Brandon Osterbind resolved a personal injury case on the verge of trial for $500,000 for a client who was involved in a car accident. Combined with $440,000 in workers compensation benefits that he received, our client recovered a total of $940,000.00.
Our client was working for Southern Air on a job in Roanoke. One the way back to Lynchburg one evening, our client was driving but felt tired. He pulled over in Montvale, VA, and let another co-worker drive. Our client got in the back seat, buckled his seatbelt, and started dozing off as they made their way back home after a long day of work.
Not long after the driver switch, the Southern Air crew entered into the S-curve just east of Montvale in Bedford County, Virginia in the left-hand lane. There was a car to their right and a rock wall to the left. As the Suburban entered into the S-curve all appeared normal. However, as they reached the top of the S, the driver noticed a person running towards them in the left-hand lane waving his cell phone. The driver turned to the left to avoid the man, hit the rock embankment, and the Suburban went airborne landing on the passenger side.
Everyone woke up at that point.
The man in the road had, just seconds before, spun out of control and his car was sitting perpendicular in the left-hand lane of the road just past the top of the S. That man estimated that he spun out about 20 seconds before the Southern Air vehicle crash.
We sued the man in the road and alleged negligent driving and obstructing the roadway proximately causing the Southern Air suburban to crash.
Our client was visibly injured at the scene and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He suffered a displaced broken clavicle and torn rotator cuff injury. His treatment was extensive with several surgeries and his shoulder never fully recovered 100%. He was unable to continue working.
Because he was working at the time of the injury, the client received workers’ compensation for his time missed from work and his medical treatment.
Brandon Osterbind settled a worker’s compensation case for $235,000.00 for the remaining benefits for a client who was injured on the job in 2008. Workers comp was ordered to pay for all of the claimant’s medical expenses and 2/3 of his average weekly wage from 2008 until the final settlement order was entered this year.
During that time period, the Claimant recovered over $200,00.00 in wage and medical benefits and with the settlement, the Claimant’s total recovery was over $440,000.00.
After the claimant reached maximum medical improvement, his doctors opined that the Claimant would never work again and that he would have to treat his pain for the rest of his life. The Insurance Company denied that the Claimant was permanently disabled and claimed that he was able to do less strenuous work and earn a partial living. After a long mediation, the parties agreed to fully and finally settle the claim for $235,000.00.
Unfortunately, the Workers Compensation Act does not provide employees with compensation for the emotional loss caused by your injury or caused by the untimely death of your loved one.
Moreover, whenever workers’ compensation pays for injuries caused by a third party, it is entitled to reimbursement for what it paid. However, Brandon was able to negotiate a reduction in that reimbursement and the client only had to reimburse the workers’ compensation insurance carrier $213,000.
The personal injury case resolved at $500,000. So all put together, the client received $940,000 in recoveries for his injuries. After fees and lien reimbursements, the client received over $500,000 cash in his pocket in combined proceeds from the workers’ compensation benefits and the personal injury settlement proceeds.
If you’ve been injured at work by a third party, you need an attorney to represent you through the process because it can become very complicated. Give us a call for a free consultation.
The Virginia State Bar requires that we give a disclaimer whenever we talk about case results. As we are sure you already know, the case result described above must be read in context with the unique facts of this particular case. Each case result depends upon a variety of factors unique to each case, which is why we describe those facts in detail. To be clear, this case result does not guarantee or predict a similar result in any future case undertaken by the lawyers at Osterbind Law, PLLC.
