There is value in reviewing vehicle accident cases in which insurance companies chose to make offers well below the sum ultimately recovered by the victim at trial. These cases illustrate the issues which may come into consideration when deciding on the offer and the factors that might influence the final outcome.

To illustrate, think about a situation in which a bicyclist was injured. The driver in this case was operating an SUV. The victim described seeing the driver come from the opposite direction then make a U-turn immediately in front of him giving him no time to stop his bicycle. This caused him to go over the hood of the vehicle. The plaintiff suffered from a wrist injury in which his cartilage was torn. Due to his injury he had issues when he returned to his job as a mechanic with a dealership of high-end vehicles. And a physician testified that the plaintiff's wrist will probably at some point have to be fused and that this will probably end his career as a mechanic. This would mean a loss of earning capacity.

The law firm that handled this personal injury case for the victim found that the driver was test-driving the SUV in an effort to be able to write an advertising review of the SUV for his employer.

The law firm announced that they instead took the lawsuit to trial and the jury awarded the victim $550,000.

Here we have a situation where fault was not an issue. What was in dispute was the value of the victim’s injuries. The insurer almost certainly viewed this claim as only involving a minor injury that resolved itself relatively fast. From this perspective an offer of $30,000 might appear reasonable.

The law firm that represented the bicyclist, on the other hand, understood that it was not that simple. This injury was one that was not resolved but instead one which left the plaintiff with a weakened wrist – a wrist that in time would require serious surgery after which the wrist would never be the same again. The law limited the amount of time the bicyclist had to pursue a lawsuit so he could not wait until the wrist failed him as by then it would be too late. Still the law did allow him to recover now for future consequences of the injury. This is how the law firm positioned the case on behalf of the plaintiff and the jury agreed.