This article explains where a personal injury attorney looks for additional coverage in catastrophic injury cases. The article also warns that there is a short six month statute of limitations if public entities are defendants in catastrophic injury cases.
There is nothing more heart breaking than a catastrophic injury that leads to paraplegia, triplegia or quadriplegia in an accident victim. However, whether you or a person you know suffered their injury in San Diego, or Orange County, in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Temecula, Palm Springs or anywhere in between, the law is the same. Unfortunately, time can be short to file a lawsuit, depending on the defendant involved, and evidence can disappear.
Catastrophic injuries can happen anywhere, in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Riverside, Chula Vista, Irvine, San Bernardino, Huntington Beach, Fontana, Moreno Valley, Oceanside, Garden Grove, Palm
dale, Corona, Escondido, Orange, Fullerton, Costa Mesa, Victorville or Carlsbad. They can happen as the result of school or recreational activities such as cheerleading, and mountain biking, and they can happen for no reason at all.
While you can argue, what injury isn’t serious or catastrophic when it can lead to pain for the rest of your life, years of medical treatment, wage loss and injury to your psyche. But an injury that leads to paralysis, or the loss of one or more arms or legs, the loss of vision of one or both eyes, or brain damage that leads to the loss of faculties, is truly catastrophic.
Unfortunately, it is rare that the person at fault for the true catastrophic injury has the insurance policy to cover the true value of such a case. Some instances where there is sufficient insurance to cover such injuries are accidents involving public entities such as city governments, bus companies, trucking companies, the company whose driver causes your accident, train accidents, airlines, hotels and restaurants, and wealthy homeowners.
Even when you have been injured in an auto, truck, motorcycle, bicycle or pedestrian accident it is important for your attorney to explore whether the party at fault had an umbrella insurance policy which covers them for damages over and above their auto insurance policy and whether the injured person themself had insurance coverage for the incident. Where the party at fault has only a minimal or other small policy limit on their insurance policy, a good attorney will ensure that he or she has determined if there is additional coverage on their own client’s policy under the underinsured policy coverage that many people have.
Where serious or catastrophic injuries have occurred and there still is less than sufficient insurance coverage on the vehicles involved, a good attorney will look for other possible defendants. Questions that need to be asked are, was the roadway safe? Was there any other associated cause of the accident, such as the action or inaction of a mechanic in tightening the lug nuts of a wheel? If drinking was involved, was the driver under the influence a minor, and if so, was he or she served drinks at a restaurant or bar or in someone else’s home?
In major disasters, investigation reports are prepared by agencies such as the National Transportation Safety Board, but such reports can sometimes take longer to be released than you have to file your claim. Police reports are usually available within 10 days to two weeks, depending on the police department, but other evidence can disappear before even those reports are available. That’s why it’s important to speak with an attorney as soon as you are emotionally or physically able.
In California, you have a two year statute of limitations to file a wrongful death lawsuit. But you have only six months to file a claim if a public entity is involved and delay in speaking with an attorney can make it difficult to obtain evidence such as vehicle skid marks after it rains.
