Personal Injury Law

Insurance Companies Lie to the Court But Then Scream for Tort Reform

By Ben Glass

One of my clients was injured when she was a passenger in a parked car in a McDonald's parking lot. Her daughter was the driver and decided to stop the vehicle because she was talking on her cell phone.

A young teenage girl who had only had her driver's license for a few months was pulling away from the drive-up window when she hit the accelerator too hard. Instead of braking, she panicked and accelerated even faster. She ended up crashing into the back of my client's vehicle.

The insurance company would not settle the case and ignored our settlement demands. We ended up filing a lawsuit and the insurance company lawyer actually said that they plead that the teenage driver was in no way responsible for the accident.

It was unethical for the attorney to file such a pleading, especially since the young girl provided sworn answers to our questions and offered no defense to the claim. She admitted the following, 'I was in the McDonald's drive through with my brother and father in the car. As I was pulling away from the window, I hit the back of the plaintiff's car that was parked.'

The lawyer still wouldn't change the official pleadings. It's amazing how insurance companies are willing to lie to the court, but then turnaround and scream for tort reform.

Full post as published by Northern Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer on May 14, 2010 (boomark / email).