A Day Like Any Other
Imagine watching your seven-year-old daughter playing basketball on your quiet neighborhood street with a friend. She is having fun, learning some life lessons without knowing it, and you are enjoying a brief moment relishing in your child’s enjoyment of life.
A car coming down the road catches your attention and your eyes dart over to your daughter to make sure she sees the approaching vehicle. She does and moves out of the street to safety. You breathe a small sigh of relief – she was taught well you think.
Then Everything Changes
Without warning and for some unknown reason, you hear your daughter crying uncontrollably and see the car speeding off. You rush over to your daughter – while yelling at the car – to take stock of what just happened.
Your daughter’s friend tells you the car got too close to the side of the road and smacked your daughter with the mirror. Your daughter is bleeding from the mouth, can’t lift her left arm, and the crying…oh, the crying…you know the pain is real.
A Client Story
This is a true story of our seven-year-old client and her mother. As a father of three, I completely understood and related to the sheer terror I felt in mom’s voice as she described what happened. And, I felt the anger – like really, deep down, anger – the driver just drove away with no concern for the injured child.
Mom drove daughter straight to the emergency room, where she treated for a broken collarbone due to the impact. The next day, she had to go to the dentist to have her broken tooth repaired – her first adult tooth. She then had follow-up visits with an orthopedist for the broken collarbone.
Mom was at a loss – she had a description of the vehicle and had even attempted to get information from the house she located the vehicle outside of but she was getting nowhere. She had medical bills, a hurt daughter, and plenty of frustration. She called us looking for help.
How We Were Able to Help
The work our firm did to ensure justice for our seven-year-old client included obtaining an investigator to canvas the area looking for the car at issue, interviewing the driver of the car, obtaining her insurance information, reporting the driver to the police, initiating a report, and ultimately, filing a claim with the insurance company and settling the case for that driver’s policy limits due to the driver’s negligence as well as her fleeing the scene of the crime.
While our team handled the investigative and legal issues, our client was able to focus on caring for her daughter – getting her smile fixed, transporting her to and from physical therapy while also working through the mental toll such injuries can have on a young life.
Today, our little rambunctious now eight-year-old client has her beautiful smile back, full use of her arm without any lingering issues, and has returned to playing basketball in her neighborhood – although I’m told she moves well into the front yard now when any car approaches.
