Having problems with a defendant and insurance company after an accident?
File, litigate and try the case. This is what I did for the Smith- Washington family a few weeks ago. On February 18, 2016, I tried their auto accident case in St. Clair County, Illinois and obtained a $234,317 judgment. This is an excellent victory as our medical specials were about $24,000, with about $9,000 in property damage and rental car costs. The court gave $200,000 for pain and suffering for our two clients. They had low back injuries with chiropractic care and some epidural steroid injections.
Most people assume that if they are in a car accident and it is someone else’s fault, the case should settle quickly for all their damages. Nope. Ultimately the only power a car crash victim has is to file a lawsuit and go to trial. Suing the at-fault driver is necessary to combat cheap insurance companies. Those companies have contracts with the insured to indemnify, or pay, for personal injury damages that the negligent party causes. That’s what we did for the Smith-Washington family. We filed suit and litigated the case. Our clients’ depositions were taken and we took depositions as well. We presented our medical evidence through evidence depositions of physicians. You think that a crash that is so violent that it takes the back bumper off a car would settle easy. Not!!
But no, there were a number of lawsuits related to this case. The lawsuit we tried and won, a separate declaratory judgment action against the defendants regarding insurance coverage, which we appeared in and litigated, and an arbitration case against our own clients’ insurance company recovered damages under their policy. For a previous article on that case, click here. We continue to fight for the Smith-Washington family and continue to fight for all of our clients, despite the position taken by our opponents. Thanks for reading.