07/17/2024
$900,000.00 SETTLEMENT!! This week we resolved a case for a very patient and courageous client. It took many years to resolve the case, but she refused give up and demanded full justice. While on her lunch break at Martin Army Hospital, she was crossing the street and a commercial vehicle ran a stop sign and hit her. She suffered a mild TBI and cervical spine injury (Medically, it’s called a “mild” traumatic brain injury, but there is nothing mild about an injury like this—it’s very serious and often life-changing). Our client was an ethnic Bosnian who courageously enlisted in the army as a teenager during the Bosnian War of the 1990’s. After the war, she moved to Germany as a political refugee and married her husband who was stationed there with the U.S. Army. She displayed the same courage and resolve in our case against the Insurance Company as she did fighting in the Bosnian War. Oftentimes, the Insurance Company will delay and drag out a significant case like this for years, knowing that eventually most people will give up and fold. This is how they make money—they know that injured people often can’t work as much, the medical bills pile up, they have family emergencies, their parents get sick, their children need money for school or college, they lose their job etc. The Insurance Companies know that eventually people get worn down, and sometimes get desperate and will settle a case worth $900K for $100-200K because they have to, they have no choice because that’s what the necessities of Life demands of them at that moment. My client in this case faced some of these same difficulties but even in the face of such pressure she refused to let them take advantage of her. Two years ago, we did a mediation (formal negotiation) and their top offer was $68,000–that’s all they said they would ever pay. COVID shut down the court system and delayed everything but finally we were able to get a trial date in Muscogee State Court (thanks to Judge Pete Temesgen for keeping an efficient docket and giving us a trial date). Without getting a trial date—a date where we can actually go to court and put the case in front of a jury—there is no way for an injured person to put pressure on the Insurance Company. Without being able to put their case in front of a jury, an injured person has no “leverage,” no way to pressure the Insurance Company to be fair and reasonable when they negotiate (some judges here in Columbus either don’t care or don’t understand this and they let our clients’ cases linger and it pretty much ensures the client gets taken advantage of by the Insurance Company). In this case, while I would love to take credit for brilliant lawyering, the result was a consequence of the Grit, Strength, and Tenacity of my client (pictured here with me) who refused to let herself be bullied and intimidated by a much larger, well-funded, billion-dollar Insurance Company. My only wish is there were more people out there like her, because if there were, the Insurance Companies would be forced to treat everyone with a significant case like this more fairly, and we would get Justice much earlier without the trouble and trauma of fighting a years-long battle in court. These cases are often upsetting and upending for the injured people that have to go through them. Their whole life is put on hold and they are deprived of the resources needed to get on with their lives. Kudos again to my client for keeping her head up while the Insurance Company made baseless insults and accusations designed to weaken her resolve.
