Past Cases & Results

AUTOMOBILE vs. MOTORCYCLE • CASE #1

DATE OF OCCURRENCE: 7/20/2000

CLIENT: A.Y. (21 year-old male)

DESCRIPTION OF OCCURRENCE: Our client, A.Y., was riding his motor­cycle north on Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, when a southbound car made a left turn in front of him. A.Y. broadsided the car and flew off his motorcycle.

INJURIES: Fractured left wrist – both bones, the radius and ulna; full thickness degloving (skin peeled off) injury to the back of the right hand and right wrist.

TREATMENT:

Emergency Room and admitted to Kings County Hospital until 7/28/2000.

Surgery on 7/21/2000: Open reduction (repair), internal fixation of the left wrist. (Metal screws and plates were placed into the bone to fix the fracture.)

Surgery on 7/26/2000: skin graft to the right hand and wrist.

RESULT: Settlement with car for insurance policy limits of $25,000, November, 2001.

Arbitration award for $225,000, June, 2004.

Total recovery: $250,000.

OF PARTICULAR INTEREST HERE:

1. The offending car paid its policy limits of $25,000 to settle.
   
   
2. Question : Where did the $225,000 come from?

Answer : We recovered from A.Y.’s father’s own automobile insurance, under the Underinsured Motorist provisions of his policy. This is so even though the car was not involved in the accident. Underinsured Motorist coverage protects a car owner or household relative involved in an accident with a vehicle with lower insurance coverage limits than those of his or her own vehicle. Note: $225,000 is the maximum this client could recover on this policy.

ATTACHED:

1. Four color photographs showing: (a) degloving injury (right hand), (b) surgical scar (right wrist), and, (c) skin donor site (right thigh).
   
   
2. X-rays of A.Y.’s left wrist: (a) before surgery, showing the obvious displace­ment of the bones; (b) after surgery, showing the fracture repair with metal screws and plates, and even the staples holding closed A.Y.’s skin at the site of the surgical incision.

Law Offices of Gary E. Rosenberg, P.C.

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Forest Hills, New York 11375

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Serving: New York City, including the Boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, and Bronx, and the Counties of Kings, Richmond, Queens, New York, Bronx, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Dutchess.