sueing because im a quadriplegic now

[DA6righthand]

What is the name of your state? accident was in indiana, live in ohio.


here is a little background on what happened...

january 14th, 2006:

we were on jamison road in bright indiana going to harrison ohio to wash his civic hatchback. this road has many curves and quite a few people have gotten hurt on it. what really gets to me is that the owner/driver KNOWS this road well and i dont know why this happened. anyways, theres a chicane at the bottom of the road that cant be taken at no more than 65 tops. well, his car was equipped with a b16 and b16 trans. when i looked at his tach, it was well beyond 8k , and we were in forth. do the math, thats around 90 mph...i thought he was gna hit the brake, but no. the chicane turned right then left. he started to brake once we got into the turn, but it was too late. it started to oversteer and he tried to correct, but he countersteered too much. the momentum from the correction flung us to the right, over into a field which was 12ft or so below the road. my side hit first, which sent the car into a side over side roll. and did so 7 times and landed on its top. the driver was NOT belted in and was half out of the car and half under the car. i, on the other hand, WAS belted in, BUT the roof was crushed on top of me. i could not breath hardly at all cause both lungs collapsed, couldnt move, talk, anything. i thought, wow, this is it.....im gna die....

at first, everyone thought the driver was in worse condition because he was under the car. aircare came, then the emts found i was worse condition and i was flown to the icu. during the flight, i remember asking whoever was on the chopper to not let me die...

later that night, the driver was released. i, unfortunately, laid in a bed on a respirator wondering if i was going to live.

im paralyzed from the chest down now. rendering me with no use of my hands, no use of my triceps, and half movement of my wrists. im now a quadriplegic, not too happy about it either.


Now my question is: am i able to sue the driver? while i was in rehab, my parents tried to go after the driver in court. but they were told by the two lawyers they had, that we cannot go after the driver in court. they said it was because he owns nothing worth going for. he lives at home with his parents, but hes 21. im guessing that makes him independent from his parents because our lawyers said we couldnt go after his parents either. he also has a low paying job he just got recently, dont know if thats a factor or not. i know there has to be someway to sue the driver...if thats not enough info, please ask....

thank you,
justin

[You Are Guilty]

You need to speak to a local personal injury lawyer, like yesterday. Call the local bar Association for a reccomendation - don't just pick the biggest ad in the phone book.

[DA6righthand]

we did, thats why im here now...

btw, parents also signed a waiver that somehow gave us only 25k from his insurance company at which he had minimum coverage..

would it be better if we moved this to auto accidents forum instead?

[StickyFingers]

Originally Posted by You Are Guilty

You need to speak to a local personal injury lawyer, like yesterday. Call the local bar Association for a reccomendation - don't just pick the biggest ad in the phone book.

Agreed.

You give specifics as far as the roads are concerned. But hey..Most/all of us don't know about where in the hell you are talking about.

Honestly....We can not know, or even picture your scenario.

A local personal injury attorney would be your best bet.

Good luck.

[odiedog52]

hello .. my name is Brian.

We first had DA6righthand on another forum, where he was asking us advice. We told him to do the same, contact lawyers and sue, but he claimed he couldn't sue the insurance, and he couldn't go after the driver because he had no job or assets. This is why we sent him here, where he could possibly get some better advice, and possibly from some people who actually practice law.

He was given $25,000 from the insurance company, which he said is Progressive, and with that, his parents signed away their rights.

he claims he's called lawyers, but nobody will help him. He has nearly given up hope, but he has a ton of support from us over on another forum, giving him (pretty) tough love, in hopes something can be done, and he can get the compensation he deserves.

What is your advice for him? It seems his parents dont have much hope in the case and aren't doing much to pursue legal action, and he doesn't think he can. Compensating someone for $25,000, in a case where one was rendered a quadriplegic is absolutely rediculous, and makes me hate insurance companies even more. So please, any help you could give this young man (19 years old), would really be appreciated by alot of people.

Thank you, Brian

[Happy Trails]

Originally Posted by DA6righthand

we did, thats why im here now...

btw, parents also signed a waiver that somehow gave us only 25k from his insurance company at which he had minimum coverage..

would it be better if we moved this to auto accidents forum instead?

This sounds bad. You better have your parents read the waiver that was signed.

[seniorjudge]

Originally Posted by Happy Trails

This sounds bad. You better have your parents read the waiver that was signed.

He was given $25,000 from the insurance company, which he said is Progressive, and with that, his parents signed away their rights.

HT, I think the parents did read it and signed off on it.

Sounds like our boy is out of luck.

BUT, you really need a lawyer.

[odiedog52]

A well respected and educated man in our forum had said this, regarding the waiver:

The judge could still set that aside as "a promise made without due consideration to the facts and consequences."
In exchequer, the ancient concept that the two parties must both really understand what they are doing could outweigh the fact that he actually signed the waiver.

The insurance company representative, in fact, could be liable for separate charges if he had reason to believe that it would not the dutiful thing to do, making him sign the waiver.

The insurance company should have started paying the bills without signing a waiver, making him only sign an acknowledgement that they were starting to pay the bills and occasionally noting the total of the bills they had paid

Even though the waiver was signed.. from the magnitude and damages of a case like this, and the small amount paid to write it off ... couldn't something be done?

