Our client was driving to a hardware store in Orange County when another driver rear-ended his vehicle in traffic. The impact caused a left shoulder injury that required arthroscopic surgical repair. There were no prior injuries to his left shoulder -- the surgery was entirely attributable to this crash.The case had real challenges. Our client had prior injuries to other parts of his body that the defense used aggressively to attack overall value. The insurance adjuster held a roughly $150,000 offer for years despite a $1,000,000 policy. Surveillance footage obtained by the defense was presented as favorable to their position, though we did not view it as significantly damaging. Trial was still approximately a year away.The case was not a policy limits result. The policy was $1,000,000. We recovered $400,000 -- nearly three times what the adjuster had been willing to offer -- through a direct relationship between our attorney and defense counsel, who ultimately overruled the adjuster.
We worked the relationship, not just the file. The adjuster was dug in at $150,000 for years. The breakthrough came through our attorney's direct working relationship with defense counsel -- a relationship built on credibility and track record. Defense counsel overruled the adjuster.We protected the value of a clean injury. No prior left shoulder injury. The surgical repair was entirely crash-related. We kept that fact front and center and resisted every attempt to conflate the shoulder claim with our client's prior injuries to other body parts.We assessed the surveillance footage accurately. We evaluated it, determined it was not as damaging as the defense believed, and used that assessment to hold our position rather than accept a lower number.
