RESULTS: $100,000 Full Insurance Policy Limits
ATTORNEY: Richard N. Shapiro
STAFF: Paula S., Paralegal
INJURIES:
Hemopneumothorax, pulmonary contusion, fractured scapula, compression fractures at L2/L4, rib fractures, and underwent orthopedic surgery for a pelvic fracture.
WHAT HAPPENED:
In early 2025, a bicyclist was struck from the rear at 2:00 a.m. on Bonney Road, near the intersection with Independence Boulevard in Virginia Beach. The bicyclist’s sister, who lives in a different state, contacted our firm to ask if we could represent her brother, who was riding the bicycle when struck from the rear in the middle of the night.
She said her brother was in the hospital, did not have a fixed address, and had been homeless for several years. She explained that he had suffered from mental illness, and she didn’t know where he actually lived. We made arrangements to find her brother, and we accepted his case after doing an investigation.
We learned that at 2:00 a.m., he was riding his bike back to a power plant location where he stayed under an overhang because he was, in fact, homeless, but he did own a bicycle and some clothing. He knew nothing more, nor did his sister, about why he had been struck in the rear by the car’s driver, before he was tended to by the rescue squad.
He was transported from the scene by the rescue squad. After spending more than a week in the hospital, he was transferred to a rehabilitation facility, as he had undergone pelvic surgery as part of the traumatic injuries he suffered.
KEY LEGAL STRATEGIES:
Our investigation revealed that the driver who struck him was an enlisted man in the armed services, living in Virginia Beach, but who was drunk driving. Not only did the driver of the vehicle smash into the bicyclist from the rear, throwing him from his bike to the pavement, but then the driver continued on a short distance and struck a police cruiser in the rear before coming to a stop. The driver was promptly charged with drunk driving and arrested. Our new client, the bicyclist, needed to rehabilitate and relearn the normal walking motion because of the pelvic surgery and other various traumatic injuries he suffered.
Once we learned that the rear-ending driver had been drunk and had also struck a police cruiser, it was a matter of determining whether the young military enlisted man had insurance and how much was available. We provided the hospital care bill to his insurance company and demanded the full available insurance, and in this case, our homeless bicyclist did not have a car or any insurance of his own.
We investigated the drunk driving information from the local courthouse and learned about the damage to the police cruiser. Because there would potentially be two claimants, the bicyclist and the police department, we had some concerns, but typically, car insurance policies have a per-person limit and then a per-accident limit, but the trouble arises when there are three or more claimants.
In this case, there were two claimants, and each would have the available per-person limit of the policy, which specified that there was $100,000 of coverage per person. We were able to convince the insurance company to pay the full policy limits. Also, a silver lining of handling this case was that we were able to talk to the homeless man’s sister and arrange for what’s called a preservation trust that would pay money to the bicyclist we represented on a monthly basis for his needs and health. We believe that the money will allow our client to obtain an apartment in a type of group facility with a cafeteria or similar services, which should provide him with suitable housing for the foreseeable future in Virginia Beach.