If you’ve ever wondered what kind of settlement a California pedestrian might get after being hit by a car, please keep reading. This is the true story of one of our clients – a healthy, fit 72-year-old woman who was hit by a car on Christmas Eve in San Francisco while visiting her son, his wife and their newborn baby.
In this case, the woman was a retiree who kept herself in great shape with yoga, hiking, and weightlifting. She lived in Arizona with her husband, but visited California often to see her son and his family. On the day of the accident, she was enjoying a leisurely stroll along Bowling Green Drive in Golden Gate Park. Her son’s mother-in-law, who was legally blind, was walking with her.
Imagine being in her shoes, just strolling along and having a car slam right into you. While she was walking in a marked crosswalk, a distracted driver failed to yield to her as required by law. To protect her walking partner, she pushed her friend out of the way. Unfortunately, she was unable to save herself, and the motorist ran over her, crushing her body.
It was an extremely painful set of injuries. She suffered fractures to her pelvis and shoulder that required a long recovery period. Meanwhile, as she tried to focus on healing, her medical bills were piling up. Plus, the paperwork and insurance process became overwhelming for her. Unsure what to do next, she made a very smart move, and contacted Sally Morin Personal Injury Lawyers.
Investigating, Negotiating, and Maximizing Her Case Value
When you put Sally Morin Personal Injury Lawyers on the case, the first thing we do is start an investigation into your accident and get to the bottom of what happened.
In this case, we looked at the legal issues surrounding our client’s clear right of way in the crosswalk and examined the distracted driver’s liability for her damages.
Right away, we encountered a common obstacle in personal injury cases: low auto insurance policy limits. The driver who struck our client had a low level of auto insurance coverage which wouldn’t be enough to cover her significant losses, even at its policy limit. Sad but true!
But don’t worry – this isn’t the end of the story. We used our legal expertise to seek other routes to compensation and to maximize the value of our client’s case.
We pursued her own underinsured motorist coverage to obtain additional insurance funds to cover her damages. The company initially pushed back on covering her losses, but we stood up for her and pressed them on honoring their policy. Ultimately, we got the claim to stick.
Our Client Rests and Recovers While We Manage the Details
As our client took the time she needed to focus on her recovery from the accident, our legal team handled every detail of her case. We ensured her insurance carrier followed through on payment for the accident, then allocated her medical payments coverage to the most pressing patient medical balances. Finally, we made another huge step forward in her case by negotiating reductions on her health insurance liens to increase the amount of money going into her pocket. .
By documenting her extensive pain and suffering, we demonstrated our client’s obvious need for full and fair compensation. This increased her settlement significantly while alleviating her stress and allowing her to focus on her health.
In the end, we helped her obtain a settlement for the full policy limits of $100,000 plus $2,000 in medical payments coverage. Minus her medical and legal costs, she came through the experience with an impressive $62,000 in her pocket.
As you can imagine, she was so relieved to be done with the accident and looked forward to moving on with her life! This shows the power of hiring exactly the right lawyer at exactly the right time.
We Handle Your Accident Claim So You Can Focus on Your Life
After an accident, contact the attorneys at Sally Morin Personal Injury Lawyers. We handle many types of traffic injury claims, including pedestrian vs. car accidents. We believe you should be able to focus on recovering from your accident while we handle the legal details.
We truly care about the people of California. Contact us today for a free online case evaluation.
