to have one Judica County radio. Yes, we are at the end and we want to remind you that we have complimentary consults.

They are available. All you've got to do is call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. And this week we focused in on personal injury. If you are in a car accident, things you should be doing, uh, and, and also giving you the opportunity, uh, to work with Aaron Lowe, our personal injury attorney out of the Gastonia office.

He handles the entire state. So if you've got questions, you can use one of these complimentary consults, uh, to get your questions answered. 800-659-1186. The number to call that's 800-659-1186.

Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And if you want to talk with Aaron Lowe, just say it right there on the message and they will get you in touch with Aaron 800-659-1186. Well, another edition of Judica County radio is in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, as well as Aaron Lowe. I'm Morgan Patrick. We'll see you on the radio next week. Carolina and how these laws affect the average North Carolinian. If you have any questions about the content of the show, you can direct such inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at JMW at mwhlaw.lawyer.