Legal Question in Personal Injury in Louisiana

Low offer for permanent injury

First I want to let you know that I do have an attorney! But, I am very upset that after 17 months of severe pain, documented permanent disability of 20-30% by three doctors and P.T. that the insurance company, through their local attorney, offered me only $25,000, which barely covers by medical expenses, not to mention future loss of earnings and future medical bills. I slipped on an unsafe o/s dept. store floor (Ca. based Co.) and have suffered extreme complications of fractured wrist, healed odd angle and RSD, etc. Why do you think the offer is so low and where do I go from here? Is my attorney at fault? Answers, or suggestions, would be appreciated.

Pretrial date Feb. 1998. They say they don't want to go to Court!


Asked on 12/20/97, 8:56 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

William Marvin Cohen, Placitella & Roth, P.C.

Low offer in Louisiana

I CERTAINLY don't think that the low offer can be blamed on your attorney! It's not at all unusual for the insurance companies for habitual defendants to "lowball", sometimes right up to the brink of trial. Very often they don't get serious until you're "at the courthouse steps."

So you should have confidence in your attorney as long as he/she communicates well with you and seems to know what he/she is doing.

Also, you have to be aware that in a slip and fall case, liability is always a significant issue. The company is not going to pay full value on a case when it knows that it might win if it goes to trial. I have no idea about the law in your state on slip and fall cases, but usually the plaintiff has to show that there was a defect, that the store should have known about it, and should have fixed it, AND that the plaintiff was using reasonable care in watching and walking. Those can all be tough issues.

The above does not constitute legal opinion and is offered for the purposes of discussion only. The law differs in every jurisdiction, and you should not rely on any opinion except that of an attorney you have retained, who has a professional duty to advise you after being fully informed of all the pertinent facts and who is familiar with the applicable law.

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Answered on 12/22/97, 10:34 am


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