Injury Settlements

Many moons ago, the Valdez, a ship carrying Exxon oil slammed into a reef in Alaska that caused it to leak oil... which created an oil slick... the biggest Alaska had ever seen before.

Wikipedia describes the disaster like this:
"The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in the Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989. It is considered one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters ever to occur at sea. As significant as the Valdez spill was, it ranks well down on the list of the world's largest oil spills in terms of volume released."

As the oil washed ashore, it destroyed lives and sunk livelihoods. Much of the sea life was killed... the land and waters devastated.... the economy of waterfront towns that relied on fishing for survival collapsed

I know people who worked on that case.
And I know of one young woman who was among the thousands of victims in the class action suit. She was a fishing worker, who left Seattle for a job in in Prince William Bay. She had been working just a few days when the oil leaked and sea turned black and back to Seattle she went.

And from that time on, she became one of who knows how many people involved in a class action against Exxon who began to live their lives expecting a pot of gold at the end of their rainbow.

The days, weeks, months, years passed since she returned to Seattle. She married, got a decent job, her first house, had babies, spent a lot of money because she said, "I'm getting a huge settlement," divorced, then took a trip around the world with her kids and mom on a loan obtained via a refinance of her house. She was certain the Vadez case would settle and she would recoup her money.

She was only halfway right.
The Valdez case settled BUT she received only $10,000. Almost 20 years later.
That would be a whole lot of money to someone who has little, for sure. However it was nowhere what she had been expecting.
She owed $70k on credit cards alone.
She maxed out the line of credit on her house,was upside down on her home loan, she borrowed all she could from her parents, owed on school loans and then, amidst it all, the stock market....then the economy collapsed. Down went her house of cards. She declared bankruptcy and moved in with her parents.

People who are injured due to the fault of another person or entity.... who retain an attorney... expect a settlement. Some people have realistic expectations of what that settlement may be. Many, in my opinion, do not.

The ones with excessive, unrealistic expectations live in anticipation of an unknown.
And they move their thoughts, their energy, their hopes... from the present into the future.

For many people having a personal injury action or suit in place is like having a lottery ticket in your pocket. And just because you have a ticket, or an attorney, doesn't mean you will win. There are no guarantees in the business of justice. And like all businesses, an investment is required in your case.

In personal injury cases, often attorneys pay the up-front, hard costs of your case in the hopes of return on their investment..and the recovery of their initial costs.
In the criminal justice business... the Defendant, or family of the Defendant must absorb the costs of the defense.... unless that Defendant is "indigent" (AKA "broke") and the law allows Public Defenders and Investigators to handle the case.
However it goes down... in civil, criminal or administrative law... justice costs someone, somewhere. And the price paid is high when you lose.

I have a friend who had a case against a huge drug company. She claimed she was given the drug despite the fact that the drug company and her doctors knew it could trigger a nuerological disease that runs in her family... though so far, she was healthy, well, had no indicators of the disease.

She took the drug and poof! she developed the debilitating neurological disease.
A law firm in the middle of the country which has handled other cases against that drug firm took her case on. It cost them $250,000 in out of pocket expenses -- that meant if they didn't win, they'd have to eat the $250k in costs.

They didn't win.
My friend was devastated.
So was the law firm she hired
They spent $250k out of pocket, so they were a quarter million poorer and not happy about it. Plus they were required to pay the cost of the Drug Company's defense.

I get defensive when people call personal injury attorneys "ambulance chasers." In WA State, it is unethical and illegal for personal injury attorneys to solicit business in certain ways, and ambulance chasing is one of those not allowed ways.

The attorneys I work for simply advertise, or are referred by others. Injured people call the attorneys, the attorneys review the case to make sure the potential client is not at fault. The attorneys invest their own money in the cases.... it is a very risky business for a personal injury attorney. What the client brings to the relationship is the accident and injury they were not liable for.

I was in an third wheel used as home this week, investigating a case. One of the young women in the family, a by-stander, was coughing, alot. I turned to her and asked if she was okay, did she maybe have the flu? She said no, she developed the cough three days ago.

"Damndest thing" she explained, "I took a sip of a co-workers can of soda and the next day, I got a sore throat, a cough and all these sores in my mouth. "
"Sores in your mouth ?" I asked "From a co-worker's soda?"
"Yep, " she said, "Wanna see? "
"Sure" I said, being an admitted rubbernecker.
"Wow," was all I could say as she showed me gross white blisters growing on both sides of her tongue.
"My boyfriend says he won't kiss me even though I'm on antibiotics" she said.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Noone knows" she said as she lowered her voice." I was wondering, you think I can sue the soda company?" she asked me.

I looked at her for a few seconds so it appeared I was seriously considering her question.
"I don't know" I finally said slowly, "Might be a jury would think the first person who was drinking from the can had some contagious thing going on and you caught it."

"Can I sue them?" she asked.

"Sue your co-worker?" I asked. She nodded.
"When you sue people" I explained, "they usually end up declaring bankruptcy and there's no way for the attonrey to recoup their costs. Besides, I think that would be a rough situation...to sue a co-worker. You voluntarily took of sip of their soda. Did you ask first?"
"Well no, " she said.
"Well then," I replied, wishing someone would buy this girl a clue, "I'm thinking you're out of luck."

It is indeed a litigious world out there. Some people are on solid ground. Some on thin ice. the Investigators job is the find the truth in a sea of information and misinformation. At one time or another, almost everybody thinks they're right... even when they're wrong.