Practice Areas

The Three-Legged-Stool Test for Your Personal Injury Claim

We view each potential case like a three-legged stool-each case must have all three legs in order to stand on its own. If any of the three legs are missing, then the stool falls and you don't have a case. Those three legs, broadly stated, are liability, damages and insurance. Your case must have all three or we cannot accept it.

LEG ONE-LIABILITY: The other party must be primarily at fault.

We prefer to work on cases where it is obvious that the potential defendant is clearly 100 percent responsible for causing your accident, but that's just not always the case. We're used to hearing insurance company lawyers try to blame our clients for everything. We look at each case and evaluate whom a jury will think caused the accident. If we decide the jury will probably find the potential defendant (not you) all or mostly at fault, then this part of the test is met.

LEG TWO-DAMAGES: You must be injured!

We won't take your case if your injuries are very minor. There are only so many hours in the day and if we accepted all minor-injury cases, then we wouldn't have time to work on the cases of seriously injured people. It's hard to define "minor" injuries and there's really no clear-cut definition. A general rule is if you don't seek any medical treatment soon after your accident or just go to your doctor once or twice, then you don't have serious enough damages to hire me. However, if your total medical expenses are-or are anticipated to be-more than $5,000, then in our opinion you have sufficient damages to pursue an injury claim.

LEG THREE-INSURANCE: There must be available insurance.

As a general rule, we don't make claims against individuals for injuries that result from actions which are not covered by liability insurance. For example, most intentional acts are not covered by insurance. If you get beat up (an intentional act) by your neighbor for mowing your yard too early on a Saturday morning, then there's nothing we can do for you. We work off a contingent fee which means our firm only gets paid if and when we get our clients money. So suing your hot-headed neighbor for his intentional act is not in our law firm's best interest. We just don't do that.

Note: Sometimes there are ways we can help even when the other side does not have insurance. For example, if you're in a car accident and the other driver who is at fault doesn't carry valid insurance and you have uninsured motorists coverage (which we strongly recommend you carry), then that coverage can compensate you. These are very common types of claims and we handle them all the time. However, please don't think that just because you'll be making a claim against your own insurance company that it will treat you fairly. Unfortunately, you'll be treated just like any other person who makes a claim-even though you have paid insurance premiums to your insurance company year after year.

Sometimes we see situations where the potential defendant is a corporate entity or the at-fault person was working for a business entity at the time of the accident. In such situations, the general rule of requiring liability insurance does not apply. Certainly if the corporate defendant has enough funds, we will pursue a claim against them directly. It's just that we don't pursue claims against individuals who fail to carry liability insurance.

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If you think your case meets our Three-Legged Stool criteria, please call the Anderson Law Firm at 817-294-1900 or contact us online.