Victim Hurt in Bronx Car Accident Receives Settlement – Feb. 2015
The personal injury lawyers at Martin + Colin, P.C. have settled a lawsuit arising out of a car accident on Bronx Park East near Allerton Avenue in Bronx, New York.
The plaintiff, a resident of the City of New York, Borough of the Bronx, was traveling alone on Bronx Park East at the intersection of Allerton Avenue, intending to make a right turn onto the Mosholu Parkway. As he sat in his vehicle waiting to make the right turn, our client’s vehicle was struck from behind by another car. The impact jolted our client and knocked him back and forth inside his car.
The injured car accident victim sought immediate medical treatment at Lawrence Hospital complaining of lower back stiffness, neck pain and shoulder pain. He was evaluated, x-rays were taken and he was released.
For the next five months, our injured client suffered in silence, hoping the pain would go away and that he would recover from the accident. However, the pain persisted and became increasingly unbearable. The victim injured in the car crash had never complained of back pain prior to this accident. Eventually, he sought additional medical treatment. A neurologist immediately observed muscle spasms in the patient’s back, decreased range of motion and also suspected radiating pain. Treatment with physical therapy was recommended and started. When continued physical therapy treatment failed to return our injured client to his pre-accident physical condition, the lawsuit was commenced.
Injuries such as those suffered in this case often result in settlements ranging from $5,000 to $75,000, depending on the specific facts of each case. In this lawsuit, the settlement amount was reduced because the victim sustained painful injuries during the car accident but did not receive medical treatment (except for one brief emergency room visit) for several months immediately following the accident. Another factor reducing the settlement amount was the lack of objective medical testing confirming the injured accident victim’s complaints.
As stated in a prior post, jury verdicts for injuries causing low back pain, corroborated by objective medical testing, can exceed $100,000.00. And let’s be clear: the lack of objective medical testing does not mean a lack of pain. However, the lack of objective medical test results to corroborate an injured person’s complaints can, and often does, reduce the amount of money an insurance company is willing to pay to settle a claim.
The injury lawyers at Martin + Colin, P.C. leveraged their expertise handling similar cases and successfully convinced the other driver’s insurance company that a good settlement was better than an unfavorable jury verdict; and as this case was venued in Bronx County, a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff could have cost the insurance company a much larger sum of money. However, our client preferred the certainty of settlement rather than the risk of trial, and during settlement negotiations, we were able to settle the case to the satisfaction of the client.
Call us now at (914) 771 7711 and let us apply our expertise to your case.