Defendant's Insurance Company Makes Low Ball Offer To Injured Plaintiff
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-07-29 22:02:31 | Word Count: 528
It is worth examining motor vehicle accident lawsuits where insurance companies have made offers well below the total eventually achieved by the plaintiff at trial. These cases show the issues which may come into consideration when deciding on the offer and the issues that may impact the ultimate result.
For example, think about a claim in which a bicyclist was hurt. The driver in this case was driving an SUV. The victim recounted seeing the driver come from the opposite direction then make a U-turn immediately in front of him giving him no time to stop his bicycle. This caused him to go over the hood of the vehicle. The victim suffered from a wrist injury in which his cartilage was torn. Because of his injury he had problems when he went back to his job as a mechanic with a dealership of high-end motor vehicles. Testimony from a doctor indicated that the bicyclist will most likely require surgery to fuse the bones in his wrist at some point in the future and that when this occurs it will probably prevent him from work as a mechanic. Due to this fact the victim would likely not be able to make as much money in the future leading to a loss of earning capacity.
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This added the driver's employer as a defendant. At the beginning the insurance company for the driver made an offer to settle the case for $10,000. The week prior to trial they increased their offer to $30,000.
The bicyclist, probably with the advice of the law firm representing him, did not take these settlement offers. The law firm was able to record that the claim went to trial where they obtained a verdict from the jury for the sum of $550,000.
Here we have a claim where fault was not in dispute. What was in dispute was the value of the plaintiff's injuries. The insurer probably viewed this lawsuit as only regarding a minor injury that resolved itself fairly quickly. From this perspective an offer of $30,000 could seen reasonable.
But the law firm that helped the plaintiff positioned the lawsuit so that it was not about an injury that resolved itself but about an injury that would do even more significant damage in the future. The injury may not have necessitated surgery immediately but it brought on sufficient damage to the wrist that it would require in all likelihood, not only surgery but a fusion. And this would most likely put an end to the victim's career as a mechanic of high-end cars. By letting the jury consider the total impact of the injury the law firm was able to achieve a verdict over eighteen times the sum offered by the insurer.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting catastrophic injury cases. To learn more about how a bicycle accident attorney can help you or to learn about other vehicle accident cases including fatal car accident cases visit the websites
