$1.25M settlement car accident (policy limits)
Car Accidents
Two days before H.K. was set to walk across the stage and receive her high school diploma, she found herself in the back of an ambulance off Highway 99 being rushed to Kaiser ER after a massive collision.
Emergency Room doctors found H.K. had multiple injuries, including a complex foot fracture that required surgery. Sadly, instead of attending a banquet for her high school senior class the day before graduation, H.K. went under general anesthesia to have her foot cut open and hardware installed.
In the days and weeks that followed, H.K. ’s fears and questions grew.
- Would her foot heal?
- When would she be able to walk again?
Was she going to be able to start the college summer courses she had planned?
H.K. ’s concerns multiplied when she saw the police report describing the events collision differently than she remembered.
FACTS: The at-fault driver was pulling a large travel trailer behind his Ford F250 in the slow lane when he suddenly tried to move into the lane to his left where H.K. was traveling. His trailer hit the front passenger corner of her car so hard she spun out of control across three lanes of traffic, where her car slammed head-on into the freeway median. After hitting the median, her car continued to spin out of control, back across the freeway, and came to rest in the slow lane emergency shoulder.
With the help of her grandmother, H.K. found Demas Law Group. She arrived for a free consultation in a wheelchair. The moment H.K. decided to hire Demas Law Group, a plan was put in place to deal with each obstacle of her case.
When the initial offer in H.K. ’s case came in at just over $100,000 H.K. was tempted to accept. She was still concerned about the challenges in her case (incorrect police report, she was not wearing a seatbelt and had marijuana in her system at the time of the collision); fortunately, she trusted the advice and experience of Demas Law Group and allowed us to file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver.
Not long after, the COVID-19 pandemic began, and the courts came to a halt. What was worse, H.K. was still dealing with physical pain from her other injuries (including her foot), and her medical provider (Kaiser) avoided in-person appointments. Our lawyers were able to get her to one of the few chiropractors who was willing to see patients in person, as well as a surgeon for a consult on her ongoing foot pain after surgery. The surgeon validated why H.K. was still having pain and estimated what treatment she would need in the future (injections and an additional surgery due to her age).
Despite the pandemic, a deposition went forward where H.K. ’s surgeon agreed under oath with the future predicted by the surgeon our Demas Law Group attorneys found for her to see.
Moreover, to keep pressure on the insurance company, the at-fault driver’s deposition was taken, and our attorneys were able to prove the defendant was solely responsible for the collision and validated H.K. ’s version of the crash. Shortly after that, we presented a final detailed demand to the defendant’s insurance company to settle the case for their insured’s policy limit of $1,250,000. In order to avoid a trial against our lawyers, the insurance company agreed to pay their maximum policy limits, ensuring that H.K. ’s future medical needs would be secured and accounted for.