Insurance companies don’t always see the full value of what an injured person has been through. When they make an offer that doesn’t come close to reflecting our client’s injuries, we don’t just tell our clients to take it. We fight for more.
Attorney Jonny Akchin recently dealt with an insurance company low-balling his client. A Maryland State Police officer was injured when a drunk driver struck his police vehicle while he was completing paperwork after a DUI arrest. The insurance company offered $10,000 to settle the case, so Jonny filed suit.
The crash caused a severe head injury and permanent headaches. The insurance company argued that our client’s injuries could not be permanent because he returned to work just two weeks after the crash.
Jonny showed the jury why returning to work didn’t mean our client was fully recovered. He did more than address the weakness in the case, he turned it into a strength, centering the case on a hard working trooper and family man.
As a police officer and army veteran, our client felt a responsibility to get back to work because he didn’t want his fellow officers stretched thin covering his shifts. Jonny presented testimony about the “stigma” of taking excessive sick leave and leaving fellow officers without support. Our client’s shift partner testified that he came back to work quickly, but wasn’t the same go-getter he had been before the accident. His wife saw those changes at home too. She described missing that “carefree feeling.”
The case went to trial in Caroline County against one of the country’s largest insurance companies. Jonny made the case for the lasting impact of our client’s injuries–and the jury awarded $150,000.
The insurance company offered $10,000. They thought a difficult venue on the other side of the Bay Bridge would make us blink and try to grind their offer up to $12,000 or $13,000. They misjudged us, just like they misjudged our client. With the help of 6 good jurors, we taught them an economics lesson: how to properly value the injuries of a hard working public servant!
When an insurance company won’t fairly value our client’s case, we’re willing to do the work and take the fight to them in any courthouse in Maryland.
