A Personal Accident Story.
By Rex L Hogue Rex L Hogue - 
Email Editor
Date : November 20, 2008
Dear Valued Reader,
This is a good and true story about the impact of that dreaded "service"..... And guys, this is from a well respected lawyer.
Nobody is immune. --Rob
Personal Accident Story
A reckless driver hit my vehicle when she was traveling about 75 mph (slightly over the posted 55 mph speed limit). The State Trooper gave the reckless driver a ticket for both speeding and reckless driving (an offense punishable by jail time!). Every witness said it was her fault.
Ten days after the accident, an investigator showed up early in the morning at my door to get a statement from me. I’m sure she was hoping to catch me barely awake so I’d say something stupid, and she claimed the insured client had no recall of the accident.
Thirteen days after the accident, I got a nasty-gram from her lawyer informing me they were going to sue me. It came on a Friday.
When I saw it, I thought it was the stupidest thing. I KNEW the reckless driver did not have a legitimate case. In fact, I was actually the most severely injured in the accident and thus I knew I had a case against her. I was a law student. Plus, I worked for a personal injury (PI) lawyer, a very good one! You would think all of that would work to reduce my stress level. But it didn’t. |
In fact, the weekend after I received the notice of a threatened lawsuit was one of the worst weekends of my life. From a stress standpoint, it was way more stressful than the accident itself (but that was still pretty painful).
I was depressed the whole weekend. Even my future wife couldn’t cheer me up. And the longer the weekend went on, the more scared I became.
Do you wonder why? I’ll tell you.
I knew cases like that go to juries. I knew good PI lawyers could get a jury to vote their way. I knew as a law student, a jury might feel sorry for me, but I also knew that by the time the case came to trial, I’d have graduated, passed the bar, and become a lawyer.
I could have a great case, but lose because the jury liked the reckless driver better than me. It didn’t matter that she was speeding and driving like a maniac. I could still lose.
See, you can have a great case and still lose. I’ve seen it happen a lot. The side with the best case does not always win.
I suspect I was better prepared for that type of claim than most people would be. I knew to get that nasty-gram to my lawyer ASAP. I did – I skipped my first class my third year in law school to meet with my lawyer and employer.
(I thought that was about as good an excuse as a law student could have for missing class; the look on my professor’s face when I told him where I’d been suggested otherwise.)
Fortunately, the attorney I worked for knew the reckless driver’s attorney. After I showed him the letter, he called the other attorney. Here’s generally what he said.
“Charlie, you got a case that slipped in under the wire. Here’s what happened. [He explained our side.] Now Charlie, it so happens my client is a 3rd year law student who works for me.
“He’s going to be a great lawyer some day, and he’d love to get some practical experience. He’s going to be a great witness, he … (well, you would have thought I’d walked on water! I hardly recognized myself from his description of the glowing review of my talents.) You might want to re-consider this…”
He hinted that Charlie would spend a lot of time and collect nothing. I knew that was Charlies’ biggest fear. And just like that, Charlie dropped the case.
I’d spent the whole weekend worrying for nothing. It was that stressful and it didn’t even go to court! It was over with, but I’ve never forgotten the sick feeling I had all weekend.
*****Things to ponder:
What if I hadn’t been somewhat familiar with that area of law? What if I hadn’t worked for a good lawyer who could make a great phone call? What if my lawyer hadn’t known the other lawyer? What if the other lawyer hadn’t been convinced so easily to drop the case?
What if I had been sued, and lost?
Rex L. Hogue, P.C
Click here for more information on Rex L. Hogue.
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ABOUT THIS EDITOR:
Mr. Hogue graduated from Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas, receiving his B.A. in 1982. He worked as a business specialist and managed an office for Business Investment Group, specializing in the merger and acquisition of privately held companies
11 NOVEMBER
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