What Happened
Our Virginia Beach, VA, car accident injury client was a 43-year-old woman who fell victim to a chain-reaction crash. She sustained serious neck, back and shoulder injuries in the three-vehicle pileup.
A police investigation and witness accounts described how the at-fault driver failed to reduce speed and stop while approaching a red light. The resulting rear-end collision pushed a second vehicle into the back of our client’s car.
The secondary collision did just $600 worth of damage to the rear bumper of our client’s car. The women we represented, however, required months of chiropractic therapy and orthopedic surgery to repair a torn labrum and address pain and stiffness in her neck. Her medical team eventually referred her for long-term pain management, signifying their inability to offer her consistent relief.
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Key Legal Strategy
When the car insurance company for the at-fault driver refused to settle the injured woman’s claims, she hired our Virginia Beach-based personal injury law firm. We assigned two of our attorneys to her case, and they filed a civil lawsuit on her behalf.
The insurance company fought the case all the way through the conclusion of a jury trial. The defense team argued that our client deserved no compensation for her medical bills, lost wages or chronic pain. Their first argument boiled down to how no should be able to believe that a crash that did so little damage to the car could injure our client so badly.
Jurors also heard from the insurance company that our client had a number of preexisting conditions that might better explain her ongoing neck, back and shoulder problems. The insurer even put a purported medical expert on the witness stand to state that any injuries our client did suffer in the chain-reaction crash “should” have healed within eight weeks without surgery.
The members of the jury took all this in, deliberated for one hour and returned with a verdict in favor of our client. They ordered the at-fault driver’s insurance company to pay the injured woman $160,747.34, which was the exact amount we request in our closing argument.
Car insurance company represent will use nearly any argument to deny fair settlements to crash victims. As Virginia personal injury attorneys, we pride ourselves on destroying all of those misdirections and obfuscations.
Court and Date: Virginia Beach Circuit Court, Virginia Beach, VA
Staff: Two staff attorneys