$700,000 Settlement for Pedestrian Hit in Crosswalk. (And some things you should think about).

Two people walking in a crosswalk

A brief discussion of this case:

In June of 2021, we were able to settle this complex injury case. The accident happened February of 2019, when the Plaintiff was crossing the street at a cross-walk.  At that same time, the defendant was stopped at a blinking yellow arrow attempting to make a left turn, which required him to cross the same crosswalk. He proceeded to make his turn but failed to see the Plaintiff and struck her. 

Due to the impact, the Plaintiff suffered multiple fractures to include left hip fractures, a coccyx fracture, a non-displaced fibula fracture, L1 vertebral compression fracture, as well as a bladder rupture and a foot wound. 

Fortunately, the Plaintiff did not require surgery.  She was hospitalized for approximately a week and a half and, transferred to inpatient rehabilitation for a week, and discharged home.  The Plaintiff then underwent physical therapy and wound care.

Ultimately, Plaintiff made a remarkable recovery. Aside from limited flexibility in her hip when exercising, Plaintiff returned to full daily activities.  Plaintiff’s expert did opine a 5% impairment rating for her hip and that she would be more vulnerable to lower back pain later in life.

All told, she incurred approximately $250,000 in medical bills and lost wages.

A few things to think about this case:

This case demonstrated that, even for serious injury cases, far too often, insurance companies don’t take settlement negotiations seriously until you’ve proved a willingness to try your case. Here, we attempted to settle this case multiple times before filing suit, but we did not even receive a response to our demand. Only 6 months before trial did we get our first response, and that was only for $250,000.

This case settled a few weeks before trial, after we conducted two de bene esse video depositions of our expert witnesses. (De bene esse depositions are when we have our doctors testify by video for trial, and it’s pre-recorded and then played at trial.) So, we essentially had to begin our trial testimony.

What’s more, despite our client being in a cross-walk, the insurance company tried to take advantage of Virginia’s contributory negligence law, which holds that if an injured person is just 1% at fault for an accident, they are barred from recovery. Only after we were able to find an eye witness through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request for phone records and have that person testify at deposition did they accept that our client did not contribute to this accident.

This is why it’s so important that, when possible, you take steps to preserve the evidence about how your accident happened as soon after the accident as possible. Here’s an article we’ve written to provide you a few ideas of what to do immediately after a Virginia car accident, if you’re physically able.

Have questions about your Virginia car accident case?

Make sure to reach out to Abrenio Law for your Free Consultation. You can call us at Ph. 703-570-4180. To learn more about Owner James Abrenio click here. You can also read his real client reviews here.  

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Every case is different, and the results depend on the unique facts presented.  Nothing in our reported results is intended to imply that we would reach a similar result in your case.  For every case that we accept, we complete a detailed evaluation for you (in most cases in writing) to provide you our analysis regarding what we think your case is worth.  The only promise that we can make to you is to give you 100% effort and work with you as best as we can to attain the right result for your case.