September 9, 2024 | Our Chicago Clients' Stories
It doesn’t always take a massive, high-speed collision to cause significant, life-altering injuries. That’s especially true when one of the vehicles involved is a 13-ton concrete mixer.
When James’s life was upended after a careless mistake by a truck driver, the insurance company doubted his story and his injuries and initially refused to pay. Fortunately, James turned to the experienced personal injury lawyers at Powell and Pisman Injury Lawyers for help.
Thanks to the hard work and aggressive tactics of attorney Dan Terleckyj and our legal team, James was able to get a great result.
A Distracted Truck Driver Causes a Preventable Crash
It was a clear, bright day. James was stopped at a stoplight on W Diversey Ave in Belmont-Cragin, Chicago, just west of the railway overpass. Right behind him at the light sat a cement truck.
Suddenly—while the light was still red, and James was still stopped—the truck began to move forward. In deposition testimony, the driver admitted that he “got distracted” by “nothing, really.” His foot slipped off the clutch, and in his own words, “It’s just that I forgot to keep my foot on the [brake] pedal.”
Because he had stopped so close to James’s car, the truck driver could not react in time to apply the brakes and avoid the rear-end collision.
James’s Injuries Get Worse
At first, James thought he had gotten lucky. The damage to his vehicle was minimal. In fact, after speaking with the responding police officer, he was even able to drive himself home.
However, in the following days, it became clear that his injuries were far more serious than he first thought. James experienced significant pain in his neck that radiated into his left arm and hand, as well as lower back pain that radiated into his right leg and foot.
The pain was severe enough that, on his worst days, James couldn’t even get out of bed. It affected his ability to parent his two young children. There were times he couldn’t pick up and hold his three-year-old daughter. He also worried about being physically unable to maintain a clean home for his children or keep them safe when out together.
In the two years following the accident, James’s doctors attempted conservative treatments to help him manage his pain and recover, including physical therapy and injection therapy. But when those approaches failed, he eventually required neck surgery to fuse his cervical spine.
In the end, the cost of his medical care totaled well into the hundreds of thousands of dollar
Despite Clear Liability, the Insurance Company Still Wouldn’t Pay Up
Unlike many cases we handle, there was almost no disagreement about the facts of the crash. The truck driver admitted full responsibility for causing the collision. James had done nothing wrong. And if the truck driver hadn’t been distracted—or hadn’t stopped so close to James’s car that he couldn’t even see the bumper—the collision could have easily been avoided.
At issue were James’s injuries, and whether the truck crash could possibly have been significant enough to cause them. This is a tactic we have seen insurance companies use many times in the past.
“When we took on this case, we took a look at the photos and we really didn’t think the insurance company would pay on this claim,” attorney Steve Pisman said.
The insurance company noted that, since the truck had been in first gear when the driver’s foot came off the clutch, it couldn’t have been traveling at more than 7 mph at the time of the crash. Damage to the car was minimal. The airbags did not deploy and the car was still drivable.
James’s case was also complicated by the fact that he declined medical attention at the accident scene, didn’t see a doctor until a week after the accident, and had some pre-existing back issues in his medical history (from an incident that had occurred 20 years earlier). Insurance companies often use facts such as these to cast doubt on whether a crash victim’s symptoms are truly connected to the crash or as severe as they claim.
Aggressive Tactics Help Turn the Tide
We’ve been helping car and truck accident victims for a long time, so we know that the severity of damage to a vehicle doesn’t always neatly correspond to the severity of personal injuries. We’ve seen people walk away from totaled vehicles with minor injuries. We’ve also seen “fender benders” lead to years of chronic pain.
That said, in the world of personal injury claims, success or failure often depends not just on the facts of the case, but whether your attorney is able to present those facts in a way that a jury will understand and accept.
In a case like this, we knew it would be important to work with a team of experts who could explain, in plain language, why a 27,000-pound cement truck absolutely can cause the kinds of injuries that James experienced (even at slow speeds), and why delayed onset of symptoms doesn’t always mean that they aren’t severe.
We also took the aggressive step of asking the court for a summary judgment on the question of negligence. In other words, we asked the court to rule up front that the truck driver was 100% at fault for the crash without needing to prove it at trial, since those facts were not in dispute. That would allow our team to focus our trial strategy exclusively on proving the extent of James’s injuries and the amount of compensation he deserved.
James Gets Justice
Our strategy worked. Rather than risk a trial, the insurance company agreed to pay James a maximum policy limits settlement of $1 million to cover his medical costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Remember: before our team got involved, the insurance company had offered James nothing at all.
“I feel relieved,” James said after the settlement. “Honestly, I feel like I’ve got some of my dignity back after the accident.”
While we’re proud of the money we were able to obtain on James’s behalf, our work is never just about the check at the end—it’s about helping people navigate through an extremely difficult time in their lives with the least amount of stress possible.
“They made the whole process flawless and easy,” James said. “I had no issues communicating with [the attorneys] whatsoever. … I felt very good trusting them with my case.”
Contact our Personal Injury Law Firm at Powell and Pisman Injury Lawyers
If you’ve been injured in an accident in Chicago, IL, don’t navigate the legal process alone. Our dedicated team is here to provide the expert guidance you need to secure the compensation you deserve. Contact our experienced attorneys at Powell and Pisman Injury Lawyers for a free consultation.
We serve Cook County and its surrounding areas:
Powell and Pisman Injury Lawyers
875 N Dearborn St 4th Floor
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 635-5400