The General District Court is a lower trial court that can hear cases without a jury and is limited in the amount it can award. Smaller personal injury cases can be tried there without having to pay a medical professional to testify. David has tried a number of cases there and never received less than the amount offered in settlement by the insurance company. A couple of those cases are reported here:
The first case involved a 70+ aged male who was retired but remained active with hobbies and other pursuits. He was rear ended in a slow speed accident with minor body damage to the vehicles.
David tried to settle the case with Travelers, the insurance company for the person that rear ended his client. Here is the reply from Travelers:
Good afternoon,
Our initial investigation into this accident reveals that it involved minimal or low-velocity impact between the vehicles. We have been advised
that the damage estimate for your client’s vehicle is $1,354.28. Photos depicting minimal damage to your client’s vehicle are also attached.
At this time, because of the minor nature of the impact, we have concerns about the causal relationship between this accident and your client’s alleged injuries. Despite these concerns, we would like to make every effort to present your client with a fair and reasonable settlement offer. With the information given to date we will make the following compromise offer:
$2,951.00
Please take this offer to your client and contact me once you have had a chance to review this information. I may be reached Monday through Friday by email or at the telephone number below.
David refused to settle for such a low number because his client was legitimately injured. Because of his age, this impact aggravated the preexisting arthritic condition in his hip and spine. Those age related problems did not cause him much trouble before this accident, but got worse after the wreck requiring medical treatment and physical therapy. A young person might walk away with no injuries from a minor wreck, but that is not always the case with an older person. Suit was filed in the General District Court. At the time of trial the medical bills were about $8000. The insurance company hired a lawyer who argued that there could not be much of an injury here, and that the plaintiff’s problems were all due to pre-existing arthritic changes. The judge took the case under advisement and later wrote an opinion letter agreeing that this was a legitimate injury and awarding $39,000.
