Davis Law Group, P.S., Announces American Family Insurance Ordered to Pay $1.2 Million to Brain Injury Victim after Denying Claim
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) October 28, 2013 -- Attorney Chris Davis of Seattle-based Davis Law Group, P.S., has announced that a near $1.2 Million arbitration award has been issued to a woman insured by American Family Mutual Insurance Company (Claim 00-331-005831) after the national insurance carrier denied the woman’s claim. The company’s policyholder, T.S., was injured in a motor vehicle collision in 2009, and was subsequently diagnosed with multiple physical injuries including a mild traumatic brain injury. According to legal documents, the victim’s medical expenses exceeded $100,000.
According to legal documents, T.S. purchased the American Family Insurance auto policy several years before the accident occurred. She had obtained coverage known as uninsured or underinsured motorist benefits, which is intended to protect individuals who have been harmed by other motorists. After the collision, T.S. could no longer work as a successful real estate agent earning more than $100,000 per year and also lost her personal home and rental property in foreclosure.
T.S. explained in the legal documents that she hired Davis Law Group when American Family allegedly started to treat her unfairly and allegedly attempted to terminate her benefits without cause. Legal documents show that American Family then denied the claim, and argued that T.S. merely had pre-existing psychological problems and not a brain injury, which Mr. Davis says was an egregious disservice to their own paying customer.
“This is a case where American Family treated its own policyholder unfairly and forced her to incur tens of thousands of dollars to recover insurance benefits that she was entitled to receive under a policy she purchased from this auto insurance carrier,” Davis said, referring to details of the legal documents regarding T.S.'s case. “The company basically accused her of lying and hired numerous experts to say that she was a dishonest person.”
Legal documents show that the company hired multiple doctors and other experts to help support its claim denial. The legal documents also show the plaintiff alleged that the company and its medical experts argued that T.S. was dishonest and making up her symptoms so that she could attempt to recover insurance benefits. American Family hired aggressive defense attorneys to assist it, which in turn took numerous depositions of T.S.’s co-workers and former supervisors. But in the legal claim, Davis alleges the company then hid those witnesses’ testimony from the company’s own experts in an effort to manipulate their opinions and testimony.
American Family denied the claim over a period lasting more than two years, according to the claim, and T.S. therefore incurred tens of thousands of dollars by litigating her claim and participating in a three-day arbitration which included the testimony of 15 experts, medical doctors, psychologists and other witnesses. According to the arbitration decision documents, the arbitrator awarded $1,186,988, which included more than $800,000 in lost income and earnings. T.S. was ably represented by Chris Davis and Greg Colburn of the Davis Law Group.
About Chris Davis
Christopher M. Davis, founder of the Davis Law Group, has been a licensed attorney in the state of Washington since 1993. He has tried dozens of personal injury cases to verdict and has successfully handled and resolved hundreds of accident claims. He has been a Washington ‘Super Lawyer' for seven years in a row for his expertise and success in litigating personal injury claims. You can learn more about the firm by visiting: http://www.DavisLawGroupSeattle.com.
Mischelle Davis, Davis Law Group, P.S., 206-727-4000, [email protected]
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