Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Rear-end collisions are one of the most common types of collisions. According to statistics, there were 1.8 million of them in 2006, or approximately 29% of all injury crashes in the United States. These rear-end crashes accounted for more than 2,000 deaths and 800,000 injuries.

As in most rear-end collisions, the victim in this Florida automobile accident case had no idea another driver was about to carelessly plow into the rear of her vehicle as she was attempting to make a right turn into the church parking lot one Saturday. The other driver was found to be 100% at fault in this incident and fortunately, the victim was wearing her seatbelt when the accident occurred. Unfortunately for our victim, she had already been involved in a prior automobile accident wherein she sustained a significant neck injury (including surgery), which was seriously aggravated due to this accident. In fact, he victim’s medical bills in this case totaled over $97,000.00.

The victim was taken via ambulance to the emergency room at Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, Florida. She complained of pain in the neck and back and was concerned about the effect of the accident on her prior injuries/neck surgery. Eventually, after undergoing numerous tests and diagnostic studies, she was released with instructions to follow up with a physician.

Subsequently, the victim in this case came under the care of an orthopedic surgeon who found her neck and back in a very fragile condition and that she was a patient in severe pain with constant soreness and stiffness. She underwent MRI’s of the lumbar, cervical and thoracic spine which revealed two herniations of the neck at C3-4 and C4-5 levels, a large central and right paracentral disc herniation with effacement of the ventral spinal cord at the C4-6 level and a C6-7 disc bulge and central herniation with effacement of the ventral spinal cord. In addition, a lumbar spine MRI revealed two disc bulges at the L2-3 and L5-S1 levels. Finally, the thoracic MRI revealed that the victim is now suffering from a T1-2 broad based posterior herniation, a T2-3 posterior herniation with cord displacement and possible cord flattening and a T6-7 right-sided disc herniation.

The orthopedic surgeon referred the victim to a pain management specialist, who began a process of lumbar facet injections under fluoroscopic guidance.

This collision victim contacted the offices of Schuler, Halvorson & Weisser, P.A. and requested that Attorney Jason D. Weisser assist her in pursuing a claim against the at fault driver in this matter. Since the at fault driver’s insurance coverage was not even enough to pay this victim’s medical expenses, Mr. Weisser also pursued a claim against the underinsured motorist carrier and was successful in obtaining a settlement of several hundred thousand dollars from these two insurers without the necessity of a trial to help in this client’s recovery and future medical expenses.