A Personal Injury Case in Two Parts

It’s been a while since I have written about topical case results and resolutions. Thank you for waiting patiently while I worked on a rather involved case.

At first glance, it’s a simple case; a woman, stopped for a red light, was rear-ended by someone who failed to stop for a red light. Her car was heavily damaged, and she was injured.

To many of you regular readers, this sounds like a "snoozefest". Nothing exciting happening here.

Except that my client is 81, and before the crash she’d had a spinal stimulator surgically implanted to keep her back pain under control.

And the force of the crash destroyed the spinal stimulator.

Part #1: Pursue the Other Driver

The other driver had limited insurance liability limits. While $100,000 seems like a lot of money, it’s really not much when you understand that my client’s medical bills alone exceeded that figure, and she had other damages as well.

How could her medical bills be so high? Well, she had to undergo a spinal surgery to remove the old spinal stimulator and install a new one. Yes, it is probably a “nothing” surgery to the surgeon, but, as the old saying goes, the only minor surgery is surgery performed on someone else.

Let’s face it; if you are 81, even if you are still working and driving, you don’t really want to go through general anesthesia, surgery, and recovery from surgery.

Needless to say, it did not take a great amount of lawyering on my part to convince the other driver’s carrier to tender the entire limits of its policy, once I submitted the medical bills and records along with my demand, and an explanation of the ways in which my client’s life had changed for the worse since this crash.

Part #2: Underinsured Motorist Claim

This part of the case is ongoing, so I will not provide too many details about it, but the general gist is that once the policy limits of the driver’s policy were exhausted, my client was free to pursue an Underinsured Motorist, or UIM, claim.

Whom do you sue or file a claim against in these cases, and where does the money come from?

Your own insurance policy is the answer to that question.

This is one of the primary reasons I encourage you to have auto insurance with liability limits as high as possible.

Essentially, it works like this: If you have an insurance policy with liability limits (and uninsured and underinsured limits that match those) that are robust, you will never get caught in a situation where you cannot recover enough to compensate you fairly for your injuries.

In my client’s case, suffice it to say her limits were significantly higher than those of the other driver. That meant she could pursue up to the difference between those two policies.

A bit of quick math for those who like to see concrete numbers.

Let’s say you are rear-ended by someone with $50,000 liability limits per person, per crash. Suppose you are injured badly and require surgery to repair a fractured ankle, but also that you miss five months of work as a delivery driver, where you earn $80,000 annually. Your medical bills are about $150,000.

$50,000 won’t come close to paying your bills, your lost wages, or your pain and suffering, let alone giving you fair compensation for all of this.

What if you had insurance at the state minimum of $25,000? Tough. You’re out of luck. $50,000? Same. No dice. $100,000? You could recover the $50,000 plus up to another $50,000 on your UIM policy.

What if you had a $1,000,000 policy? You could collect the $50,000 from the other driver, PLUS up to another $950,000!

Need any more motivation to call your insurance agent and increase your limits?

Takeaways

• Your own insurance is the best way to protect yourself against uninsured or underinsured drivers
• Insurance is there for times when you need it; Don’t skimp and save a few bucks only to regret it
• If you are injured, always contact a lawyer immediately, so that evidence can be preserved, and insurance can be located.

Contact Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Stephen Hoffman

If you have been injured, whether by an auto accident, bike or pedestrian crash, dog bite, work accident, or medical malpractice, seek medical attention immediately. Report accidents to the police and your own insurance company, or to your employer if you were injured at work. Then contact a lawyer with experience in your type of injury matter.

If you have been in an accident and have questions, contact Chicago personal injury attorney Stephen L. Hoffman for a free consultation at (773) 944-9737. Stephen has over 30 years of legal experience and gets results; he has collected millions of dollars for his satisfied clients. He is listed as a SuperLawyer, has a 10.0 rating on Avvo, and is BBB A+ accredited. Stephen is also an Executive Level Member of the Lincoln Square Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce.

Stephen handles injury cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay nothing up front, and Stephen only gets paid if you do. You have only a limited time to file a claim, so don’t wait another day; contact Stephen now to get started putting your life back together.