After a two-day trial, a six-person jury in Harris County, Texas handed down verdicts totaling $911,000.00 in favor of two car crash victims. Attorney Charles Hunter represented a bartender and a computer technician against their underinsured motorist insurance company for failing to pay policy benefits.
According to Hunter, “my client’s car was lifted off its wheels and struck two other vehicles, but the insurance company tried to say that, because there was low damage to the car, my clients also suffered low damage in the amount of their injuries.
But we know there of accident where cars are totally demolished and the drivers walk away with scratches—and we also know the opposite is true.
Mr. Hunter’s clients were T-boned by another driver exiting an apartment complex driving at such a high rate of speed that it caused a four-car pileup. The accident left the clients with severe spine and hip injuries, requiring steroid injections to relieve the pain. Although both clients returned to work soon after the accident, an occupational therapist showed that they were permanently disabled.
Based on the clients’ work impairment ratings, an economist predicted they would earn less money over their lives and require assistance with household chores costing the bartender to lose up to $600,000 over his lifetime and the computer technician to lose almost $1.3 million because of this accident.
The jury ultimately found the bartender entitled to receive $248,000, and the computer technician entitled to $663,000. Unfortunately, their insurance policies provided only $90,000 worth of coverage, which dramatically underscores the value of insurance policy limits higher than the legal minimum.
