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In a nightmare situation for any parent, our clients’ child was hit by a car.  Their seven-year-old boy was playing outside with friends and attempted to cross the street when he was struck by an approaching vehicle.  He suffered significant injuries, including a concussion, fractured fingers, and lacerations to his hand and abdomen.  The driver denied liability for the accident, claiming that she could not see him run out from behind another vehicle parked on the curb.  To make matters worse, the young driver only had $25,000 in car insurance liability coverage for personal injury claims.

Thankfully, our clients had purchased a Supplemental Underinsured Motorist (“SUM”) coverage as part of their own package of car insurance.  SUM coverage will compensate you if you are injured in a car accident by a person that does not have enough liability insurance coverage to adequately compensate you or your family for injuries.  Following an extensive factual investigation by our office, we discovered that the driver ignored neighborhood signs warning of children playing in the area.  We were also able to allege that the driver may have been distracted and talking on her cell phone at the time of the accident.  Neighbors also accused her of trying to flee the scene following the collision.  A search of her driving abstract revealed a history of accidents and other reckless driving allegations.

After treatment for his injuries, the child’s fractured fingers fully healed.  His lacerations resulted in minimal scarring, and he no longer requires follow-up care for his post-concussion syndrome.  Overall, he made an excellent recovery and is doing very well in school.  However, the incident was still a traumatic experience for the child and his family.  After recovering the full $25,000 from the driver’s insurance policy, Peter J. Gregory negotiated an additional $225,000 payment from the parents’ SUM policy on the eve of an arbitration hearing for the claim, resulting in a $250,000 total settlement for the child.  Per New York rules regarding the settlement of personal injury claims involving minor children, the proceeds were placed into an annuity for the benefit of the child, and the funds can be used to pay for college tuition and other living expenses after he turns eighteen years old.

For more information about SUM coverage or our firm’s representation of those seriously injured by the negligence of others, please contact one of our personal injury attorneys.

This publication is intended as an information source for clients, prospective clients, and colleagues and constitutes attorney advertising. The content should not be considered legal advice and readers should not act upon information in this publication without individualized professional counsel.

About MCCM

McConville Considine Cooman & Morin, P.C. is a full-service law firm based in Rochester, New York, providing high-quality legal services to businesses and individuals since 1979.  With over a dozen attorneys and a full paralegal support staff, the firm is well-positioned to right-size services tailored to each client. We are large enough to provide expertise in a broad range of practice areas, yet small enough to devote prompt, personal attention to our clients.

We represent a diverse range of clients located throughout New York State and New England.  They include individuals, numerous manufacturing and service industry businesses, local governments, and health care professionals, provider groups, facilities and associations. We also serve as local counsel to out-of-state clients and their attorneys who have litigation pending in Western New York courts.  For more information, please contact us at 585.546.2500.