Case Study: Car Crashes

When pursuing legal recourse in cases of car crashes, it is crucial to clearly demonstrate which driver is responsible for causing the collision.

On a rural Lancaster County road, a driver ignored signs of his worsening medical condition and continued to drive despite feeling ill. The driver sideswiped one vehicle, but still continued driving. Later, just one mile down road, he entered an intersection and slammed into the car in front of him, causing severe injuries to the driver. He also pushed that car into another vehicle approaching from the opposite direction, causing the two people in the oncoming vehicle to suffer serious injuries.

Why This Case Matters

The occupants of the third oncoming vehicle came to us to pursue a lawsuit against the driver who ignored his medical symptoms. But, due to the number of vehicles involved and individuals injured, there was only a limited amount of compensation recoverable through the driver’s insurance. Without an adequate defense against his negligence, the at-fault driver’s insurance company tendered its limit. What remained to be resolved, however, was how to fairly divide the limited amount of insurance compensation among the multiple injured parties. Our team represented two of the injured parties, one with minor injuries and one with moderate injuries.

How We Built
A Winning Case

01 Investigate

To obtain an acceptable recovery for our clients it was necessary to understand the nature of our client’s injuries and to be able to describe to the mediator and defense counsel why our client’s injuries required equal compensation, despite apparent differences in the severity of their injuries.

02 Analyze

Rather than just pursuing compensation for medical bills alone, we took a more comprehensive approach to this case. We constructed a detailed timeline that highlighted how these injuries impacted our clients’ lives over the course of an entire year. For example, one of the clients was required to sleep in a recliner for many weeks, while her spouse slept on a mattress by her side since she was unable to move well on her own. Through the timeline, we demonstrated the depth of difficulties the accident caused for our clients.

03 Synthesize

Beyond the illustrative timeline, we detailed the many activities our client was unable to pursue because of the nature of her injuries, including being unable to lift her young grandchildren. Our approach allowed for the negotiation to involve more intangible losses beyond the basics of securing compensation for medical bills.

The Result

In the end, we obtained a significant settlement with the driver’s insurance carrier. But, we did not stop there.

We also pursued a successful underinsured claim against the clients’ carrier in order to deliver the highest possible settlement amount. After these negotiations, the driver’s insurer carrier agreed to further payouts, ultimately allowing our clients to move forward with their lives.