Who says that the character of your client isn’t going to make a difference in a case, or the severity of the crash scene itself as recalled by eye witnesses (who aren’t always the most credible in remembering the details as the actual scene happened) isn’t going to change the mind of the insurance company about when and for how much to settle, or whether or not the particular severity of your client’s injuries may have an impact on the final judgement of the insurance company about whether or not to settle or prepare the case for trial?
For the most part, the insurance company is in the business of saving money and legal counsel hired for the insurance company is in the business of making money as well, but not necessarily for the insurance company.
For example, on the one hand, legal insurance counsel wants to save as much money as it can for the insurance company by settling for as little money as possible in any particular case. On the other hand, the insurance company’s legal counsel would like to lengthen the time of the representation of the case as long as possible so that the attorney makes more money, unless they are in-house counsel, which, in turn, costs the insurance company more money in legal fees instead of claimants’ payouts.
Unless, of course, you have an ethical insurance company attorney who will do the right thing whether or not it saves the insurance company money and/or makes the attorney more or less money in any particular case. I will leave that up to you to decide on a case by case basis as that discussion can be all over the map.
Either way, one thing is for sure and that is that the insurance company attorney is not looking out for you; no matter what they tell you or what good cop, bad cop game they play with you. It’s a cat and mouse game, and you are the mouse, not the cat, in this game.
Unless, of course, you have competent legal counsel on your side and that is imperative if you expect the insurance company to take you seriously and show you any respect at all in your case no matter what the circumstances.
This is a great case in point that illustrates how important it is to have competent legal counsel at your side that may encourage the insurance company to settle sooner than later.
This case began approximately two (2) years ago when Plaintiff Glen Bellamy, a truck driver at that time, was driving through a small town called Sumter when his tractor-trailer smashed into the side of another tractor-trailer at an intersection.
It was alleged in the Plaintiff’s Complaint that the Defendant had run a red light causing the Plaintiff to hit the other tractor-trailer. The Defendant, Thomas Godbold, Jr., on the other hand, denied this version of the story stating that he did not run the red light. The Defendant’s employer, Red Classic Transit, also denied liability as one eye witness did support Defendant Godbold’s version of the story.
The Plaintiff, however, produced two eyewitnesses who claimed that the truck owned by the Defendant’s employer did, in fact, run through the red light at the intersection in question. This did not ultimately convince the insurance company for the Defendant’s employer to settle at that time, but it was enough information for the insurance company to stop looking the other way and start paying attention to the case.
I shall continue my discussion of this very interesting case in my next blog post titled, “Settlement of $ 12 Million Dollars for an Augusta, Georgia Family Man Who was Severely Brain Damaged in a Trucking Accident ~ part 2.”
At Julie A. Rice, Attorney at Law, & Affiliates we are experts at representing people in Tractor-Trailer Accidents and Catastrophic Injuries. We are also experts at getting the insurance companies’ attention early in the case to give the case the best chance of being set up for a winning case so please Contact Us today for your free legal consultation.