One evening, players on a local high school girls’ softball team gathered at a teammate’s home for a party. The teammate lived in the country and the girls were enjoying time outdoors.
During the party, the girl who was hosting the party asked her father if they could take out the family’s UTV. Her father said yes, as long as she was the only one to drive it. A little while later, the girl came back to her father and asked if her teammates could have a turn driving. This time, her father said okay, but only if the girl was on the UTV to make sure that the teens didn’t do anything dangerous.
An Overcrowded UTV Tips Over
Despite the father’s warning, the girls crowded five people onto the vehicle. Our client was wedged between the driver’s seat and the front passenger’s seat. She didn’t have an actual seat or a seatbelt. The girls were on a gravel road and the driver, who had never before driven a UTV, came to a T intersection and braked too hard.
The UTV tipped over and our client landed on her face. She broke a front tooth and another tooth was knocked out of her mouth. The broken tooth had to be pulled, and she was fitted with a temporary bridge. When her mouth had recovered, she underwent multiple surgeries to have fittings placed into the bone of her upper jaw. Once the bone healed and the fittings were secure, permanent crowns were implanted in the place where the two teeth had been.
Overcoming Insurance Complications
The host family called our client’s parents and took her to the hospital. Unfortunately, that’s where the host family’s cooperation ended. They did not have current insurance on the UTV and they stopped communicating with our client and her parents.
After our client contacted us, we made an uninsured motorist claim with our client’s own insurance company. At first, our client’s own car insurance company did not want to cover injuries sustained in a UTV accident. The insurance company stalled, saying that the client’s policy did not cover UTV’s. Our client’s parents were concerned about suing their own insurer.
However, attorney Matthew Lathrop put the clients at ease about the process of forcing the insurance company to keep the promise it made, when it sold insurance to the parents. He sued the insurance company and conducted depositions. He convinced the insurance company that it was responsible for paying this girl’s damages.
About a year after our client was hurt, the insurance company settled the case for the $100,000 policy limit. This will compensate her not only for the approximately $10,000 in medical bills she already incurred but also for the future treatment she will need as the crowns weaken and need to be replaced.
Will You Be Treated Fairly by the Insurance Company?
Insurance companies often want to settle cases for a lot less than injured people deserve. In this way, insurance companies make more money, but injured people are left without the compensation that they need for medical costs, lost income, and other damages.
Attorney Matthew Lathrop will investigate your accident and make the insurance company understand that it needs to compensate you fairly after an accident. Contact us today to schedule a free, no-obligation case evaluation.