By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-11-13 14:45:50 | Word Count: 788
Motor vehicle accidents result in the death of an estimated 4,500 pedestrians each year. A number of these fatalities will result in a wrongful death case. These are sophisticated claims which are regularly ardently defended by insurance companies and contain hard medical, accident reconstruction and legal issues.
As with any fatal car accident case, insurance company adjustors, when they make any settlement offer at all, are going to structure the amount dependent not on the plaintiff's damages but instead on the financial risk faced by the insurance company. There are numerous ways in which insurance companies make an effort to minimize their risk. For example, these cases often involve (1) denials of liability by the defendants (driver, employer, others who contributed to the accident) and the insurance companies insuring the defendants; (2) insurance issues (including the unavailability of insurance, underinsurance, multiple insured defendants and excess insurance); (3) economic issues (including whether the victim was married and had any children (especially minor children), the age and general health of the victim, and the loss of future earning capacity) that influence the valuation of the case; and (4) non-economic issues that affect case valuation. An attorney handling one of these cases thus should have the skill and experience to deal successfully with the many challenges that will likely come up in the lawsuit. Consider the following:
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This lawsuit concerned a motor vehicle that was spotted speeding shortly prior to the accident. The accident took place briefly past 6:00 in the morning. The police investigated the accident and reported that the vehicle was low on break fluid and had no windshield cleaning fluid despite the fact that it had a dirty windshield.
The pedestrian who was hit was a female, aged 66. She landed twenty-sever feet from the point of impact. She had fractures to several ribs, to her skull, to her clavicle, even to her wrist. She was taken to a local hospital where she died from her injuries. She left behind a husband, five children, and six grandchildren. The law firm that represented her family reported that they obtained a $725,000 settlement at mediation.
This case involved a pedestrian accident that happened during the early of the evening. The female driver of the vehicle involved did not stay at the scene of the accident. The male victim had a part-time job. The victim had two children. The victim died due to the accident. The woman who was responsible for the accident was located by the investigating police officers. She was arrested. She was charged for leaving the scene and for the negligent operation of a vehicle resulting in a death. The law firm which represented the victim's family was able to report a settlement for the sum of $1.15 million.
A few significant commonolities and differences can be found in these two matters. In both cases a motor vehicle accident resulted in a death. In both cases the victim was survived by family members. In both cases the law firm representing the families was able to reach a substantial recovery for the family. In both cases a settlement was reached without trial. Now consider the following information from the reports of these cases. The settlement amount in the second case was $400,000 larger than that in the first case.
The reports do not describe how the settlement amount was reached in each case. One explanation for this difference could be that each settlement signifies the upper range of available insurance. A different explanation could be due to the historical range of awards by juries in the jurisdictions where each of the matters would have been tried.
Insurance companies take making as large a profit as possible extremely quite seriously. Factors suggesting a low risk to taking the case to trial include plaintiffs with little credibility and little sympathy factors, an attorney with a reputation for settling cases or for not doing well at trial, and a poor preparation. An insurance company adjuster who perceives a high risk of an adverse award will make a proportionally higher offer. Factors that suggest a high risk include highly credible and sympathetic plaintiffs, a skilled highly experienced attorney with a history of trial successes, and a thoroughly prepared case. Plaintiff attorneys know that, paradoxically, preparing the case for trial is often the best way to position the case for settlement.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting car accident cases. Find out about fatal pedestrian accident cases, fatal car accident and other types of vehicle accident cases by visiting the websites
