You usually have to be aggressive in pursuing your case if you want a big payout on your car accident injury case. Let me tell you the story of my past client, Avery.
The Accident
Avery was injured in a motor vehicle accident when she was driving straight on a two-lane road. Someone pulled out in front of her from a side road, fishtailed, and collided with her vehicle, shoving her vehicle off the roadway into a brick sign on the side of the road. Avery was transported by ambulance to the hospital and was discharged the same day.
Medical Treatment
Avery soon began getting additional medical treatment. About a month after her accident, she had an MRI on her right shoulder that showed she sustained a tear of the rotator cuff. Avery eventually underwent surgery to repair the tear and then went through a couple of months of physical therapy treatment for her shoulder.
Building the Case
When Avery became my client, I immediately got to work on her case. My staff gathered all of her medical records and bills, as well as proof of her lost wages for the time missed from work. We were also able to track down surveillance footage that caught the car accident on video. It was clear from the video that the other driver was at fault for the accident.
To add value to the case, I also signed up Avery’s husband as a client for his claim for loss of consortium due to him being deprived of an intimate relationship during this time period and him having to take on the household chores that Avery would normally do, like laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, and cooking.
The Demand Letter
Next, I sent a demand letter to the at-fault driver’s insurance company, along with all of the evidence we had obtained in support of Avery’s claim. I demanded the insurance company pay the policy limits. The insurance company delayed providing me with a response, so I filed a lawsuit. Filing the lawsuit got the insurance company’s attention. After filing the lawsuit, they soon agreed to pay out their insured driver’s policy limits of $100,000, but we weren’t done just yet.
Pursuing Underinsured Motorist Coverage
Thankfully, Avery was driving a vehicle that was insured with underinsured motorist insurance coverage. Underinsured motorist insurance, also known as UIM insurance, is insurance coverage that will pay for your injuries and damages over and above the at-fault driver’s insurance coverage in the event the at-fault driver did not have enough insurance coverage for your damages.
After settling with the other driver’s insurance company, we pursued our claim against the underinsured motorist insurer, who we had also named as a defendant, in the lawsuit I filed on Avery’s behalf. After a couple of rounds of negotiating back and forth, I soon realized we were not going to get a fair and reasonable settlement anytime soon. So, I continued litigating the case.
Litigation Process
We answered written discovery questions and requests on behalf of Avery that were sent over by the lawyer hired by the insurance company. We also had the UIM insurance company answer written discovery questions and those we sent over to the defense lawyer they had hired. Avery went through a deposition with me by her side to defend her. We also produced additional evidence we were able to gather throughout the litigation process. I communicated with the UIM defense attorney on several occasions.
Mediation
We finally agreed to mediate the case with the UIM insurance company. Mediation is a process that usually takes place when a case is in litigation, wherein the parties meet with an agreed-upon and impartial neutral person who assists the parties in attempting to reach a settlement. In Avery’s case, mediation was held about 33 months after her car accident and almost two years after I had filed the lawsuit. By getting the case to this point, we had shown the UIM insurance company that we were not backing down. We were only going to settle if we got a fair and reasonable settlement offer. At mediation, with the help of the mediator, the UIM portion of the case settled for $165,000, bringing the total settlement for Avery’s case to $265,000.
Avery and her husband were happy. It can take a significant amount of time and effort to get a fair and reasonable offer on a car accident injury case, but don’t let that deter you from pursuing a fair settlement. The insurance companies won’t make the process easy for you. They’ll make you lowball settlement offers and tell you your case doesn’t have much value. Don’t listen to what the insurance company has to say about your case. Move your case forward. File a lawsuit. Prepare your case to go to trial. If you do so, at some point, it’s been my experience the insurance company will usually make you a fair settlement offer.
Final Thoughts
While it was awesome I was able to get Avery a fair settlement, it would have been even more awesome if I was able to get her that type of settlement quickly. While in Avery’s case, it did not make sense to settle her case quickly because they were not offering a fair amount initially. There are some injury cases where it actually makes sense to settle quickly.
In this video about to pop up here, I’ll tell you the only time you should consider accepting a quick settlement in your injury case. Lastly, if you’ve been injured in a car accident, slip or trip and fall incident, or dog attack incident in Kentucky, remember: don’t wait, call Tate.
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