A 41 year-old husband, father, and avid motorcyclist, was riding his motorcycle straight through a green light, when a minivan coming the opposite direction made a left turn, cutting him off. The minivan had made the turn suddenly and without a turn signal, therefore, our client was unable to avoid a collision. He was thrown over the hood of the minivan and landed on his back in the roadway. He was taken by ambulance to Kaiser emergency room, but doctors there quickly realized he would need a facility equipped with a trauma department due to his very serious injuries. He was therefore transported to Highland Medical Center (the top trauma center in the San Francisco East Bay area) for treatment of his debilitating injuries – a pelvic/hip fracture, among others. Doctors at Highland ordered surgery to place hardware in order to repair the break. After a week and a half in the hospital, the motorcyclist was discharged to an in-patient rehabilitation facility to undergo extensive therapy needed to help him walk again.
The motorcyclist called Oakland traffic accident personal injury attorney Sally Morin on Christmas eve to seek her help with the accident. Sally, while out of the San Francisco Bay Area visiting with family, assured the motorcyclist that she and her team could help!
When Sally Morin Personal Injury Lawyers first contacted the other party’s insurance company, they advised us that our client was being assigned a portion of liability for the accident. They claimed that he was speeding at the time of the accident, and therefore they were attributing 30% of the liability against him. The police report did contain a mistaken estimate of speed given to a police officer by the motorcyclist (who was in shock and on pain medication at the hospital.) Sally Morin Personal Injury Lawyers immediately hired an accident reconstruction expert to study the accident scene and give a more accurate liability decision using actual details from the scene of the accident. This study found our client completely free from liability, which caused the insurance company to reconsider their position, accept full liability and tender the driver’s policy limits of $50,000.00.
Because this amount was insufficient to even begin to cover our client’s medical bills, which had risen to six figures, our office continued to search for coverage, which could compensate our client. We were able to find that the driver who hit our client was in the course and scope of her work duties at the time of the accident. We were, therefore, able to make a claim against the employer’s insurance. Their opening offer, after being presented with all of the facts of the case, was $125,000.00 (just $75,000 more than the driver’s policy limits offer) – again, nothing close to what would cover our client’s losses. Our office was able to negotiate this figure from $125,000.00 to $425,000.00 in total, allowing our client to take home over $225,000.00 for his pain and suffering, after all of his medical bills and attorney’s fees and costs were paid. Our client was very pleased to accept this amount and get back to his family, his work and his life, instead of fight the case through litigation and trial. He stated that he was very grateful to have Sally as his motorcycle accident attorney.
