Our client was driving home on an ordinary evening when they were struck by a driver who, it turned out, was significantly over the legal blood-alcohol limit. The impact was serious. The client was transported by ambulance. What followed — the months of treatment, the adjuster calls, the insurance paperwork — is a familiar story for anyone who has been on the wrong end of someone else's bad decision.
Why drunk driving cases look simple and aren't.
On paper, a DUI case looks like easy liability. Police report, breath test, charges filed — the other side's fault is usually not in dispute. But insurance carriers still fight hard on the value of the claim. They argue the injuries were minor. They argue the client had pre-existing conditions. They argue the treatment was excessive. They offer a fraction of what the case is actually worth and hope the client gets tired and signs.
The early offer in our client's case was a small fraction of the available policy. An unrepresented claimant, frightened by medical bills and exhausted by the process, might have taken it. Our client had us.
What we did.
The first move was to send a letter of representation so the adjuster stopped calling our client directly. The second was to collect every piece of relevant evidence — the police report, the BAC test results, the emergency department records, the imaging, the physical therapy notes, the follow-up with specialists. We tracked wage loss documentation from the client's employer and we documented every missed day of work, every co-pay, every prescription.
When the client's doctors agreed they had reached maximum medical improvement, we assembled a demand package that laid the entire case out: the liability evidence, the full medical record with bills, the lost wages, the pain-and-suffering testimony, and a clear number. We sent it to the carrier.
"Insurance companies move on cases that are organized, documented, and backed by a lawyer willing to file suit. Our job is to make sure every file we send is all three."
The negotiation.
The first counter-offer from the carrier was meaningfully higher than the initial offer but still well below what we believed the case was worth. We responded with a detailed breakdown of why. We pointed to the categorical aggravating facts — the impaired driving, the emergency transport, the specialist care — and explained that we were prepared to file suit if the carrier wasn't prepared to move.
Several rounds later, the carrier came to the number. $150,000, representing a full recovery under the applicable policy. The case settled without litigation, which meant the client didn't have to endure a deposition or testify at trial. They got what they were owed and they got it faster than if we'd had to file.
Why this matters.
A drunk-driving victim who hires counsel is not being greedy — they're being realistic. Insurance carriers price their offers to represented claimants differently because the cases are better organized, better documented, and ultimately more expensive to fight. On similar-severity cases, represented claimants tend to recover meaningfully more than unrepresented ones, even after attorney fees. That's not our claim; that's the carriers' own data.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is different and must be evaluated on its own facts.