Quote:
Originally Posted by RickyMaveety
Thanks for the kind thoughts, everyone. Strangely, except for my left wrist, I am doing better today. The EMTs told me to expect substantial pain in my chest where the air bag hit me, but there is no pain at all there.
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One of the County Sheriff's dept saw the whole thing happen, so the other side is not going to dispute fault. They agree that it was all on the truck driver.
I'm not going to sue them. I'll take what the insurance companies give me and just get a new car. Believe it or not, except for the evil developer, I've never sued anyone. Got run over once ... didn't sue him. Was in a plane crash with an impaired pilot ... didn't sue him either. It's just not me to do that sort of thing.
[SNIP]
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Super glad to hear that you are more-or-less OK!
On the subject of suing (or not), you may wish to consider an alternate approach. I'll tell you the tale that inspires this approach, and you'll get the idea...
On of my colleagues (we'll call him John -- not his real name!) was arriving at work on a snowy day. He parked in the parking lot at work and got out of his car -- carrying a glass jar full of soup for his lunch. Half-way across the parking lot he slipped on some ice and fell. When he hit the ground, the glass jar broke and badly cut his hand. Some important details here:
- Our company rented office space from a big developer.
- It was still snowing. The lot had been plowed and salted more than once since the storm began, but the plows weren't keeping up.
- City and state plows weren't keeping up on the roads, either.
John says he felt like a total idiot for holding on to his soup instead of tossing the bottle when he felt himself begin to fall. He knew perfectly well that holding a glass container while you fall is... contraindicated. At best. So John goes to the hospital, gets himself stitched up, and thinks nothing of it.
About a month later, he gets a call from the developer's lawyers wanting to know when he'll be filing the lawsuit.
"What lawsuit? It was my own damn fault for not being careful on my way across the parking lot!" says John.
The lawyers insisted that they needed a proper release to close the matter out. John offered to sign any reasonably paperwork. Their response was along the lines of "we need to pay you as part of the settlement, or else we'd still be open to you filing a lawsuit later on. How much do you want?"
John argued and argued (really! I heard some of the phone-calls) but the lawyers insisted. They had to pay him enough that it was a plausible settlement. (Note: they'd already covered his medical expenses by reimbursing the insurance company. This was about paying him directly.)
In the end, John said "Pay me whatever you think is the smallest amount that will avoid future liability on your part. I won't argue about the amount."
After signing the appropriate papers, he got a check for a surprisingly large amount of money. It didn't
quite reach five figures (in the early '90s; about $13K in todays $$).
So, Ricky, don't sue them. Instead, I suggest that you let the trucking company pay you whatever
their lawyers think is the minimum to close out a settlement
in their opinion.
They set the price on the settlement, you just take the money. Over and above your actual expenses, of course. If it violates your morals too badly, you can always find a good cause to donate to.
Xenophon
P.S. "John" is not me, nor am I "John." Really a colleague, not me.