$208,500 Settlement for Low Disk Herniation and Insurance Bad Faith

DISCLAIMER: The results are specific to the facts and legal circumstances of each of the clients' cases and should not be used to form an expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific factual and legal circumstances of each client's case.

Client was standing in his driveway when he was hit by a SUV exiting the driveway.  Client suffered a disc herniation and bulge to his low back that caused pain to shoot down the back of his right leg to the calf.  We obtained the full limits of the negligent driver’s insurance of $50,000 for our client.  We then made a claim under our client’s own insurance (Underinsured Motorist coverage (UIM)) and obtained an additional $146,000 for our client. 

Following the conclusion of the injury portion of the case we reviewed the conduct of the UIM insurance company. Insurance companies are generally required under Washington law to complete its investigation of a injury claim in 30 days.  They must also respond to requests from its customer or the customer’s attorney within 10 days of any request by the customer. If an insurance company fails in doing either of these things it is guilty of committing a bad faith violation of Washington law.  Our client’s insurance company had failed to do a proper investigation for many months and virtually ignored requests from us for explanations for such delays. 

We advised our client that he had a legitimate bad faith case against his insurance company for its failure to properly and promptly process his UIM claim.  With our client’s consent, we filed a lawsuit against his insurance company for its violations of Washington law in failing to handle and process the client’s UIM claim properly.  An additional $12,500 settlement was obtained from the insurance company, for its excessive delays and improper handling of our client’s UIM claim.  The client received a total of $208,500 from all the settlements obtained.

Call if you have been injured in Washington State, including these cities and counties:
Kirkland, Bellevue, Seattle, Redmond, Bothell, Woodinville, Issaquah, Renton, Everett, Tacoma, Sammamish, Snohomish, Sumner, Lynnwood, Mill Creek, Kenmore, Marysville, Monroe, Fall City, Lake Washington, Auburn, Kent, Puyallup, Mercer Island; King, Snohomish, and Pierce Counties.