QuestionGood afternoon,
My 16 year old daughter was in an accident the day after she received her drivers license. She was hit in the passenger side when the other driver ran a stop sign in the school parking lot. It was raining and he admitted that he could not see her because his windshield and windows were fogged up. She suffered from tightness in her neck and shoulder muscles and headaches. She saw her primary care physician and was prescribed muscle relaxers. These did nothing for her pain. Her headaches were all day, every day and became worse because of lack of good sleep. She saw a Chiropractor 3 months after the accident. Her evaluation noted increased muscle tone in the trapezius and SCM, bilateral cervical tenderness of the apophyseal joints at C1-C7, cervical curvature shows a severe loss of the normal lordosis & late whiplash. She had a total of 4 chiro visits and reported no improvement in the pain. Her pcp ordered an MRI that revealed Chiari Malformation. It is possible that she could have gone her entire life without any symptoms of Chiari, however, a significant number of cases have symptoms triggered by head trauma. She had decompression surgery 5 months after the accident and has started driving again 7 months after the accident. She was afraid to drive and suffered mental distress when riding as a passenger. Because she was not driving, I missed work while taking her to appointments and picking her up from school when she could no longer take the pain of the headaches.
My questions are: (1)Is the other driver liable for all of the doctor expenses, including the decompression surgery, or would they insist that it was a pre-existing condition? (2) is my daughter entitled to pain and suffering damages? (3) Am I entitled to reimbursment for time off work for my minor child? If so, I am self employed and due to the time off, I lost a significant client. How would I go about claiming compensation in this situation?
Thank you
AnswerShirley,
I'm sorry for the delayed response.
1. The other driver is responsible for all reasonable expenses incurred because of his/her negligence.
2. Your daughter is entitled to pain and suffering? (be prepared to wait until she is "the age of majority" or to deal with an Ad Litem attorney).
3. You are entitled to reimbursement for your time off work, and if you have "lost earning potential" then you will have to show some evidence of that as well.
A little secret . . . all insurance claims are negotiations. Insurance adjusters have to use the same math and logic as everybody else when it comes to calculating damages. If you can't figure out how much they owe you, then how do you expect them to figure it out? The easiest way to settle a claim is to put pen to paper and document how much each issue is actually costing. How much earning potential did you lose? Can you prove it? It will be hard to negotiate a claim such as this one because of the age of your daughter. It is not normal that such a young child would experience the type of pain you describe due to a minor auto accident. You will surely be fighting the "pre-existing" battle, but if I were you I would look up "the eggshell rule" as it relates to injuries. It might help you to argue. I would think you should have an attorney.
I hope this helps.
