We did tons of things wrong if we were trying to get rich off this. For starters, we hired a nice lawyer (who is a friend) who wasn't extremely experienced at this. Also, like me, my wife is a "get-out-of-bed-and-go-to-work-unless-you're-dead" person just like me. (She is a teacher, and was walking across a parking lot to attend her student's lacrosse game). This happened on a Tuesday. She went to work on Friday with a sore, bruised body, bandages on the back of her head, and new hearing aids in place. I'm sure AulStayt knows that ("see, she wasn't injured at all!!!")
We actually ended up with a pile of loot out of this. Our "nice" lawyer turned out to be pretty tough.
It's not in my nature to take money for nothing. I work about 70 hours a week and have a very strong work ethic. But some mitigating factors have given me peace with it (LOL, peace with being given money).
In my view, the insurance industry has instituted a major scam with this no-fault insurance, which allows them to largely ignore the damage their customers have caused and that they are supposed to be liable for. There is no longer any mechanism or incentive for them to provide the compensation that they are contracted to provide, unless the customer goes to great lengths to force them to.
Unless I had spent three (edited: it was three years, not two) years fighting them, Schmawlstate would have paid exactly zero dollars for what their driver accidentally did, and they are contractually obligated to provide compensation for,
even though they have accepted his premiums and counted that money for decades. That is criminal to me.
They were happy to pretend that my wife's immediate hearing loss had nothing to do with their customer's truck knocking her down, causing her head to slam onto the asphalt. They are lying sacks for that, and I was determined not to let them get away with it
Also, my own company pretended that they were going to pay 95% (or something like that) of our bills. But in practice, they meant 95% of the discounted rates that medical providers charge them. When the portion of the unpaid bills were sent directly to us, they were not at the discounted rate. So we paid a ton of money for those.
I mean no disrespect to any of you who work in the insurance industry. I work in pharmaceutical research, another maligned industry, and I know how it feels to get bashed like this. It's not personal.
ETA: in the beginning we said that if they paid our bills, and bought the expensive hearing aids needed so my wife (who also has a strong work ethic) could work and live as best she could with this new disability, we would settle for that. But they gambled that we would give up, and said "No."
So, I think the fat lady has sung on this one...
