The song that never ends

Jax Beach 1May13

Those of you who read regularly know that T1 is being sued due to an auto accident he had almost two years ago (Oct '11).    In that time the driver of the other car settled with our insurance company but the passenger has not.  

For those new to the story, T1 ran a stop sign in Jacksonville.   A small car coming  through the intersection hit him hard enough to drag his '95 Park Avenue across the intersection and into a ditch (his car was totalled).   T1 did not see the stop sign (no excuse!) which was partially (but not totally) obscured by hanging branches.  

There is no doubt in my mind that T1 caused the accident or that the other driver was speeding.   Arguably, the passenger of the other car was the only one involved who was blameless.   However, despite injuries whose only medical treatment was four months of massage therapy, she is holding out for an obscene amount of money.

A couple of weeks after T1's accident I was rear ended while stopped at a red light.   "I am so sorry!  I did not expect you to stop at the red", these were the first words I heard from the young man who hit me.    I was dazed and my head hurt when the EMT's arrived.   I think the kid was more scared than I was when they strapped me to a back board and took me to the hospital (nothing broken just bruises and a concussion).   Within a couple of days, his insurance company contacted me and offered me money not to sue (over simplification but accurate).   My first question was "You want to give me money not to do something I was not going to do anyway?".   My brother says that I have shut up and taken the money.   You know what?   That is just not me.   Yes, we are having financial problems, BUT, Hubby has a good job, our problems are of our own making (whose aren't?), and we are blessed with adequate health insurance.   It took literally months for the nice insurance man to get me to take a minimal amount of money (the guys was really persistent).   I am not a saint.   If my injuries had been worse or my recovery longer, I would have happily fought for what I deserved.   But they were not (thank heavens) and it is not in me to be unnecessarily litigious.   As a mom, and as someone who believes in doing the right thing just because it is the right thing, I am disgusted with this woman's demands.

We went to mediation today.   Nothing was settled.   I was so hoping that this would be the end.   Now it looks like we may go to court in October.

P.S.  Since the only photos I could have taken today would have been of our lawyer, insurance adjuster, T1 and myself sitting at a conference table drinking bottled water and munching on chips, I leave you with another shot taken on the beach last week.   It's pretty where we live.