MYERS & COMPANY
Focussing on What Really Matters
We represented a man who was hurt in a motorcycle wreck when the at-fault driver made a left turn in front of him.
Our client loved motorcycles. He worked at a dealership, his social life revolved around motorcycles and he spent weekends with his fiancé (now wife) going for rides (they even got engaged on a ride).
We settled our client’s claim with the at-fault driver. Then we turned our attention to his underinsured motorist (UIM) claim.
There are a lot of factors that go into case value. The most objective one is treatment expenses. Treatment expenses frequently (but not always) are a barometer for severity of injury.
This case was different. Our client had pretty modest treatment expenses but the wreck had a big impact on him. He stopped riding and testified he doesn’t have any plans to start riding again.
We explained to the UIM carrier that this was a massive loss which impacted his social life, his work and his marriage.
There were big gaps in his life because of the wreck.
But the carrier didn’t offer any money. So we arbitrated our client’s UIM claim. The arbitrator determined our client’s losses were worth well into the six-figures.
Our client didn’t have a massive UIM policy. So we took the position the carrier’s failure to offer our client any money before arbitration constituted bad faith.
The carrier ultimately paid more than twice our client’s UIM policy limits to resolve his bad faith claim.
Two claps to our client for understanding and being really clear about what really mattered. Focusing on the hole left in his life is what allowed us to maximize the outcome.