South Florida Injury Attorney Blog

A truck driver left quadriplegic by a hit-and-run accident successfully sued his insurance company for denying coverage, the Miami Herald reported June 24. Derry Brown, 64, lost the use of both arms and legs in an accident caused by a driver who ran a stop sign. When he made a claim on his trucking insurance for the cost of his subsequent medical treatment, the company denied uninsured-motorist benefits. Unable to work and with hundreds of thousands in medical bills and growing, Brown sued, and a Broward County jury awarded him $14.6 million in unpaid benefits.

According to the Herald, Brown was hauling a load of sugar through Palm Beach County when the other driver cut him off by running a stop sign. He swerved to avoid an accident that, his lawyer said, would almost certainly have killed the driver in the other vehicle -- a claim that I, as a Davie trucking accident attorney find all too easy to believe. The other driver left the scene. However, the swerve overturned the truck, leaving Brown with spinal cord damage that paralyzed him below the neck. The accident happened May 31, 2007, but he is still undergoing treatment and rehabilitation at the Florida Institute for Neurological Rehabilitation in Wachula.

Unfortunately, the article doesn’t go into details about why the insurance company denied benefits. However, my experience as a Davie tractor-trailer accident lawyer is that insurance companies don’t like to pay any uninsured motorist claim they can avoid paying. And in many cases, they believe they can avoid paying simply by finding technicalities allowing them to argue that the accident isn’t covered. These practices aren’t just unfair to injured motorists -- they are illegal and a violation of the insurer’s own contract. Unfortunately, to enforce their rights, motorists like Brown sometimes have no choice but to file a Hialeah semi truck accident lawsuit to recover the money they’re legally entitled to -- and, indeed, have already paid years of premiums for.