What Happened
Our Virginia personal injury client suffered numerous non-life-threatening injuries when another driver crashed into his vehicle in Portsmouth, VA. The rear-end collision sent our client to the hospital, and he needed nearly three months of follow-up treatment to return to full health.
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Key Legal Strategy
The other driver’s responsibility for causing the accident was not in doubt, but that individual’s auto insurance company refused to settle all of our client’s personal injury and property claims. The insurer never clearly stated its reasons for refusing to compensate the injured man fairly, but its representative regularly expressed some version of the dismissive conclusion that his injuries were “not that bad” and the damage to his car was “not that serious.”
Our Virginia personal injury lawyer convinced her client to take his case to trial rather than give in to the pressure from insurance reps to take an unjustly low payment. The plaintiff won, and the insurance company was ordered to pay him $13,000. That award was double the highest settlement offer that had been made shortly before the trial ended.
This case highlights the lengths auto insurance companies will go to avoid fairly compensating the people who get harmed by their policyholders. It also shows that taking on an insurance company is often worthwhile. Going to trial delayed the positive outcome, but our Virginia personal injury client ended up with no medical debt.
Court & Date: Portsmouth Circuit Court, Portsmouth, VA, May 2010
Staff: Staff attorney