Two Automobile Accident Claims Show Various Variables Affecting Outcomes

There will be approximately three million individuals injured this year in a motor vehicle accident. Two million of those people will experience permanent injuries. That is approximately 1 lifelong disability every sixteen seconds. Attorneys experienced in handling vehicle accident lawsuits realize that each claim has unique issues and challenges. Below we examine three different lawsuits to determine what lessons may be uncovered from them.

The defendant driver in one case was in the scope and course of his employment as a delivery driver for a Pizzeria. He proceeded into an intersection without realizing that it was a controlled intersection. The stop sign for the intersection was blocked by a parked truck. The truck was in a no-parking zone. When the driver entered the intersection without stopping he broad-sided a second car. The plaintiff in the car that was hit sustained nerve damage to his hand and disc herniations in the neck and back. He went through a total of four surgeries for his neck and back and an additional surgery for his arm. He was not able to play] sports, something he had formerly greatly liked, after the accident. The law firm that handled this claim reported a combined settlement in the amount of $900,000 from the driver, the owners of the truck, and the pizzeria.

In a different claim, a driver lost control of her auto, crossed lanes, and hit an automobile coming in the opposite direction in a head-on collision. The plaintiff sustained injuries to the discs at both the cervical and lumbar levels. The victim moreover suffered a meniscus tears in her knee. The woman needed surgery for her knee injury. The report of this matter indicated that the case went to trial and the jury found for the victim in the sum of $625,000. The insurance policy covering the responsible driver had a liability limit of just $100,000.

A lesson is that there may be yet other parties who were not directly involved in the accident but who can still be held liable. In case 1 above, the pizzeria employed the driver who caused the accident. Given that the accident happened while the driver was acting within the scope of his employment, the pizzeria was liable. In addition, the owners of the truck were also liable.

Finally, it is essential to realize that the majority of drivers carry insufficient insurance to effectively protect against substantial injury. The majority of drivers actually have merely the minimum coverage required by law. One should thus have adequate uninsured and underinsured coverage in ones own insurance policy in case of a serious or possibly catastrophic injury. Raising ones coverage in this way is a rather minor expense in comparison with the risk .

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