Surly lawyer help

[NaTeWHO 838]

On Monday night, my 10 year old boy (we'll call him C) went to a baseball game with some friends of ours who have 9 (J) and 6 (F) year old boys. Uninterested in F's game, C and J went to play at the playground near the fields. While there, another boy (T) began throwing rocks at my son C. C asked him to quit, but T would not, eventually getting to the point of chasing C around the playground taunting him with more rocks. T then threw dirt in C's face. When C took off his glasses to clean the dirt out of his eyes, T threw a large rock at his head from approx 20 feet away.

C has 2 fractures in his nose, required 8 stitches for a gash above the eyebrow and has a chipped tooth. The police were called and a report written up. We spent from about 9 pm to about 2 am in the emergency room. T and his parents are known.

T is thought to be about the same age (10 years old) as C. Apparently this isn't the first incident with T. So much so that the dad of the J and F, who took C to the baseball fields with them, had previously been hit in the face with a baseball thrown by T. He also mentioned that just about every time J is around T, there is some kind of incident.

My question is what can be done about this? We don't feel like we should be responsible for these medical bills. After the emergency room, we are now having to see a nose specialist. We also don't want to press charges against a 10 year old boy, although it sounds like he hasn't learned his lesson and this could happen again. Should we press charges against the boy? Should that be used as a threat to get the parents to pay for this?

We were told last night by J and F's dad, who knows T's parents, that they would be willing to help with medical bills. What exactly that means, I'm not sure. How should we move forward?

Currently we are documenting everything we can and trying to take care of C. I plan to find out a total amount and then contact T's parents to request they pay for it. If they refuse, is there any possible path to a lawsuit to cover the damages caused by T?

Thanks in advance.

[TwiceHorn 30715]

Yes, a lawsuit is a possibility.  Probably to be avoided if you can.

Historically, you could recover the medical bills, as billed by the provider (as opposed to your copay, deductible, etc.) plus pain and suffering damages (usually some multiple or fraction of the out-of-pocket medical bills).

Now, it's what the insurer actually paid for your bills, as opposed to the billed amount or whatever your portion was, if any.  That is, if a treatment is billed at $5000, paid at $2000, and your copay was $200, the damages are $2000. (could be misstating here, someone will be along to correct me).

You could theoretically do such a lawsuit yourself in small claims court, if the total is under $10k, armed with the medical bills and payouts by your insurance.  You actually sue the parents, not the child, and you have to prove that the parents were negligent in their "supervision" of their hellspawn.

If the amount is greater than $10k, you'll need a lawyer.  Most lawyers are going to charge 33-40% of your recovery if they have to file suit.  Probably less if they don't.  But, odds are pretty good that they will raise the recovery substantially.

"Pressing charges" is not (necessarily) the route to financial recompense.  It might happen that an adjudication in juvenile court results in restitution for your costs, but it's not the classic way to go.  A civil suit, as above, is your direct ticket to compensation if the parents are financially good for it.

Edited October 16, 2019 by TwiceHorn

[Judge Roybeanbag 11728]

^^^

I think Twice took the long way around of saying if I were you, I'd try to get them to voluntarily help with the bills first since it was indicated they might.  If that doesn't work move on to considering a suit.  Sucks that it happened.  

[NaTeWHO 838]

He just left the nose specialist and will require surgery to fix his nose.

ETA: If we were to go the litigation route, does anyone have any lawyer recommendations? 

Edited October 16, 2019 by NaTeWHO

[Deej 76080]

I was told there would be no alphabet. 

[TwiceHorn 30715]

7 hours ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

^^^

I think Twice took the long way around of saying if I were you, I'd try to get them to voluntarily help with the bills first since it was indicated they might.  If that doesn't work move on to considering a suit.  Sucks that it happened.  

I said that in the first two sentences.

But the rest of it kind of guides OP in what to ask for.  The idea is that you voluntarily purchase insurance to defray costs and you pay premiums, so you are entitled to the "value" of the medical services received, not merely your out-of-pocket, which is low because you already paid for it in premiums because of the happenstance that you have medical insurance.

A smooove way to do it might be to say, "Iiiifffff we were to file a lawsuit, we'd get this, plus pain and suffering, but let's not go there and just stop with this."

[Tailgate 2972]

[Helobious 9393]

Someone needs to get T to a pitching mound, an accurate cannon like that is rare at that age. 

Is T from a suit-worthy family? If they're not pieces of shit they should be willing to pay the medical bills to avoid litigation. If not I guess you have to go that route. Regardless you should definitely tell kid to avoid T at all costs. Watch from a distance as T ends up dead or in jail before he turns 20. Lots of kids are troublemakers, but kids that violent are different from the rest. They usually aren't long for the world. 

