Our client in this matter was a passenger in a car being driven by her husband. Their car was stopped at a traffic signal, five cars back from the light. When the light turned green, our client’s husband began to move forward with traffic. As he looked in his rear-view mirror, however, he saw another motorist approaching at a very high rate of speed. That motorist rear-ended our client’s vehicle.
Prior to this accident, our client suffered from age-related degeneration in her spine. She was receiving treatment for this degeneration when the accident occurred. We knew that we would need to provide documentation of her back condition because, often and in this case, insurance companies will attempt to blame preexisting conditions for accident victims’ injuries rather than accepting responsibility on behalf of their insureds.
In addition to ordering our client’s accident-related medical records, we ordered prior records in order to determine exactly what condition her spine was in leading up to this traumatic collision. It was very clear based on those records that the accident exacerbated our client’s preexisting back condition.
We provided the at-fault driver’s insurance company with our client’s complete medical records and, after several rounds of negotiation, the case settled for the amount we had previously determined to be the top value for our client’s case. Our client and her husband were happy with the results.