Car accidents are one of the many types of cases we can handle at Marcus Vaden Law. Generally speaking, we are attorneys that represent people who have been injured or become disabled and can’t work. I’ll give you an example:
Luke and Jenny are a happily married couple in their 50s. They have three grown children with families of their own. Luke and Jenny own a local swimming pool company. They’ve been generally healthy people… until that Saturday afternoon in 2021.
Luke and Jenny were traveling on Highway 65—a busy four lane highway in central Arkansas just south of the City of Greenbrier—when a car leaving the parking lot of a gas station pulled out into traffic and smashed into them. The crash knocked their car into oncoming traffic and they were hit again by another car. Both were taken to a local hospital, Luke with back and shoulder injuries and Jenny with a broken leg and broken ribs. Their happy life was suddenly interrupted by this terrible car accident.
How serious were their injuries? How would they run their business? How would they pay their medical bills and their monthly bills? Lewis’s back and shoulder injuries would require two surgeries to repair and he would be unable to return to work for eight to ten months while he underwent physical therapy. Jenny’s leg will require a cast and then a boot for some time but she would be able to return to light work within six to eight weeks after the car accident.
Two things saved Luke and Jenny; they did a good job raising their children and they purchased good underinsured motorist coverage for their vehicles. Since their children had grown up working in the swimming pool business, and live nearby, their two daughters were able to run the store operations and their son was able to supervise the pool installation crews on weekends and during his non-work hours.
Luke’s medical bills were near $50,000 and Jenny’s were approximately $21,000. The driver who entered the highway from the gas station causing direct policy limits of $50,000 per person. Fortunately, Luke and Jenny purchased underinsured motorist coverage which meant that they had additional insurance coverage of up to $250,000 once the at-fault driver’s insurance policy limits had been reached.
It would’ve been nice if their underinsured insurance company would have just written them a check for $250,000. However, insurance companies don’t make money by paying money out. So their own underinsured insurance company only offered minimum amounts for their car accident.
When Luke and Jenny hired Marcus Vaden Law, we were able to obtain maximum insurance policy limits from the driver who caused the wreck and then we filed suit against Luke and Jenny’s underinsured insurance company after their lowball offers. After several months of litigation we were able to reach a settlement for Lewis and Jenny of approximately $200,000. Since we had previously resolved Luke and Jenny’s medical liens in the initial phase of the lawsuit, they were not required to use any of the $200,000 in settlement to pay medical bills.
Thanks to Luke and Jenny’s decision to purchase underinsured motorist coverage and the wonderful children they raised, Marcus Vaden Law was able to help them get their lives back on track. If you have been in a car accident, call us today!
