We helped a sweet single mom in Spartanburg get a car accident settlement after a terrifying ordeal that left her with a disturbing left leg injury.
Julie got run over by her sister’s boyfriend—a heartless, abusive criminal. He’d attacked her sister that night. She called Julie for help.
Julie arrives at her sister’s house and finds the boyfriend in her sister’s car in the driveway, with the engine running. The driver’s side window is open. Julie asks him to turn it off, return the keys, and get out. He refuses. Julie reaches in to turn the car off and take the keys.
At that point, the boyfriend grabs her arm with a steel grip, saying “This is gonna hurt.” As Julie vainly attempts to break free, he drives down the driveway with her hanging out the window.
At the end of the driveway, the boyfriend lets go. As he drives off, the rear wheel runs over Julie’s left leg.
A Rare, Disturbing Injury—and No Insurance Coverage. That’s Where We Come In.
The initial good news for Julie was, her leg wasn’t broken. The bad news was, it began to swell gruesomely, and doctors couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Finally, just over four months after getting run over, she got referred to a vascular surgeon who figured it out. He diagnosed her with extensive post-traumatic seroma, meaning her leg became engorged with blood and fluid that was causing the massive swelling.
Julie needed an operation to relieve the swelling and clean out the leg. Luckily, she got referred to an excellent plastic surgeon who fixed it for her.
Julie knew she needed professional help with this unusual car accident, so she reached out to a friend for a recommendation. Her friend hired our Spartanburg car accident attorney in her daughter’s case and got good results, so she referred Julie to us.
From a legal standpoint, things seemed to get worse. Her sister’s car had no insurance. In a development that surprised none of us, the low-life boyfriend didn’t have any insurance either.
But my years of experience helping South Carolina car accident victims told me that wasn’t the end of the story. Julie got hit by an uninsured vehicle. That meant we could use her own insurance coverage made precisely for this situation. It’s called uninsurance, or UM.
I got copies of her insurance policy declaration pages to show the amount of coverage she had, and we got some good news.
Julie had more than one uninsured policy. That meant we could “stack” them. Because her injuries were so serious, we exhausted the limits of both policies.
While a $50,000 settlement only scratches the surface of what she endured, we did secure one stroke of extremely good luck for Julie. Because her settlement came from uninsurance, her health insurance company had no right to be paid back due to the way her health policy is written.
Julie came out way better than she would’ve on her own. As we expected, her own insurance company didn’t come rushing to her rescue. We had to chase them down, prove no liability coverage existed, and then prove to them they should pay. That’s a sad fact realized by every victim of an uninsured car accident. Your own insurance turns against you in these cases, despite the fact you’ve been a loyal customer who’s paid them thousands over the years in premiums.
In the end, Julie made a solid medical recovery. She’s satisfied with the settlement and grateful law enforcement is prosecuting the boyfriend. Last we heard, he remains in jail. Right where he belongs.