[Happy Trails]

Originally Posted by seniorjudge

He was given $25,000 from the insurance company, which he said is Progressive, and with that, his parents signed away their rights.

HT, I think the parents did read it and signed off on it.

Sounds like our boy is out of luck.

BUT, you really need a lawyer.

I see that now from the other post. I did not see the reply from odiedog52.

He is an adult, why did the parents sign off for him?

[StickyFingers]

Originally Posted by odiedog52

hello .. my name is Brian.

We first had DA6righthand on another forum, where he was asking us advice. We told him to do the same, contact lawyers and sue, but he claimed he couldn't sue the insurance, and he couldn't go after the driver because he had no job or assets. This is why we sent him here, where he could possibly get some better advice, and possibly from some people who actually practice law.

He was given $25,000 from the insurance company, which he said is Progressive, and with that, his parents signed away their rights.

he claims he's called lawyers, but nobody will help him. He has nearly given up hope, but he has a ton of support from us over on another forum, giving him (pretty) tough love, in hopes something can be done, and he can get the compensation he deserves.

What is your advice for him? It seems his parents dont have much hope in the case and aren't doing much to pursue legal action, and he doesn't think he can. Compensating someone for $25,000, in a case where one was rendered a quadriplegic is absolutely rediculous, and makes me hate insurance companies even more. So please, any help you could give this young man (19 years old), would really be appreciated by alot of people.

Thank you, Brian

It is nice of you to advocate for the original poster.

And we do feel for him.

But...Not any of us know what roads he is speaking of...(or even if the remote person on this forum does) his whole scenario below is still up to scrutiny..Simply, we were not there.

The original poster needs to seek the advice of a local personal injury attorney immediately.

His situation is way to complicated for an Internet forum.

we were on jamison road in bright indiana going to harrison ohio to wash his civic hatchback. this road has many curves and quite a few people have gotten hurt on it. what really gets to me is that the owner/driver KNOWS this road well and i dont know why this happened. anyways, theres a chicane at the bottom of the road that cant be taken at no more than 65 tops. well, his car was equipped with a b16 and b16 trans. when i looked at his tach, it was well beyond 8k , and we were in forth. do the math, thats around 90 mph...i thought he was gna hit the brake, but no. the chicane turned right then left. he started to brake once we got into the turn, but it was too late. it started to oversteer and he tried to correct, but he countersteered too much. the momentum from the correction flung us to the right, over into a field which was 12ft or so below the road. my side hit first, which sent the car into a side over side roll.

[Happy Trails]

Sticky, that's the problem, no one will take the case.

[odiedog52]

I think the reason he mentioned all the roads and what not, is because he copy/pasted from somewhere else, so he didn't have to type as much. Basically, an accident occurred directly resulting from the negligence of the driver, and now he is a quadriplegic.

We sent him here, as he has no hope that anything can be done, after we've pleaded with him to talk to some attorneys. He claims they can't or won't help him.

As for his parents signing off for him, I believe they were his power of attorney and he wasn't able to sign for himself.

[StickyFingers]

Originally Posted by Happy Trails

Sticky, that's the problem, no one will take the case.

Tells ya something...doesn't it?

I will bite off Judge Judy...If it don't make sense...it probably didn't happen like that.

[You Are Guilty]

Without having seen exactly what was signed and going only on the information posted here, the problem appears to be twofold:

First, if the parents did sign a complete waiver/release, then that probably includes a prohibition against suing the driver personally. Then again, it might not. One area to follow up on. Another is to consider whether the parents abused the power of attoenry in signing a potentially overbroad release. Barring that, there is about a 0% chance a judge would "overturn" the release just because the injuries are worth more than $25k (see below).

Second, the insurance company is only monetarily liable up to the driver's policy limits (in this case, sounds like $25k). Any judgement beyond that would need to be collected from the other driver personally (but for the waiver issue, above). If the other driver has no assets, a judgment against him is pretty useless other than having piece of mind knowing that if the guy hits the lottery, you'll get paid.

There may be some coverage under his own insurance coverage, which is also worth looking into.

[DA6righthand]

Originally Posted by You Are Guilty

Second, the insurance company is only monetarily liable up to the driver's policy limits (in this case, sounds like $25k). Any judgement beyond that would need to be collected from the other driver personally (but for the waiver issue, above). If the other driver has no assets, a judgment against him is pretty useless other than having piece of mind knowing that if the guy hits the lottery, you'll get paid.

There may be some coverage under his own insurance coverage, which is also worth looking into.

exactly. but the waiver that was signed stated that we wont go after progressive. the drivers insurance was minimum coverage, so they could only give us $25,000. when our insurance company then tried to take all of the 25k. at that point, we really needed the money for everything insurance didnt cover. so we had to take our insurance to court. in the end, our lawyer received a third of the 25k, as did our insurance company, and we got the remaining third which was around $9,600.

the personal injury lawyers my parents talked to told us pretty much what you just said...but i still think otherwise...if he has a job, cant i go after some of his earnings? he just did get a job, but its low paying. i think theres gotta be some way to get more than what we got in this whole fiasco.....