March 12, 2010 by Connor Sullivan
Many people in Des Moines have never made the distinction between a Des Moines personal lawyer and a Des Moines personal injury attorney, but get injured in an accident and it will quickly become all too clear that there is a big difference. Generally, after an accident, especially when there is injury severe enough to limit one’s day to day activities, the focus is on getting healthy. When the healing does not occur immediately or when the cost of treatment begins to impact one’s financial capabilities, then the victim may begin to notice the personal injury commercials or friends will advise them that they should get a lawyer.
Jane was driving down a side street where she came to a red light. There were two cars in front of her, a Volvo in front of a Mercedes which was in front of her. Suddenly she heard a loud screech from behind and was slammed into by a Toyota Prius. Her car, a Samurai Suzuki, was launched into the Mercedes and the Mercedes hit the Volvo in front of it. Jane hit the steering column and fell back into her seat as the airbag emitted. She immediately crawled out of her crushed vehicle and walked around in shock getting information from all the other drivers. A kind policeman called a towing service for her demolished Suzuki and allowed her to sit in his car assessing her torn up knees, elbows and deeply bruised collar bone.
Jane thought she was okay and did not go to the nearest emergency room. She went home, took a few Tylenols and went to bed. The next day she called all the insurance people and started the ball rolling. Having never been in a serious accident and having only minimal coverage she didn’t know that the other person’s insurance should pay for a car rental until she could get her car fixed or buy a new one. She was unable to get to work for several days while she tried to find alternate transportation.
Several days later, Jane woke up with stabbing pain running into her neck and back. She was unable to turn her head or bend. She managed to get to an emergency room, where they did x-rays. The x-rays showed no fractures, so the doctors said she had whiplash, gave her a neck brace, pain-killers and anti-inflammatories released her. She was unable to work. She had no vehicle. Physical Therapy and Chiropractic Care was suggested, but she she was working as a waitress and wasn’t able to pay for either of those as her minimal health coverage required a large deductible. A friend suggested she hire a lawyer.
After listening to her story, the attorney agreed to help a friend and decided to take her case, even though it wasn’t the kind of law he normally did. He said that she should get a large settlement as the other cars were barely touched and hers was totaled. He told her to keep track of all that she spent for health care. The problem was she couldn’t afford to spend on health care and not being an expert in this kind of law, he didn’t know that they based the amount of injury settlement on how much medical attention, as defined by dollars, had been gotten. Jane was let go from her job as she was unable to continue at the previous pace and her neck continued to bother her for the rest of her life.
Twelve months later, a resolution was reached. Bt this time her lawyer had nearly forgotten about her case and often reminded her that he was just doing this as a favor to their friend. In the litigated case there were four plaintiffs. The Mercedes had a passenger who was suing as well as the driver of the car and the driver of the Volvo. While their cars had little damage, they had, as advised by their personal injury lawyer, spent a great deal of money on medical bills. They spent it on weekly massages and therapy. None of the other plaintiffs missed work. The judge returned a decision based solely on the amount of medical bills on file. Though her car was destroyed and she had obviously been the most grievously injured other plaintiffs received double what Jane received. Jane discovered the hard way that while personal injury lawyers sometimes receive a bad rap, when you have an accident and it is not your fault, it helps to call in the experts.
Connor R. Sullivan recently reviewed the work of a Des Moines personal injury attorney to review the effectiveness of their work. He hired a Des Moines personal injury lawyer to recover compensation from an automobile accident. Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.