[woohorn 1130]

Tell T's F 2 not be A D and you'll kick his A and P in his W's B if U don't C some G's

[TwiceHorn 30715]

One other thing.  Although the kid's act was intentional, which will almost never be covered by insurance, the parents' liability will be premised on negligence, so there might be coverage by the homeowner's policy.  Maybe.

What you need is a personal injury lawyer.  Hank Scorpio and Bob Lives, among others, can refer/advise.  Also probably thujone.

[South Austin 51409]

Call Paul Batrice.

[Quagmire 2139]

T sounds like a total C!

[housious 468]

Have you thought about tearing down the dad’s fence in retaliation?

[BHMCruiser 1804]

 

[HRSchenker 2215]

I wouldn't bother calling the cops on the kid. It will make you and Cock feel better but that's not going to pay your medical bills. Does Tits and his family even have money? I would imagine that if they're broke and you win a civil suit against them they'd just declare bankruptcy and all you're left with is a piece of paper that you can't collect. 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21765]

Can't you just kidnap T and sell him into slavery

[Longhornfan1024 1707]

Some little shit threw a rock at your son's head, which could have caused him brain damage or even death.  It seems like his violence isn't a new thing.  You've got to go biblical and destroy his entire fucking family.  

[Deej 76080]

[Hank Scorpio 17691]

Your best option is to see if the parents will cover the med bills and then pay a drifter to kill that kid. 

Unless the kid’s parents are extremely wealthy. In that case you can probably find a lawyer to take the case because money. 

But if the parents aren’t loaded you’re pretty much screwed. 

[DanRydell 799]

On 10/16/2019 at 11:14 AM, TwiceHorn said:

Now, it's what the insurer actually paid for your bills, as opposed to the billed amount or whatever your portion was, if any.  That is, if a treatment is billed at $5000, paid at $2000, and your copay was $200, the damages are $2000. (could be misstating here, someone will be along to correct me).

The paid and incurred medical damages are $2,200 in that scenario. It's any amount paid, regardless of source, and any amounts the provider can still contractually recover.

[3shot 139]

I am very sorry your son was assaulted like that, and now has to have surgery.  That sucks so bad.  I get ragey when another kid calls one of my kids a name...can't imagine a rock to the face.  

Just my opinion, but if a 10 year old hit my child in the face with a rock, unprovoked, and this particular kid had a reputation for violence, I would feel compelled to go to the police.  I think you have to do that for your community, if not to achieve some amount of "justice" for your son.  And yes, I know very well that the legal system rarely provides any actual justice, but it's the only system we have and unfortunately, vigilantism is frowned upon, especially these days. I know the assailant is "only" 10, but that's old enough to know that he could cause serious injury to someone by throwing a rock at someone's face...and if he doesn't understand this, he needs other kinds of help, and the parents apparently aren't getting it for him voluntarily.  What a shitty situation for all of you.  

With respect to a civil suit, I would think about the criminal and the civil matters separately.  In other words, I personally would not leverage my attempts to collect money from the family with my threats to go to the police.  Not judging you if that's the route you take.  However, if you are contemplating filing a civil lawsuit, you should talk to a plaintiff's attorney first about whether to get the police involved and if so, at what stage.  And you should do that in the next couple days, if possible.  As you've no doubt gathered by the responses above, whether a plaintiff's attorney will be interested in your case depends on the perceived financial status of the parents...if they own a home, that's good, if they rent, not so good.       

  

[Reagan1k 2999]

Is T's mom hot?  

You could recoup your loses in a more creative way than a lawsuit.

[Drew 2222]

So basically, Call the cops on the kid, or maybe not. Ask the Parents to pay, or sue them.  Then fuck the mom.

Maybe not in that exact order.

[HeHateMe 859]

I put my D in South Austin’s moms P last night

[TwiceHorn 30715]

15 hours ago, DanRydell said:

The paid and incurred medical damages are $2,200 in that scenario. It's any amount paid, regardless of source, and any amounts the provider can still contractually recover.

Fair point.  Not that it's worth quibbling over too much, but if you have a deductible or copay, it might be properly ADDED to the insurance-paid portion, or the insurance paid portion may be the total due as damages.  It's what the provider is due to be paid by any source, you, the insurer, or any combination.

In my scenario, I was envisioning a bill that said something like Covered Benefit: $2000, of which your portion is $200, so the total to the provider was $2000.  Whereas Rydell, I think, is envisioning a scenario where you pay $200 at the time of visit and the insurance pays another $2000.

Of course, these days deductibles can be pretty huge, so it behooves you to figure out how it is.

Edited October 18, 2019 by TwiceHorn

[Skipper 5952]

If this kid's parents aren't desperately trying to do whatever they can do to make this right and have otherwise not told you in great detail the punishments and actions they are taking with respect to their son to make sure this doesn't happen again, that tells you all you need to know about his shit parents.   So yeah, if that were the case, I would get the police involved so the little fuck at least starts to understand the concept of consequences if he's not going to understand it at home