Uninsured Motorist Case And A Jury

Texas insurance lawyers will find this interesting.

A person finds early on when dealing with an insurance company that simply making complaints and contacting the Texas Department of Insurance is a waste of time and effort.

If you are an attorney representing someone injured in an automobile accident and the person who cause the wreck is uninsured and the person injured has uninsured motorist (UM) coverage with their auto insurance company and the company is refusing to compensate their customer, here is a sample opening statement when trying this case to a jury:

There us a crash. The innocent victim is hurt badly. The person who caused the crash either had no insurance or not nearly enough. The victim, planning for just this possibility, had paid her insurance company money for crash coverage that would protect her in this circumstance.
When a person pays for for (UM) coverage, the insurance company who takes the premium money from that person is responsible to pay money which the insured is legally entitled to recover from the person who caused the crash.
The appropriate Policy Page states it will protect the customer from the person who had little or no coverage.
A jury may be impaneled to tell the insurance company what they must pay. That jury is you.
When boiled down, you really are here to do just one thing – You are here to tell (name of company) to pay what the were paid to pay.
Now let me tell you the story of what happened in this case.
On (date and time) (client and her family) were in a crash.
A driver named (Dangerous) pulled out of a private drive in front of client causing a wreck.
The investigating police officer found Dangerous was responsible for the crash.
The pictures and testimony show the severity of the crash.
Client had an injured shoulder. Her treating physicians diagnosed her with (injury) and operated on her.
The company refused to pay what they were paid to pay in this case.
No one, not even the company, will disagree that this is what this case is about.
Your job is unique and not one that many people get to take part in.
Client paid premiums. They took money from their pockets, and put it into the company’s pocket, to protect them from UM drivers.
We have asked for a jury to determine what the company owes in this case.
(Company arguments).
(Discussion of client’s harms and losses.
So jury …, what can you do about it?