$234,466 - Passenger Suffers Serious Neck Injury in Car Accident

On a freezing January night, Mr. O’Brien was going too fast down an onramp to I-5 and lost control of his Ford SUV. He came to a stop facing southbound in the northbound lanes. Nicolette was a passenger in a collision she could not avoid. Nicolette seriously injured her neck, and while she tried everything her doctors recommended to recover, her neck did not heal. After further testing, her doctors determined that she would need surgery. Nicolette was shocked to learn that her health insurance company refused to approve the surgery. After calling and writing repeatedly for weeks, attorney Bill Coats was able to get the health insurance company to approve the surgery. He recovered the limits of all of the insurance money available, a total of $203,360 plus a waiver of the $31,106 health insurance reimbursement claim, for a net benefit to Nicolette of $234,466. Harrington v. O’Brien (2009)