You and your family are minding your own business, being responsible for yourselves and others when…. WHAM! Your whole life has been changed in an instant.
Some other person decided to keep drinking or drugging to the point they are physically incapacitated (drunk or high) and then they made an even worse choice… They grabbed the keys and got behind the wheel. Drunk drivers endanger all of us, including every member of our family out on the roads. It is inexcusable and irresponsible.
There are criminal repercussions for the drunk driver, of course. However, those repercussions don't pay for any of your medical bills. Or your lost wages. If you find yourself in this precarious situation you have been thrust into through no fault of your own, this is what you need to do:
- Get Medical Care. This goes without saying. Take care of yourself and your family. Don't try to be a hero. If you are hurting, you need to get the care you need. And remember, if your pain is not documented in a doctor's note, it never happened (according to the insurance company). Make a complete listing from head to toe of everything that is bothering you. Also, it is important to note, sometimes you will have injuries that are very painful and that overshadow other significant injuries. This almost always happens in the case of sternum fracture and broken rib injuries. Those injuries are so painful and debilitating that you cannot walk, or even breathe without pain. It results in weeks and sometimes months of pure rest. A lot of people in those situations fail to document their "lesser" injuries because they are not nearly as painful (yet) or they are not even aware of them yet. This causes gaps in treatment or delayed onset of documentation of the injury in a doctor's note, which feeds right into the insurance company's schemes. So make a list of EVERYTHING that hurts you, big or small, and make sure it is documented in your doctor's notes.
Let me give you a quick real-life scenario of why this is so important. I had a client who was hit head on by a drunk driver, and fractured her sternum and ribs. No other injuries were documented. She was bedridden for about 7 weeks, and thereafter started to ambulate to go for very short distances, like to the bathroom. At about 10 weeks, she started walking more regularly. It was then she noticed pain in her left knee when she began to walk more often. She finally told her doctor for the first time about 12 weeks after the wreck that her left knee was hurting her. As it turned out, my client suffered a torn meniscus in her left knee. About 6 months after the wreck, she had a left knee surgery.
The insurance company we were fighting attempted to deny this knee surgery saying it was "not causally related" to the wreck. Our doctor's opined that it was indeed related to the wreck; it did not reveal itself for 12 weeks because the client was inactive and not using her left knee.
So, make sure that you are extremely thorough and make a list from head to toe of everything that is injured.
- Get an Attorney SOONER Rather than Later. Under the law, there are certain things we must prove for you in a DUI case that are DIFFERENT than a regular auto injury case. We have to prove the person that hit you was intoxicated at the time. That sounds really simple, right? It can cause problems the longer you wait. Here is why:
A lot of drunk drivers will plea down their DUI charge to a reckless driving charge. It happens in about 75% of the cases I see. Does that mean their drunken state is no longer an issue? No way. However, here is what I am seeing a lot on the people who wait 6 months or longer to hire us. The defendant pleads down to a reckless driving charge. They do either 6 months or a year probation, and at the end of that year, they move to EXPUNGE their charges. What does this mean? It means that after a certain period of time their criminal charge is completely and totally erased LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED. What's worse is that the crime lab at the TBI is given direct orders to either withhold or destroy all of the evidence collected in the underlying case. Once that blood alcohol TBI test lab results is removed, you have NO PROOF THE DRIVER WAS DRUNK. This is a horrible result.
How do you stop it from happening? Well first of all, the drunk defendant is not required to give you notice that he is seeking to have his criminal record expunged. This may be happening to you right now without your knowledge. We will get the proof from the TBI and preserve that evidence. We will send legal documents in accordance with Rule 36 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure called Requests for Admissions and force them to admit they were intoxicated at the time they hit you. Failure to act puts your proof in serious jeopardy. Do NOT delay.
- Survive. You may not be able to work. You may have lost some serious income. You have mounting medical bills. We can help get those either paid or put in abeyance many times. We can find money to pay co-pays and deductibles in most situations so that you can keep a roof over your head and your family fed. Insurance companies know you are hurting financially after their insureds could have killed you, and they seek to lowball you in your desperate state. Please don't let them do this. A good lawyer can assess the value of the case and give you great advice that will significantly change your bottom line at the end of the day.
You also need to understand that in DUI cases, you are entitled to an "extra" set of damages called Punitive Damages, which are damages designed to "punish and deter" extremely dangerous conduct, like getting drunk and choosing to get behind the wheel. A good lawyer knows what that is worth.
If you are thinking about going this journey alone, I would caution you against that. There is no doubt in my mind that the "cost" of an attorney is seriously outweighed ten fold by the advice and increase in settlement you are very likely to receive with the advice of a great lawyer.
At GriffithLaw, I have been handling cases involving punitive damages for 26 years, including receiving several record jury verdicts involving DUI drivers who hurt my people. If you have been put in this position, you need a great lawyer representing you. All lawyers are NOT the same.
I am here for you.
John Griffith
