Questions about Insurance Settlement from Car Accident
My wife was in a car accident 7 months ago. She was rear ended pretty significantly (no air bag deployment, but 7k in damage). There was a police report filed, found the other driver at fault, and the other driver's insurance has already paid to have my car repaired.
My wife has been having some back issues since then, and has gone to a naprapath and chiropractor several times. Both acknowledge that something is wrong/different with her back and it is because of the accident. The bills have totaled about $1500, but she isn't better yet. In our state, Illinois, we have up to 2 years to file a settlement/lawsuit for personal injury from an accident.
She has talked to one lawyer who basically advised doing nothing until much closer to the 2 year limit on personal injury lawsuits. Waiting seems reasonable, but the lawyer provided no suggestion as to how much an injury like this is worth. It's already been 7 months (my wife is 32) and it is still causing discomfort/pain, so I am worried that it won't get better.
1. Assuming another few months from now my wife's back is fine and stays that way hopefully forever, what is a reasonable settlement/range of settlement to expect from the insurance company? I have read before that they can generally settle for medical bills * some factor to account for pain (e.g. 2.5x medical bills).
2. Hopefully it won't happen, but what kind of settlement is reasonable if her back pain is still there a year from now? Let's say that she needs to spend $2000 a year at a naprapath/chiropractor to feel better and every indication is that she'll need to do that for the rest of her life.
