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T-Bone Crash

Our client, a business owner, was driving home from work on Pecan Park Boulevard in Williamson County, Texas.

The defendant driver had stopped at an intersection which only allowed the driver to turn left if she was in the left lane, or right if she was in the right lane.  She chose to go straight and drove in front of our client’s car, resulting in a large amount of damage to both vehicles.

Our client suffered from neck pain that evening and called her chiropractor.  Our client did not have any health insurance.

Unfortunately, that chiropractor was not used to taking medical notes for some reason and kept very poor records of her treatment.  This ultimately did affect our negotiations, so be sure your doctor takes notes and keeps records for your treatment at the time you go see him or her.

After a few weeks of treatment with this chiropractor, our client switched to another chiropractor with whom she felt more comfortable.  She ended up treating with him for almost two years and getting into debt for several thousands of dollars after already paying him several thousands of dollars. That chiropractor referred her to us a few months before the statute of limitations was to run.

Our client had lost some time from work for her treatment. At the time we were hired, she had been going on a cycle of treatment, getting better, getting worse, going back to treatment, getting better, etc. without any real long-term lasting effect.  The second chiropractor had recommended an MRI and possibly a specialist, but our uninsured client could not afford that.

Practical Tip

Myth: If you write the insurance company a letter and are reasonable, you will get a reasonable settlement proposal.

Andrew Traub

The first chiropractor would not provide her medical records to us unless he was paid a fee in excess of what Texas law allows.  Since his treatment was for only a few weeks and time was pressing, we proceeded to make a demand without his records.

Allstate represented the defendant driver and, of course, made a very poor offer (below the cost of the treatment so that our client would have still owed money to the doctor and had nothing in her pocket).

We filed suit and were able to obtain funding for medical care for our client.  She had MRIs, physical therapy, and ultimately injections to manage her pain.

Allstate hired two defense medical doctors.  One, a forensic chiropractor, was designated to pick apart the medical and billing records of both chiropractors.  The other, a medical doctor, was designated to deny that the collision caused our client’s injuries.

During the defendant’s deposition, it was learned that her passenger suffered from a fractured rib.

The case settled for $47,500. The net to our client was over $11,000 after attorneys fees, expenses, and all the doctors had been paid off.

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