Auto Insurance Claims: Truck Crash into Daughters Bedroom, mattress and boxspring, brick mortar

Question
Last October (10/20/2007), a truck crashed into my three-year-old daughter's bedroom at approximately 11:30pm at night.  The driver was drunk, on the wrong side of the road, ran a stop sign and plummeted into our home at an estimated 60-65 miles per hour.  My daughter was asleep in her bed and I was asleep on her floor when the crash occurred.  It totally destroyed my daughter's bedroom.  The bed was launched six feet from the wall  The sound was deafening.  Debris, brick, mortar, siding, 2x4s, etc. were everywhere.  Furniture was smashed.  Her mattress and boxspring were crushed.  You get the picture.  I suffered from bruises and lacerations plus some permanent damage to my eyes, lip and tooth.  Miraculously, my daughter had a small scrape on her arm.  However, psychologically, our entire family has been traumatized by the event.  We are wondering what this type of claim is worth for our daughter since her medical injuries were minor, but her psychological injuries were major.  She was in counseling with a LPC and certified play therapist from November through May.  She is better, but she still sleeps with us and she is still scared at night.  We will be settling with the insurance company shortly and don't know what the value of her claim is in terms of general pain and suffering, or non-economic damages.  I think its also called emotional distress.  Please help us ...
Sincerely,
Anna


Answer
Hi Anna,

What a story. I'm glad everyone is ok.

This is a very difficult thing to try to determine. Most injury claims are settled based on the extent of the injuries and the cost of the needed medical care as well as the length of medical care. In this case the injuries are minor, the lenght of treatment fairly short and I would assume fairly low medical bills.

You should stress two main points; 1) the egregis nature and cause of the accident. The fact that the guy was drunk and ran int your house at 60 mph. 2) the emotional trauma suffered by both you and your daughter and the ongoing fear that your daughter has and not being willing to sleep in her own room and the possibility of ongoing treatment for emotional distress.

As for the value, I would shoot very high. You likely do not know what the policy limit is but, You should ask for $100k for your daughter and about $50k in addition to your medical bills for your self. However you must be prepared to negotiate. This process of negotiating the claim could take several months to over a year. If at any point you do not feel that the insurance company is treating you fairly, you should immediately seek the advice of an attorney. You may want to do that anyway considering the type of case this is.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh