Car Accident with drunk driver questions

Factual Questions
1

For all you lawyer dopers out there:

About 2 months ago I got into a car accident. The person in the other car was plainly at fault as he ran a stop sign at an intersection in which I had no stop sign, so of course had the right of way. He totaled my car, gave me whiplash, and I messed my knee up a little. Also my young daughter was in the car, and although she wasn’t physically harmed, we have noticed a definite change in her since the accident. She is much more clingy and less willing to take a chance or be independent.

I found out via the police report that the other driver was drunk. He is in fact still in custody, as this wasn’t his first offense.

Not to sound like a greedy son of a bitch (well okay, I don’t care if I sound that way or not), but how much do you think I should be able to realistically expect to recieve out of a settlement with this guy’s insurance? Minimums and maximums, and how should I approach it? I do have a lawyer, who is very competent and I trust has my best interest in mind, it is just that I want some objective opinions on this matter.

2

You can’t get generic objective opinions on legal matters, usually.

Factors that will determine any settlement include the state you live in, the other driver’s insurance coverage or assets, actual damages, medical costs incurred as a direct result of the accident, criminal charges filed if any, ad infinitum.

If you want an opinion other than your attorney’s, I suppose you could provide another attorney with a boatload of information and they could hazard a guess. At a price.

Otherwise it’s “anywhere from nothing to a fortune.”

Sorry.

3

hmmm… I had no idea it was so subjective, although i guess logically that makes sense.

I guess I will just have to trust my lawyer.

4

My brother does that sort of work, estimating things like that & I know that he wouldn’t give you a figure without making a contract first & one that he gets a share of :slight_smile:

Why not check old cases that were settled if you want an estimate for your city as it does vary from one area to the next, right?

Do you think its worth having more than one legal opinion? Like another one from another lawyer?

5

Just for example of how specific it is. My Friend got run over on his motorcycle by a city bus.(I don’t know if this is specific to city vehicle cases or not). After it was all done the lawyer came up with a formula like(numbers pulled out of my ass).

Each day work missed = $350
Each minute waiting for ambulance $500
Each hour of surgery= $200
Each pin inserted = $500
Each inch of rod = $2500
Each inch of accident scar = $1500
Each inch of surgical scar = $1000
Each day of cast wearing = $200
Each day of crutch using = $100
Each doctor visit =$300

And so on. The Lawyer calculated it all up, and sent it into the city in an offer, and they accepted his calculation and settled. It was very draconian.

6

Hi MegaDave, sorry to hear about the accident. Glad you’re ok.

Legal experience talking here (IANAL yet, still a paralegal for now) so here goes:

It depends on what state you’re in.

If you live in a state known for generous, emotional juries, you have more power over the insurance company. They will not want to go to trial if they know that one look at your little girl’s face is going to get the jury so mad that they stick it to them in the verdict.

If you are in a state where NO jury gives anyone anything, or gives them a paltry amount, it will be harder. The insurance company knows your chances at trial aren’t very good so they will try to lowball you.

According to http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=286, the 5 “best” states to have a jury trial (as far as fairness goes) are Delaware, Kansas, North Dakota, Utah, and Washington. The 5 worst are Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana and Texas. (Being from WV I can confirm that WV is indeed a horrible place to be if you’ve been in a car accident.)

The jury system has its flaws and one big one is that the jury is made up of 12 people who usually don’t know jack about the law and how lawsuits work. You’ll get in a car accident, rack up say 20k in bills. The jury gets told this, so they come back with a 20k verdict and they think they’ve done you a favor. Little do they realize that your lawyer gets his/her cut off the top, which includes the cost of the lawsuit itself (copies, postage, expert witnesses, etc.) You end up with not enough money to pay your bills, and zilch for punitives.

It also depends on what insurance company you are dealing with. Some are more willing to settle fairly than others. In my experience, State Farm is the absolute worst to deal with but ask 100 legal people who’s the worst and you’ll probably get at least 25 different answers.

I wish I could make a prediction as to what you can expect to get but I just can’t. I doubt the insurance company will offer nothing and risk a trial but I very seriously doubt that they will offer everything you are entitled to.

What are you entitled to? Lost wages, compensation for loss of services that you provided to the household (mowing, fixing the car, etc.), all medical expenses, plus punitives for pain and suffering, etc. Insurance companies tend to not even bother with punitives because, let’s face it, they aren’t sorry their driver hit you. They’re just sorry they’re being sued.

Hope this helps, and I hope you get a good settlement :slight_smile:

7

MegaDave,
I am an insurance adjuster- although I no longer deal with auto cases. The first thing you have to do is find out the limits of the driver’s policy. In California, most drivers have the minimum 15/30, so that is most you can get. Your attorney should be communicating with you regarding the progress of the case. You have to keep good records of your injuries. Has your daughter been in to see a therapist? Unfortunately, us on the insurance side see a lot of fraud and vague complaints, so we become cynics. Different states have different laws when it comes to insurance companies. In CA, the carrier has 40 days to make a decision on the case once all information has been submitted. If this happened 2 months ago, you might check in for status.

As a side note: in small cases with small insurance limits, it is generally more lucrative for a claimant to submit a claim without an attorney. Carriers are fordbidden in CA to “low bid” an unrepresented claimant. Unless the limits are very large, or the case serious, the percentage attorney takes off your award may not be worth it. Of course, if things do not suceed with the carrier, one can always get an attorney.

8

For your purposes, does it even matter that he was drunk?

He hit you, he’s at fault, and it’s his job (through his insurer) to make you whole. What it takes to make you whole seems independant of why he hit you.

9

mu money says that you get the max of his insurance liability for the vehicle…make sure you get a settlement for your daughter-she should be covered also.

10

$15-$35 K plus medical expenses, would be my guess, but I’m not even remotely related to ever having considering being a lawyer.

It’s pretty dependent on the severity of your injuries, how long you delay setlement, what sort of diagnosis your daughter receives (“doesn’t seem herself” will probably not be accepted without a diagnosis - 2 is a very changeable age and it could be argued that it’s age related changes your seeing, as opposed to results from the accident), how your injury progresses, whether the insurance company catches you sky-diving, etc., etc.

I think most insurance companies prefer to settle out of court so this will be a point in your favour.

I thought that many companies would deny coverage to drunk-drivers, meaning it would be a personal-civil lawsuit - ugly.