I need some SD advice on a real life situation. I was called from my job to the scene of a fender bender involving my oldest son. When I arrived on the scene my son’s car with my son in it was parked at a curb with the front of his car crunched. His driver’s window was street side. I parked on the opposite curb and walked across the street to his window. This left me standing in the street next to his driver’s window. As I was asking him if he was ok an elderly lady came driving by and clipped me with the mirror of her car and rolled me like a cheap taco down the side of my son’s car. I survived but was out about 6000 in medicals. Now HER insurance company ( allstate) has refused to pay any of the bills…I have had to file a lawsuit against them. Their defence case is that I was standing in the roadway so that it’s my fault. It has been 2 years now and I am beginning to wonder if I want to go thru the depositions and court case that will soon follow…SDers what would you do?
PS the 80 year old lady never stopped. The highway patrol had to go to her residence and bring her back to the scene of the accident.
Maybe Melin can give some advice here.
I’d say “go for it”, if only to have them pay your medical and legal bills, the b**stards!
Grrr! Insurance companies! Plus, she didn’t stop?! Holy fright, I can’t believe her insurance company didn’t refuse her insurance for “hit and run”!
Well, you can’t hit someone just cause they are standing in the road!!! Can you imagine what would happen if we could???
Insurance comp’s almost always say ‘NO’ the first time, its like some kinda program. You have to go back to them again & again until they give in.
Two years is a long time…to wait.
Not a lawyer here, but…
First, you were at the scene of an accident (fender bender, but still an accident). I feel confident there has to be a legal condition to support you being in the roadway.
Second, it doesn’t matter if it was an accident or not. The driver is responsible for operating safely. As long as you didn’t fling yourself in front of her vehicle at the last moment, it is her responsibility to slow down and proceed around you safely.
Third, that’s a hit and run on her part. Charges could be filed. Have they been? If not, find out why. That could be a serious aid to your case.
I can’t believe they won’t pay out. Or rather, I can believe it, but think they’re evil bastards.
As for whether it’s worth it, nobody can make that decision for you. Only you know the value of your time and energy vs. the costs to you medically as well as financially, and whether you want to take on the company because you are in the right.
Out of curiosity, is your insurance company involved at all? I think they might be interested in recouping costs they had to pay for you from All-state or the lady.
My gut feel is they can’t possibly want to actually take this to court, they’re just hoping you’ll give in. Show them you’re serious and they’ll settle, because there is no justification for running someone down.
The first thing you need to do is get your butt in gear and get it moving. In another year…it’s all over and done with no matter what you do. Three years is the limit. Get yourself a good accident claims lawyer and he’ll take it from there. You should get your medical bills, lost work time, any future problems will be estimated…plus the old lady should have gotten a ticket for leaving the scene of an accident. You won’t have to do anything…let your lawyer handle it and worry about it.
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I think you should proceed with the lawsuit. My suspicion is that they are just trying to get you to give up (and they have very nearly succeeded!), which is one way to win a lawsuit. It’s pretty clear which way it will be decided, they’re just measuring your resolve. When they realize you are determined to see justice done they will almost certainly settle.
They should not only pay your medical and legal bills but compensate you for lost wages and/or whatever else resulted from your injuries.
My son was seriously injured last year ($20,000+ medical bills) and the final settlement, just arrived at, was for $75,000. The lawyer got $25,000, our medical insurance got $18,000 (they discounted their bill since we did the legal work for them) and my son then was left with $32,000 for missing a year of opportunity for schooling and/or employment.
Like you, in our case there was no question about who was at fault, but we needed to bring a lot of pressure to bear to get them to pay. They even tried to get us to settle for less because my son was acquainted with the kid who caused the accident and they assumed we wouldn’t sue. In fact we probably wouldn’t have, but our attorney advised us to at least file the lawsuit. We did and they caved.
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Maybe my memory is faulty, but I seem to recall that in the Kentucky drivers manual, they state that the pedestrian always has the right of way, crosswalk or no. Is this the case in your state, aha?
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If I understand the OP correctly a lawsuit HAS been filed and aha is trying to decide whether to pursue it. By all means, do so. [Disclaimer: these are general principles only; no attorney-client relationship is established here; talk to your own lawyer, etc. etc.].
Without more details I can’t tell you what my estimate of liability would be, but the fact that you were a pedestrian and just standing there, not jumping out in the road at her or anything like that, suggests at least some strong percentage of negligence on her part. There may be some attributable to you, too. Laws on what you can recover when you are negligent too vary from state to state. (In Nevada, for example, if you as a plaintiff are 51% at fault you collect nothing; in California a plainitff 51% at fault would collect 49% of his damages.)
Litigation is never fun; it is a known fact that it causes stress and anxiety. I have taken hundreds of depositions, and I am quite sure that I would just as soon always be on MY side of the table, thankyewverymuch. Nevertheless, this is not a complicated or emotional case (nobody’s going to be asking you questions about how you felt when your baby died, or how often you have sex – well, unless you are claiming you can’t have sex as much anymore because of the accident), and it’s probably worth the effort of a couple of depositions and a couple of days at trial. OTOH, assuming you have made a full recovery and did not lose a lot of earnings from work while you were laid up, this is not a really big case from the insurance company’s perspective, really probably in the $20K range, with some discount if the law in your jurisdiction thinks you were somewhat at fault, too (I don’t really see you as being more than half at fault here, but that’s my WAG based strictly on what you have posted here). YMMV.
Cases like this settle all the time after the depositions of the main witnesses are taken, and after there’s an independent medical examination if the plaintiff is claiming residual injuries. Unless you or your lawyer have placed an unrealistic figure on the value of the case, it will probably never go to trial. Not enough money involved to make it worth anyone’s while (unless they think it’s a fraudulent claim, of course, but it doesn’t sound like there’s any basis for that. We’ll litigate a suspicious claim all the way, even if it’s for this small amount a money).
Oh, and to whoever suggested using the leverage of a threat of criminal prosecution to advance the criminal case – strictly verboten, at least insofar as the lawyer is concerned. It’s a distinct breach of professional ethics to do so, and can get you disciplined.
Oh, and just so you don’t think ALL insurance companies are nasty, the company for which I work has an established policy: pay what we owe. Don’t pay a penny more, but don’t pay a penny less.
-Melin
Siamese attack puppet – California