The popular Detroit Lions football player was enjoying some "off" time during his recent two (2) game suspension for allegedly kicking a player while he was down and now has jumped right into personal injury law.
Apparently this past weekend in Portland, Oregon, a boy named "Suh" was driving his 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle muscle car when suddenly and without warning he lost control and ran into an inanimate object. Several reports are now indicating that Mr. Suh had two passengers in the car that incurred injuries as a result of the motor vehicle collision.
As I tell my clients, there are always two (2) hurdles to jump in any personal injury case: 1) Who is at fault? and 2) How much is it worth? There are many other factors in summing up those two items and the more information that can be garnered by other parties, ie witnesses, medical professionals, responding police officers, video footage, and pictures, to strengthen your case.
Some reports have Mr. Suh indicating all parties are fine, while other reports have the two female passengers saying they have lacerations, contusions, and other such upper and lower extremity complaints. Mr. Suh says he was trying to pass a taxi and the passengers’ version says he was just driving too fast for conditions.
The first hurdle is most likely an easy hurdle in the above story. Mr. Suh was the driver of the car and through his driving it ended up colliding with a stationary object not in the roadway.
Hurdle #1 check.
The second hurdle is going to be harder because of the general nature of the parties, popularity of the driver, and social bias thanks to mass insurance and chamber marketing.
- You will have those naysayers that will refute those women were ever even in the car regardless of what facts come out;
- You will have others say, the female passengers are just trying to get money because they were in the car with a professional athlete; and
- You will have those others that believe those two women were in the car at the time, probably got banged up from the impact of an old 1970 Chevrolet with little safety features but will minimize their injuries because they believe the women should not have been out past midnight and/or should not have fled the scene without seeking assistance.
See how quickly one simple set of facts that only three (3) potential people know the real truth to can get twisted? Mr. Suh’s will be more memorialized because of his 911 recorded statement. The other passengers have no record other then what they say that they were at the scene. Just because this case has become famous for the party that wrecked, don’t think this scenario doesn’t happen every weekend in your own county.
Be smart if you are in a collision and/or harmed by the negligence, ignorance, and/or omissions of others. Don’t think some insurance adjuster for the at fault party is going to believe you because you are you. They don’t care. Frankly neither does that jury of your peers. They care when they realize it could have just as easily happened to them.
Don’t say it, show it. Document it. Picture it. Text it. Friend it. Tweet it. Email it. Link it in.
RELATED STORIES: