Running with the Bulls, David Ball on Damages, Help Trial Guides Reader Reach $15M Settlement
Trial Guides is thrilled to announce another exemplary outcome on behalf of Justin Lovely and his team at the Lovely Law Firm in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The team used lessons from Nick and Courtney Rowley's Running with the Bulls, David Ball’s David Ball on Damages (3rd ed.), and tips from numerous Trial Guides webinars to reach full justice for their client.
Plaintiff: Confidential
Defendant: Confidential
Plaintiff Attorneys: Justin Lovely, Sarah Austin, and Amy Lawrence
Injuries: Traumatic brain injury, brachial plexus injury, fractured C7 vertebra
County: Horry
Original offer: $50,000
Final Settlement: $15,000,000
Please note that this case has limited confidentiality. Any details that may identify the Plaintiff or the Defendant have been removed.
The Story
As the Plaintiff was driving home on his motorcycle, the Defendant property owner allowed a horse to get loose and wander onto the roadway. The Plaintiff struck the horse and suffered a traumatic brain injury, a brachial plexus injury, and a fractured C7 vertebra. The Plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the owner of the horse to cover the costs associated with this catastrophic injury.
Insurance Resistance
The Defendant, who was insured by a national insurance company, turned the complaint over to his insurance carrier. The national insurance carrier failed to defend their insured, and the Defendant failed to answer the complaint; as a result, the Defendant was held in default.
While disclaiming coverage, the Defendant’s counsel eventually approached the Plaintiff’s counsel to resolve the case within the Defendant’s homeowners insurance policy limits. The Plaintiff’s counsel, noting the severity of the injuries, declined to negotiate within the liability insurance policy limits. The Defendant then filed a motion to set aside the default, which was denied, and then a motion to reconsider—that was also denied.
Throughout the case, the national insurance carrier continuously disclaimed coverage and disputed bad faith for failing to defend the Defendant, hinging its position on a few sentences in a Reservation of Rights letter that was sent to the Defendant prior to his default. To add insult to injury, the Defendant’s counsel argued that since the Plaintiff is autistic his brain injury damages were not real or substantial.
Attempt at Mediation
The Defendant’s counsel then requested an early mediation, to which the Plaintiff agreed. The Plaintiff’s counsel sent an escalating settlement offer in advance of mediation. In the demand package, the Plaintiff team included a future cost projection prepared by Megha Rownd, visual animations, a day-in-the-life video, and data gathered from four separate focus groups.
Mediation failed when insurance money decision-makers dangled $1,500,000 in front of the Plaintiff. After the failed mediation, the Plaintiff’s counsel continued to prepare for a damages hearing and enlisted neuropsychologist Dr. Gordon Teichner and life care planner Lindsay Moore, PA-C, CLCP.
Final Settlement
Six weeks after the mediation, the national insurance carrier re-engaged the mediator to offer additional money. The Plaintiff rejected a $5,000,000 settlement offer and sent a final Tyger River settlement offer prior to the damages hearing. The national insurance company accepted the Plaintiff’s settlement offer and the case resolved for $15,000,000.
Trial Guides Titles in Action
Running with the Bulls: How to Win Top-Dollar Settlements
By Nicholas Rowley and Courtney Rowley
“Running with the Bulls has changed the way we practice law,” says Justin. “Understanding how to use our state's bad faith laws in our settlement opportunity letters is a game changer. We sent a new demand letter at each step in the representation when favorable facts came to light; when those demands went ignored, we sent an escalating Tyger River demand letter (named after our state’s seminal bad-faith ruling) that gave clear escalating deadlines and the subsequent price it would cost the insurance company to get out of this case. As we were preparing for trial, the family wanted to attempt to settle one last time due to the financial burden of the injuries.”
Running with the Bulls: How to Win Top-Dollar Settlements is available in paperback and ebook.
“We used Rowley’s methods with a ‘Pocket Demand’ that achieved the client’s goal while maintaining our escalating Tyger River bad faith leverage,” Justin continues. “Ultimately, these strategies brought the money decision-makers to the table.”
David Ball on Damages, 3rd Edition
By David Ball
“What was the value of this case in South Carolina, a notoriously conservative state? How were we going to overcome the judge and jury’s baked-in bias against motorcyclists? How could we structure the noneconomic damages so our judge could understand? We used the lessons from Damages to answer each of these questions,” explains Justin. We brought the case before a focus group four times, gathered feedback, and solved issues that were brought up by comparing [them] to the lessons in Damages. This process helped shape our mediation argument to trigger the insurance company to wake up and put real money on this case.”
David Ball on Damages is available in paperback and ebook.
Trial Guides Webinar Library
Justin and his team drew deeply from the lessons imparted in Trial Guides’ Video Products for Lawyers. “Trial Guides is always on the cutting-edge of plaintiff lawyer representation,” says Justin. “Our office maintains an always learning culture. There are always better ways of getting the job done for our clients and Trial Guides webinars give us the tools to fill that toolbox.”
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Get the Latest on Settlement from the Rowleys and More
Winning Settlements
By Abernethy, Aldous, Broussard, DeShaw, Fried, Kosieradzki, Leizerman, Malone, McGinn, Neff, Rowley, Rowley, Simpson, Stout, and Walker
Winning Settlements is available in paperback and ebook.
“Winning Settlements is a graduate course in the variety of approaches available to plaintiff lawyers interested in improving their negotiating skills. Some of the best lawyers in America share their strategies for obtaining the best possible results from settlement. Anyone who takes the time to read this book will become a better negotiator.”
—Rick Friedman, coauthor of Rules of the Road and past president of the Inner Circle of Advocates