Morgan Teeter contines to recover after single-vehicle crash | Portland Personal Injury Attorneys
on Wednesday, May 20, 2009Date: May 15, 2009
Location: Highway 126E, Blue River, OR
Type: Car Accident
Outcome: One death, one major injury
Names: Laura Olson, Morgan Teeter
Morgan Teeter, 16, continues to recover at a Portland hospital after surviving a brutal car crash last week that killed her good friend and classmate, Lauren Olson. According to The Oregonian, Teeter has already undergone three surgeries since the crash on Friday. Fortunately, she has been moved out of the intensive care unit and her condition seems to be steadily improving.
Both families continue to be in our thoughts and prayers. We wish the very best for Morgan, and hope that she makes a full and quick recovery.
The Oregonian reported that students at Reynolds High School have organized a “Morgan Teeter Hospital Fund” to collect donations from community members in order to pay for Teeter’s hospital expenses. It is extremely heartening to see the community rallying together to support Morgan Teeter and her family at a time like this.
But what the Reynolds students — and the Teeter family — may not know is that Teeter’s hospital and medical bills should be paid for by automobile insurance. There are many different possibilities for coverage: if Morgan Teeter herself has auto insurance, her PIP should pay for the first $15,000 of medical bills. Olson’s PIP may cover $15,000. Their parents’ insurance policies may provide some coverage; Olson’s liability insurance, Teeter’s UIM coverage, and their parents’ liability and UIM policies could all come into play. And as if that weren’t enough, there are traps for the unwary in using medical coverage to pay for treatment from vehicle collisions.
Obviously, all these insurance policies can get complicated and confusing. The Teeter family may best be served by consulting a good personal injury lawyer, who will know how to read each policy and can help the Teeters figure out what is the best course of action to get Morgan’s medical bills covered.
At Shulman DuBois, we read our clients’ insurance policies. If the Teeter family or the Olson family decide to hire a personal injury attorney, they should be sure to ask whether any prospective lawyer they interview will actually read their policies. You would be surprised how few lawyers do this. In a case like this, where medical bills are sure to be astronomical, and every dollar of insurance coverage is key, it will be especially important to have a lawyer who will get into the nitty gritty details of the insurance policies and who will be able to find every possible dollar of insurance company money.
Leave a Reply