On 8/28/06, I was a passenger in a car involved in a head on auto collision, it was the other drivers fault. The driver of my car had progressive ins. I do not drive. The car was totaled. We were taken by amb to er and released. I also have MS. Diagnosed in but still continued to work full time up to time of accident.
I went on family medical leave, and as the months went on it became clear that I wold not be able to return to work because of the back and neck injuries I had sustained from the accident.in March of I discussed this with my primary care physician and he agreed. At that time I applied for a disability retirement from my job, which I received in July. I then applied for SSD.
I was fortunate enough to be awarded SSD because of my MS and the accident injuries.
The other parties insurance paid the full amount of the policy, then my attorney attempted to settle with the adjuster from Progressive, A Mr. Donald Dixon. The next thing I knew, They sent me a release form for my social security records. I called my attorney, quite upset questioning this, and was told, I did not have to release them but that it would look bad for me. So i signed the release. I questioned what my social security records had to do with the accident, but the attorneys office could not give me an answer.
I received a letter from my attorney stating that we would be attending a settlement conference on 12/3/08 with Mr. Dixon. As soon as we sat he immediately began questioning me about family leave, and tried to insinuate that I was a liar. My attorney asked me how badly the car was damaged. I swear they were in this together. I asked him where the pictures were that I sent him. Mr. Dixon told me, " You already got the max from the other policy, and you got your SSD but we have to give you something so we'll give you $5,000.".
He told me I should be happy with that, I told him about my back the constant pain, and how I could no longer do anything, and that wasn't the case before the accident. Mr Dixon pulled out a paper about MS, with a section about back pain being a symptom of MS highlighted in orange and told me that my back pain was from MS and not the accident. And that they would give me $5,700.
That was it. I never signed anything, about three days later I got a paper from him dated Dec 4 stating that he had sent a check for $5,700.00 to my attorney's office. My attorney never called me about it untill last week, now they have called me twice to see when I'm coming to pick it up I have'nt done so yet.
The whole thing makes me sick. They used my MS as an excuse not to pay me when I was hurt in an accident because their driver was under insured. For months I had to live on about $150.00 a month after I paid for insurance, bills, and medicine, which sometimes, I couldn't even afford to get all that I needed resulting in a relapse of my MS. They are very cold hearted.
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