Our client was a passenger in a car that was driving on Interstate 5 near Eugene, Oregon. The rain that day was heavy, and as a result, traffic had slowed to a near stop due to reduced visibility ahead. After our client’s car had slowed almost to a standstill in traffic, a semi-truck hit them from behind at full speed. As it turned out, the semi truck’s driver had not been paying attention to the traffic slowing ahead, as he was driving while distracted.
Our client was an England citizen who was living in Canada at the time of the crash. She was in Oregon on vacation at the time of the collision. Upon her return home, she hired a Canadian attorney who recognized that he was not licensed to practice law in Oregon, so took it upon himself to investigate and find the best Oregon law firm he could. He ultimately found us, and asked Tim Williams to take over the matter on behalf of his injured client. Tim was happy to do so.
The case was fairly complicated, as we were dealing with medical records in three different countries. Once we received the records, it became obvious that our client suffered both orthopedic as well as neurologic injuries. However, the trucking insurance company denied everything – from liability to our client’s injuries. As a result, we had to file a lawsuit to enforce our client’s rights.
In response to the lawsuit, the truck driver’s insurance company hired an aggressive defense attorney, who formally denied liability and injuries in his pleadings with the court. This required us to roll up our sleeves and vigorously prosecute the case. After multiple rounds of depositions, both in Oregon as well as in Canada, the semi driver’s insurance company finally admitted that the truck driver was at fault, as well as the fact that our client suffered injury as a result of the collision. However, it disputed the extent of her injuries, which required several examinations by doctors hired by the insurance company, as well as continued examinations by our own medical team that we compiled in Oregon.
The case was further complicated with the fact that our client suffered a second car accident in Canada, though minor in comparison to the first involving the semi-truck in Oregon. This required quite a bit of coordination with her medical team in Canada, as well as here in Oregon, so as to be sure that we were claiming all injuries that she suffered from the Oregon crash, but none of her injuries from the subsequent Canada crash.
In the end, and after two mediations, the insurance company finally agreed to settle the case for $185,000, though only two weeks prior to the trial date. Ultimately, we were able to secure our client a large recovery by and through the settlement, without the need for an expensive trial.