I was the personal injury lawyer for a woman who had been hit in the rear and suffered a severe knee injury, which necessitated surgery and physical therapy. The driver who hit her had a $100,000 limit insurance policy. My client’s medical bills alone were $30,000, so I was demanding the policy limits to settle her case.

The insurance adjustor was this tight ass bean counter, who wouldn’t offer more than $30,000. There was no reason for the lowball offer, other than she wanted to be a hero to her insurance company. I warned her if the jury returned a verdict over the policy limits, I would seek the full amount.

The defense lawyer was an unscrupulous sort, who got paid by the hour, and wanted to bill the file, to maximum effect. He requested depositions of every doctor my client had ever seen, not just the doctors who treated her knee. He even tried to subpoena her psychological records, to which I successfully objected. But he still deposed about 6 doctors, which you wouldn’t see happen, outside of a wrongful death case, or perhaps a complicated medical malpractice case.

I was furious with their BS, and determined to make them pay. The jury came back with a verdict for $140,000, and, as I warned the other side, I made them pay more than the policy limits. The insurance company had to cough it up, not their insured driver, because the insurance company put their insured at risk, by offering so little money, in bad faith.