Serious Injuries in a Pedestrian Crash
This is a Portland personal injury case summary involving serious injuries sustained in an auto vs. pedestrian collision with complex legal and insurance issues. It involves severe catastrophic injuries to a 16 year old. We are often hired by clients or other lawyers because of the complexity of injuries involved in a case, and this case presented an array of injuries that are very well suited to our personal injury law firm.
The young woman and her parents approached our Portland personal injury lawyers after being represented by a plaintiff lawyer who had spent much of his career as a defense lawyer. One would think he would have great credibility with the insurers. But despite the young woman having serious and catastrophic injuries, the plaintiff lawyer couldn't get an offer from the insurer due to the insurers finding her at fault. The family was very unhappy with that decision and the $0 offer.
Severe Pedestrian Injuries
1. Severe traumatic brain injury and Subdural Hematoma with both retrograde and anterograde amnesia;
2. Multiple skull fractures including to the following:
a. Left occipital skull base
b. Left mastoid
c. Left petrous
d. Left temporal, and
e. Left sphenoid bones
3. Multiple fractures through her sinuses;
4. Delamination of left transverse sinus from the skull base;
5. Fracture of the left foramen ovale of the left eye socket with subsequent scar tissue surrounding her eye;
6. Fractures and dislocations of the middle ear bones (requiring an inner ear surgery to insert titanium implants);
7. Displaced fractures of the left tegmen mastoideum and tegmentum typani;
8. Left facial hemiparesis;
9. Facial nerve injury (Cranial Nerve VII);
10. Trigeminal nerve injury (Cranial Nerve V) injury;
11. Severed Olfactory Nerve (Cranial Nerve I) resulting in a permanent loss of smell;
12. Hemorrhage of the pituitary gland;
13. CSF leaks out of the nose and ear;
14. Right fibula fracture;
15. Large abrasion of the right thigh;
16. Hemorrhage of the pituitary gland;
17. Hyponatremia (caused by pituitary injury); and
18. multiple other injuries.
Traumatic Brain Injury Symptoms
The severe traumatic brain injury has resulted in multiple cognitive, behavioral, neurological and endocrine changes. These include but are not limited to:
1. Retrograde amnesia;
2. Anterograde amnesia (three days);
3. Facial paralysis;
4. CSF leak;
5. Nausea;
6. Vomiting;
7. Headaches;
8. Dizziness;
9. Difficulty concentrating;
10. Short term memory loss;
11. Long term memory loss;
12. Sleep disturbances;
13. Difficulty multitasking;
14. Reading problems;
15. Loss of sense of smell;
16. Decreased / lost sense of taste;
17. Cognitive /mental fatigue;
18. Photophobia;
19. Menstrual irregularities (pituitary injury);
20. Behavioral changes; and
21. Emotional volitility.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Symptoms of PTSD include the following:
1. Anxiety;
2. Driving reluctance;
3. Flashbacks to the accident scene; and
4. Intrusive thoughts of the crash.
Contested Liability for Serious Pedestrian Injury Claim
The young woman and her parents approached our Portland personal injury lawyers after being represented by a plaintiff lawyer who had spent much of his career as a defense lawyer. One would think he would have great credibility with the insurers. But despite the young woman having serious and catastrophic injuries, the plaintiff lawyer couldn't get an offer from the insurer due to the insurers finding her at fault. The family was very unhappy with that decision and the $0 offer.
The facts are that the young 16 year old client was hit after a large public event in a park. The driver who hit her drove a significant distance in the opposite direction before pulling over to the side of the road. Then he refused to get out of the car. When the young woman got out of the car to exchange information with the other driver she was then hit by a different driver. She had severe injuries including multiple fractures, a severe traumatic brain injury with a subdural hematoma, extensive damage to her middle ear and inner ear, including the need for a surgery to replace the three bones of her ear, which were fractured in the pedestrian collision. There were many more injuries.
In terms of insurance, she had two separate claims within a few minutes including claims against the first driver, the second driver and then two claims for UnderInsured Motorist insurance claims against her parents insurer if the other drivers were at fault.
The problem is, the first driver's insurance said he didn't cause the damage. The second said she was in the middle of the road, and so the insurer initially denied both underinsured motorist claims.
We had to decide, was there a way she had a viable legal claim? We looked at the liability facts and our portland personal injury lawyers discussed whether we could re-frame the facts given the client's young age. It is a problems we've handled before - the expected actions of a minor cannot be the same as for an adult. It also posed an unusual situation because she was required by law to exchange insurance information with the driver from Crash 1, and was crossing the roadway doing something she was required to do by law when hit by a second driver in Crash 2.
Your Personal Injury Lawyer is an Important Factor in Your Settlement
Portland personal injury lawyer Aaron DeShaw wrote extensive demand letters in both cases letting the insurer know our theory of liability against both drivers. The insurer for the first driver quickly offered the policy limit of $50,000. The insurer for the second driver (who had denied her claim entirely on three separate occasions) quickly offered the policy limit of $100,000.
The claims were then provided to her parents insurer for Underinsured Motorist claims. Instead of responding, the insurer hired a well known defense trial lawyer who regularly works against our firm. The defense lawyer then offered a $250,000 policy limit on the second crash, but has so far denied the claim for the first crash under the theory that the second was an intervening event.
Nevertheless, this is a case where another plaintiff lawyer was offered $0 multiple times for a contested liability case, and within a few months we settled three of four claims for the full insurance policies available for a total of $400,000. That is the difference that trial reputation makes to the value of people's claims. We continue to work on the final Underinsured Motorist claim with the client's insurer Allstate Insurance.
If you are intertested in hiring a highly experienced Portland personal injury lawyer for a serious personal injury case, contact us online or call (503) 227-1233.