Miami Filmmaker collects $374,000.00 settlement for Trucking Crash incident

Author: Attorney Jason Macri

A 53 year-old Miami Filmmaker suffered a serious back injury when her vehicle was sideswiped by a semi-truck on I-95 near Miami Gardens Drive. Though the visible damage to her vehicle was not impressive, the impact was severe, causing her body to absorb a violent impact as a result of the crash. Though she wasn’t feeling well after the crash, she refused emergency medical care and was not transported to the hospital from the scene of the crash. Instead, she figured she would drive herself back home and try to get some rest, hoping she would feel better.

She awoke the next morning and immediately knew that something was wrong. She was experiencing a great deal of back pain and felt numbness into her legs. She went to a nearby chiropractic office hoping to get some pain relief. The chiropractor was receptive to her complaints and felt that she would need an MRI in order to truly determine the extent of her injuries. The MRI revealed that she suffered a disc herniation of her lower back. After reviewing the MRI results, her chiropractor referred her to a board certified spine surgeon. The surgeon met with our client and spoke with her about her symptoms. He then reviewed her MRI results and at that point he knew he was dealing with a serious issue. He felt that her back injury was serious enough that it would require a surgical fusion of her spinal vertebre in order to alleviate her painful symptoms.

Our client was able to get her surgery within a month and immediately noted a significant relief of her pain. Approximately 3 weeks later she noticed that any residual pain was now beginning to dissipate and eventually, she was completely pain free. Unfortunately, dealing with the insurance company was now becoming a great source of our pain. The insurance company denied our client’s claim for injury compensation and based their decision on the fact that there were no independent witnesses to the crash and that because our client didn’t go to the hospital from the scene, she could not have suffered such a serious injury as a result of the crash. Luckily we previously hired an accident reconstruction expert who was of the opinion that the truck driver was at fault for the crash.

Though our client didn’t receive emergency care directly from the scene of the crash, she did go to the chiropractor the following day and thus, we were able to argue that the injuries identified by her doctors were directly related to the crash. We filed a lawsuit against the trucking company and after several months of litigation, we were able to achieve a $374,000 settlement for our client. This settlement was enough to pay all of her expenses and receive compensation for her injuries. Our client was highly satisfied with the result of her case as well as the outcome of her surgery. She reported a great feeling of relief knowing that the trucking company finally accepted responsibility for her crash and resulting injuries.