R.B. v. ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY
Judge: Ted Kotowski, ret.
This was a challenging injury case where I had to file an Under-Insured Motorist claim for my injured client. The original at-fault party only had $15,000.00 in liablity but my client was seriously injured and ended up going to pain management, and ultimately low back surgery. Allstate was the UIM carrier. My client had up to $485,000.00 available to him in UIM coverage (remember, you have credit off $15,000.00 from the at-fault party's liablity policy in California).
Allstate ended up scrutinizing everything about my client. They scrutinized the impact forces, the reasonableness of all medical care, and his lost wages. Keep in mind, my client was hit by a drunk driver no less! Being overly scrutinized is almost like being victimized twice, especially when the defense doctor Allstate hires insinuates my client is malingering. This is code language which means he is not being truthful about his injuries. So, I team up with my co-counsel Edward Babbitt to go after Allstate in an UIM trial. Combining forces is key to these cases as boht Edward and I can share litigation costs 50/50 which was in excess of $50,000.00 on this case. Those court costs definitely do add up!
Long story short, we pushed this case to trial. We had the surgeon and a bio-mechanical expert as our two main experts. We also brought in my client's wife, and co-worker as the damages witnesses. The co-worker also was a lost wages witness too since he was my client's former boss. His testimony was powerful as he shared stories of how the injury really affected my client's well-being. Sometimes a good damage witness is worth 2x as much as a good expert witness. The judge is looking for the truth, and when you can get a former boss to come in a testify, it helps that the former boss has "no skin in the game" like maybe a friend or family member might.
Nonetheless, the judge believed our client. We beat Allstate's last offer of $250,000.00. Since we beat that number, we got our expert costs on top of the award. Not bad at all, and I can definitely say my client was 100% satisfied.
Well, I hope this video and results post will help you gain insight into what any experienced personal injury lawyer can go through in California car collision. If you still have questions in your injury case, please consider contacting me via email or telephone anytime.
Stay strong, Attorney Mark
