A then 48-year-old-married woman, mother of two and engineer, was struck from the rear by an uninsured motorist/driver versus car collision on May 28th, 2022, in Orange County, Florida. The at-fault driver was issued a ticket for ‘Operated MV in Careless or Negligent Manner’ while committing an ‘Improper Turn’ thus causing the rear end collision. ‘No Contributing Action’ on the part of our client was found in the Florida Traffic Crash Report helping to negate a comparative fault argument here in addition to her wearing a safety belt at the time of the crash.
Additionally, the at-fault driver owner of the other vehicle only had a Learner’s Permit at the time of the crash and such license was supposed to restrict her from driving without a licensed driver being present.
The collision had a significant impact. In fact, the uninsured vehicle hit our client with such force as to crack its windshield as the front end/hood accordioned upwards causing all airbags to deploy.
As a direct result of this crash, aside from first undergoing conservative palliative care, second, injection treatment with medications, third, she had undergone 2 spinal surgeries (microdiscectomies) with a board-certified, fellowship trained orthopedic surgeon that focuss in the spine. The surgeon was employed by a well-known conservative orthopedic group that often testifies on behalf of the insurance industry in defending cases, preparing IMEs (independent medical examinations) and trial testimony.
Since the at-fault owner/driver of the car that crashed into the client had no liability/bodily injury (BI) coverage, Counsel had requested insurance disclosure information from client’s own insurance carrier on whether her family had maintained stacking versus non-stacked UM/UIM coverage as their policy disclosure initially revealed. However, when the insurer failed to locate and provide counsel with the executed waiver/rejection of stacked insurance coverage as stated on their initial coverage disclosure, the insurer was compelled to revise their disclosure and triple the single policy limit UM coverage from $100,000.00 to $300,000 as such would represent what the stacked coverage would have been for the family.
