Our client was driving for Uber when he was smashed into from behind. The driver fled the scene but he was able to get her license plate number. We made a claim against her insurance. They originally denied the claim, but once we file the law suit they paid her policy. The problem- she had a minimum $25,000 and the client’s medical bills were significantly more than that. We made a claim against Uber’s underinsured motorist coverage. We were eventually able to obtain a settlement of approximately $550,000 for the client. We are proud of this settlement because the client had several crashes and prior injuries in the two years prior. The defense wanted to blame the injuries on those crashes. But we held firm and obtained a fair settlement.
Our client was the passenger in a car that was hit by a semi-truck that ran a red light. The client suffered significant injuries to her spine. However, some of the client’s symptoms didn’t appear until approximately nine months after the collision. In addition, the client had a 15 months stretch where she only treated twice- this after being recommended for a spinal fusion and then a spinal cord stimulator. We knew the Defendant’s initial offer of just over $200,000 wasn’t fair. We took their expert’s deposition and prepared for trial. The Defendant, seeing we weren’t going to back down, eventually settled for approximately $1,500,000.
Client had been turned down by a number of other lawyers because he was found at fault for causing the collision. We reviewed the case and did our own independent investigation. We took the case and convinced the insurance company that their insured was at fault. We achieved a full policy limit settlement for our client.
A mother and daughter were injured when a driver ran a red light. The insurance company for the at fault party denied the claim because our client had been found “at fault” by the insurance company. We investigated the claim and requested the body worn camera video from the police. It was clear the citation was wrongly given to our clients. The insurance company for the at fault driver reconsidered their denial and reversed its decision. It settled by giving us the entire policy limits.
A client was riding his bike the wrong way against traffic. He was hit by a car pulling out of a shopping center parking lot. Our client was dropped by his prior big firm lawyers when they found out he was cited for riding the wrong way against traffic. We investigated the case and found that even though our client was riding against traffic, the driver who hit him failed to make sure it was clear for him to merge into traffic. The insurance company reversed its denial of the claim and paid the full policy limits.
Our young client was rear ended while in a large work truck. There was no visible damage to his truck even though the car that him had significant damage. Three months later our client was rear ended again. His prior attorney settled the second claim for easy money- and in doing so put the client’s first claim at risk. The insurance company for the first case argued any significant injury was due to the second crash and that since there was no property damage to our client’s truck from the first crash he couldn’t have been severely hurt. We retained medical experts to review the case who agreed our client was severely hurt in the first crash. The Defendants’ expert said our client wasn’t hurt. At mediation we obtained a settlement for our client and his spouse in excess of $800,000.
Our client was the victim of medical negligence. Given the caps on damages and the very high defense verdict rate (over 80%) at trial, many lawyers won’t take these cases. We met with client and even though the odds weren’t in our favor, we wanted to help. We retained experts to review the case. They both agreed her doctor was negligent in causing significant injury. After trying to settle, the insurance company forced our hand and we filed suit. The case eventually settled for approximately $1,000,000.
He was on the job driving for a large trucking company based out of Texas. He lived in New Mexico. His employer’s insurance company indicated to the family that Texas doesn’t require worker’s compensation insurance and that the company wasn’t insured. Technically, this was correct. To top it off, the driver that caused the crash didn’t have insurance. The company didn’t carry underinsured motorist coverage on its trucking policy. I spoke with a prominent trucking law lawyer in Texas to consult on the case. He indicted there was nothing that could be done.
Something in our gut told us something wasn’t right. We weren’t going to let this go without investigating every angle. Turns out our gut was right. The insurance company wasn’t telling the whole story. Turns out the company had an office in New Mexico and carried a New Mexico workers’ compensation policy that applied in this instance. With the assistance of an amazing New Mexico attorney, George Weeth, we were able to timely get a complaint filed. The insurance company had no choice but to admit its “mistake” in not disclosing the New Mexico policy. The family will now receive everything they were entitled to under the insurance policy.
We expect our professional drivers to follow the Rules of the Road. One of the most basic rules is “pay attention.” This driver failed to do that and as a result ran into the back of our client’s car. There was very little property damage to either vehicle. But, this doesn’t mean there can’t be serious injury. Our client suffered significant injury from the crash.
Minor property damage can pose a huge hurdle in settling a case for fair value or obtaining a fair jury verdict. Along with the very minor property damage our client’s case had a number of other significant issues. Our client had a number of crashes in the 5 years leading up to our crash, including one six months prior that resulted in neck and low back. The low back had healed only days before our crash, the chiropractor had indicated the low back pain was gone.
The defense denied liability and tried to blame our client because our client was using Bluetooth to talk on the phone when the crash occurred. They then tried to blame our client’s prior crashes for her injuries and the need for her back surgery.
We eventually convinced the defense they were looking at this all wrong and were able to get them from their original offer of $250,000 to a fair settlement of just shy of $900,000. We are very proud of our work on this case and couldn’t be happier for our client who is a hard working single mother