In January of 2005 my girlfriend was sitting in a car at a traffic light waiting for the light to change when an incompetent old driver suddenly drove violently into the side of her car. Her collarbone was broken and ribs were fractured. The new...
Read MoreIn January of 2005 my girlfriend was sitting in a car at a traffic light waiting for the light to change when an incompetent old driver suddenly drove violently into the side of her car. Her collarbone was broken and ribs were fractured. The new BMW that I had recently bought for her had $20,000 worth of damage. The old lady 100% responsible had only the very minimum amount of insurance legally required and no assets at all.
The owner of the body shop to which the car was towed said to me, You need a really tough New York-type lawyer to represent you on this, and he gave me the name of Doug Levy. Who actually is from New York.
A few days later my bandaged-up girlfriend and I were in Doug's office -- and the hospital ER had already had THEIR lawyer file a $4000 lien against my friend. Doug and his assistant chatted with us for at least an hour, getting to know us, our backgrounds and personalities, and telling us about their firm and how they did business.
He then said, after he got the full details of the accident, and the fact that MY policy on the car fortunately had $250,000 worth of "under-insured motorist" on it, "Hayford, in Tucson, a broken clavicle like this is worth about $40,000. You are obviously intelligent enough to handle this by yourself. Take your legal pad and I will tell you all the steps you need to take to get that $40,000 and that's all you have to do. This consultation is absolutely free." He began to tell me what to do -- and after a while I stopped him and said, "No, Doug, YOU go ahead and do it. I will be happy to pay you the 33% of the recovered money." He said again that I was throwing money away, but I insisted. So he took the case.
And I am SO glad that I did!
My girlfriend ended up having $55,000 worth of medical bills, which I paid for out of pocket, with CASH, while Doug began to put together a voluminous file about case. We consulted practically daily by email or phone for the next TWO YEARS about this. He was doubtful that he would get my insurance company, who had brought THEIR very top lawyer into the case, to agree to arbitration, which was what Doug wanted, rather than going to trial, which, in his judgment, would not have been as favorable to us. Eventually he did a deal with the other lawyer: if we agreed that an arbitrator could NOT give a judgment more than $250,000, then we would have it arbitrated. Eventually, with STILL more paperwork by Doug, AND rounding up witnesses to testify in our behalf, we went to arbitration in August of 2007 and got a decision a couple of months later.
The arbitrator awarded us $190,000. This was less than we had hoped for, BUT more than Doug himself thought, from his long experience, that we would normally get. So everything ended about as well as could be expected. And I will say that Doug Levy is certainly the best lawyer in Tucson to deal with any case of this nature.
Period.
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