After 18 Years as a Personal Injury Lawyer: What Clients Are Most Surprised to Learn

Key Takeaways

• If your health insurance paid accident-related bills, it may have a right to be paid back from your settlement.
• How much insurance is available can matter as much as how badly you were hurt, and "full coverage" may not include UM/UIM.
• The number that matters most isn't the settlement amount. It's what you actually take home.
• Even a strong case carries risk on both sides, and that uncertainty is why cases settle.

They've read the reviews, asked AI, talked to friends and family, and researched attorneys. By the time most personal injury clients reach us these days, they are more informed about their case than at any point in the eighteen years I've practiced personal injury law.

And yet, I find that clients are consistently surprised, confused, or frustrated by many of the same issues and questions they were eighteen years ago.

Every case is different, but the questions, and the surprises, often aren't. There are certain things I find myself explaining over and over again. I don't mind. That's my job, and it's important to me that my clients understand what is happening with their case. But many of these issues are things most people simply have no reason to know until they find themselves in the middle of a personal injury claim.

So, I decided to write about the seven biggest things clients are most surprised to learn.

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1. They may have to pay their health insurance company back.

This is a big one and almost always gets the same reaction: "Wait. I pay for health insurance. Why do I have to pay them back?"

It's a fair question.

If your health insurance pays medical bills related to an accident, it almost always has a contractual right to be reimbursed from your settlement. This is generally called subrogation or reimbursement.

The rules can vary depending on the type of health plan, and the amount claimed can sometimes be negotiated or reduced. But the basic concept surprises almost everyone. Your health insurance may pay your medical bills just like it normally would but then ask for some of that money back when your injury claim settles.

2. The amount of insurance available can matter as much as the amount of their damages.

Clients naturally focus on their injuries. How badly was I hurt? How much medical treatment did I need? How has this affected my life?

All of that matters. But there is another question that can be just as important: How much insurance is available?

You can have a very serious injury and a very valuable claim on paper, but that doesn't mean there is an unlimited amount of money available to pay it.

Unfortunately, I've had to explain this to clients many times over the years. Sometimes the biggest issue in a case isn't proving how badly someone was hurt. It's figuring out whether there is enough insurance, or another source of recovery, to adequately compensate them.

Clients will sometimes ask, "Why can't we just sue the person who caused the accident?" We can, but getting a judgment and actually collecting that judgment are two very different things. New Mexico law protects significant amounts of a person's property, income, and other assets from collection by a judgment creditor. So unless the person who caused the accident has meaningful non-exempt assets, suing them personally often does not provide the additional source of recovery clients expect. This is why the amount of available insurance becomes so important.

3. "Full coverage" may not mean what they think it means.

I can't tell you how many clients have told me, "I have full coverage", only to later learn they didn't have the auto insurance coverage they thought they had.

The problem is that "full coverage" can mean a lot of different things, and it often doesn't mean what people think it means.

One of the most important coverages is uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage ("UM/UIM"). That is coverage that can protect you when the person who caused the accident has no insurance or not enough insurance. However, UM/UIM is not required by law, so it is often one of the coverages rejected to save some money on auto insurance.

Unfortunately, many people don't learn what coverage they actually have until after an accident. By then, it's too late to change it.

If there is one thing I wish more people understood before they ever needed a personal injury lawyer, it's what is, and isn't, in their own auto insurance policy.

4. Two seemingly similar injury cases can have very different values.

This comes up all the time: "My friend had the same injury and got $100,000."

Maybe they did. But that tells me very little about what another case is worth.

Two people can have the same or a similar diagnosis and very different cases. How did the accident happen? Is liability disputed? What does the medical history look like? How much treatment was required? Is there a permanent injury? Are there causation issues? What insurance is available?

Those are just a few of the variables.

It's natural to compare your case to a friend's, a family member's, or something you read about online. But after 18 years of doing this, one thing I've learned is that no two personal injury cases are exactly alike. And seemingly small differences can make big differences in the value of a case. This is also why it can be hard for AI services like Chat GPT to accurately value a case.

5. The settlement amount isn't the number that matters most.

Clients understandably focus on the settlement amount. But there is another number that matters more:

How much does the client actually take home?

A $100,000 settlement doesn't mean $100,000 goes into the client's pocket. There may be attorney fees, case expenses, medical bills, health insurance reimbursement claims, or other amounts that must be paid out of the settlement. These are the expenses of a case, and they are negotiated as well (to get as low as possible).

That's why getting the largest possible settlement is only half the equation. What happens to the money after the case settles matters just as much. Think of it like this:

Settlement – Expenses = Take Home Amount to Client

Sometimes lowering expenses, such as negotiating a medical bill or resolving a lien can put just as much additional money in a client's pocket as getting the insurance company to increase its settlement offer. At the end of the day, the net recovery (take home amount) is the most important number for the client.

6. Filing a lawsuit can mean giving up time, privacy, and control.

Sometimes filing a lawsuit is absolutely the right decision. But clients are often surprised by what comes with it.

First, you give up some control over time. Once a case is in court, deadlines and trial settings are largely dictated by the court's schedule.

You also give up some privacy. Litigation can involve questions about medical history, prior injuries, employment, finances, social media, and other parts of your life that may be relevant to the case. This will feel like a violation of your privacy.

And you give up some control. Depositions get scheduled. Records get requested. Experts get involved. A judge may make important decisions. And if the case goes all the way to trial, ultimately a group of strangers may decide the outcome.

Litigation can be necessary. But it comes with tradeoffs that aren't always obvious when a lawsuit is first filed. I spend a lot of time with clients helping them understand the pros and cons of litigation.

7. Risk is the name of the game.

This may be one of the hardest things to explain to clients because they often can only see their case through the lens of their own injuries and claim. "Risk, what risk, our case is a slam dunk!"

Even a really good case has risk.

The insurance company has risk. If they refuse to make a reasonable offer, they could go to trial and face a much larger verdict. But the injured person has risk too. A jury may see the evidence differently. A doctor may not testify as expected. A judge may make an unfavorable ruling.

A big part of negotiating a personal injury case is understanding and navigating those risks. Each side is trying to minimize its own risk while increasing the risk the other side faces.

Clients sometimes want to know exactly what will happen if we don't settle. Insurance companies would like to know the same. The answer is that nobody knows for sure.

And that uncertainty is exactly why cases settle. The name of the game? Increase the risk the other side has, and the case value and settlement chances go up.

After 18 Years, Some Things Still Feel Unfair

Maybe the biggest surprise of all is how often the personal injury process simply doesn't feel fair.

Someone else can cause an accident, you can do everything right, and there can still be obstacles between being injured and being fully compensated. There may not be enough insurance. Medical bills have to be paid. Health insurance may want money back. The other side may dispute what happened or how badly you were hurt.

Those realities can be frustrating.

After 18 years of doing this, I think one of the most important parts of my job is helping clients understand those realities: what we can control, what we can't, where the risks are, and how we can put them in the best possible position when the case is over.

If you're in the middle of a claim and something on this list caught you off guard, you're not alone. Ask us about it. Your questions aren't an interruption. Answering them is part of our job.

Need help? Have questions?

Our dedicated personal injury team at The Injury and Disability Law Center is here to help you. Contact us today to schedule your free initial consultation by calling our office at 575-300-4000, starting a chat, or filling out our online form. If you want even more information, feel free to check out my free book, Car Accident Cases Made Simple(r), where I discuss this topic and more.