TL v. YZ, et al

In this accident, there was no issue regarding who was at fault for the accident. Instead, the main challenge was demonstrating to State Farm and Geico that our client’s injuries were substantial enough to expose the carrier to a monetary damages award in excess of both insurance policies. Because the driver’s policy through State Farm was considered secondary to the owner’s policy through Geico, Damon and Andy first had to prepare a detailed demand letter to Geico referencing the totality of our client’s injuries. Without a policy limits settlement offer from Geico, the State Farm policy would not contribute any amount to a settlement with our client.

Damon and Andy knew that the key to obtaining the policy limits was to emphasize, to both insurance carriers, the severity of our client’s most serious injury. In this case, our client suffered a head injury with potential long-term consequences. As a result of the concussion, the client suffered from headaches as well as a purple spot that would regularly appear in her visual field. We gathered all the relevant medical evidence to explain why the head injury was serious and why a policy limits settlement was appropriate.

Given our effective presentation of the severity of our client’s concussion, Geico agreed to offer the policy limits to resolve the claim. Once that settlement was secured, we presented the same demand to State Farm. In doing so, we were able to use the Geico settlement as leverage over State Farm to settle for its policy limits as well. We thus obtained the full policy limits for both the driver’s insurance policy and the owners insurance policy.