A Central Oregonian woman was seated in her car and waiting at a stop sign just outside of Sisters, Oregon, when an oncoming vehicle slid out of control and collided with her. This second driver had been traveling too fast to make a right-hand turn at the intersection where the first driver sat, and she lost control of her vehicle on the slick winter roads. The first car was struck on the driver’s side with significant force: the side airbag deployed and the sedan sustained just under $10,000 in property damage. In addition to this property damage, the driver felt sharp and immediate pain along her spine and in her shoulders.
The second driver was initially cited for careless driving and she eventually admitted liability. This at-fault driver’s insurance provider admitted liability however it refused to present the first driver with a reasonable settlement offer. It was at this point that the first driver approached Dwyer Williams Cherkoss PC: she needed an experienced Oregon car accident attorney to resolve her insurance claim in this personal injury matter.
Immediately after the accident, our client reported her injuries to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s deputy who was on scene. She made her first visit for treatment the following morning and was diagnosed with cervical, lumbar, and shoulder strains. Her physician advised her to begin immediate physical therapy to treat these accident-related injuries, and our client followed this suggestion. Based on the explicit recommendation of her health care provider, she spent approximately four months in physical therapy. She returned to her health care provider several months after the cessation of physical therapy with continued neck and shoulder pain and completed a final four physical therapy session to treat these injuries. The medical bills that our client incurred were staggering, and the at-fault driver’s insurance provider initially refused to cover them.
Dwyer Williams Cherkoss PC first filed a complaint for our client and attempted to resolve this matter through mediation. At mediation, the at-fault driver disagreed with the independent mediator’s advice and still would not provide out client with a reasonable settlement offer, so we took our client’s case to trial. We won at trial and obtained a jury award that covered the majority of our client’s medical bills as well as a substantial award for pain and suffering commensurate with the injuries that our client has sustained. Our client was as happy with this settlement award as she was with her choice of Dwyer Williams Cherkoss PC as counsel in this car accident injury claim.