Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

Or, Revenge of the Wrongfully Accused

Actually, there may have been another reason or two why the hot dog plaintiff lawyer on the Mississippi Gulf Coast called me the "dragon lady" other than the fact that I refused to fork over policy limits on every insured the first time he came calling about his client "victims" in the claims office in Biloxi. (See last post.)

One time I was taking a lengthy recorded statement by telephone from one of his "personal injury" clients who was in his office when I couldn't help myself and burst out laughing while the guy was telling me his tale of woe history.

I didn't believe the guy to begin with as my insured, a sweet 80 something year old insured, had absolutely no damage to his car. Not a scratch! What happened was the "victim" was in front of my insured at a stop sign in old town Biloxi. The "victim" stopped and then started to go again when suddenly, and without warning, he came to a complete stop again.

Of course, my poor little fella thought the guy was going to keep going and barely tapped the guy's back bumper. The speed limit along there was 20 mph, after all. I felt like the whole thing was a setup, although I couldn't prove it.

But, the other guy claimed he was fairly seriously injured. His back and neck, of course. I'm sorry. I had no sympathy. My insured was about as gentle and humble and cautious as anyone could be. Plus, his vehicle didn't have even a scratch, as I said. But, it was my obligation and duty to track down all of the evidence I could in proceeding with the claim.

Well - the taped interview was going fine until the moment when the guy started telling me about how he'd previously been seriously injured in an accident on a nearby Air Force base when an ice cube, mind you, flew out of a vending machine hitting him in the forehead and knocking him out!

Somehow, it struck me as ludicrous, to say the least, and I completely cracked up. I couldn't help myself. I mean, what was I supposed to do.

I finally regained my composure and finished the interview, but I don't think Mr. Hot Dog lawyer was too happy with me.

He'd pulled his share of stunts too, though. Besides calling me the dragon lady.

One auto accident I investigated occurred on the main thoroughfare right in front of Hot Dog's office involving three autos. Our insured was in the middle auto, so liability was questionable without further investigation.

But, when the accident happened, Hot Dog rapidly sent his secretary out to hand out his business cards to all involved to make sure he got a cut of the action.

I mean, there's low and then there's low. It was all just a game to these guys.

But, back to the dragon lady revenge.

Shortly after I found out Hot Dog called me the dragon lady, he called me up on a two car accident involving our Vietnamese guy who barely hit the rear end of Hot Dog's new client at a stop light. The client was hurt. Hot Dog called me up. He demanded policy limits immediately, being in true form, figuring that policy limits for liability were the minimum in Mississippi, 10/20/10. (That is $10,000 per person, $20,000 per accident for all people hurt and $10,000 limits for property damage. That composed a large majority of the claims I handled.)

I had not yet been able to determine what coverage my insured had, as he was from Canada and had obtained his auto insurance there. But, of course, I immediately rejected Hot Dog's demand, telling him I was still investigating the claim.

I had to call an insurance representative in a different time zone in Canada and leave several messages before I was finally able to get in touch with him to determine the insured's coverage and policy limits. I was stunned. In Canada, the minimum limits for auto insurance for liability were $1,000,000!!!

One million! Good grief!

Under Mississippi law at that time, we, as the insurance company, were not obligated by law to divulge insurance policy limits to plaintiff attorneys, nor to anyone. So, Hot Dog had no way of knowing this vital fact about my insured - that he, incredibly, had a $1,000,000 personal injury liability policy. And, man, I didn't want him to know or to find out, either. No way.

So, I kept that little secret to myself as I worked the claim and dealt on a continuing basis with Hot Dog about his client's claims. The guy did seem to be slightly hurt, sought medical treatment and went for physical therapy for a little while. It wasn't a serious injury, thank goodness, but our insured was at fault and we owed him some money.

Hot Dog, for once, got all of his medical information and documentation together and to me. So, I called him up when I'd gotten it and started negotiating with him to settle the claim.

He, of course, was working in the range of a good bit less than $10,000 to settle his client's claim, with his 1/3 cut coming out of it, naturally. And, the claim was truly worth considerably less than that. But, wow, was I ever glad Hot Dog didn't know the true policy limits.

We would have been talking about a completely different ball game. I negotiated in good faith and settled the claim, finally, after much dickering back and forth, for an amount we both agreed on and I wrote out a check made out to both Hot Dog and his client.

But, I'll have to tell you - when I hung up the phone after talking with him, I laughed my head off about the $1,000,000 because I knew good and well if he'd had even a clue that Canada's minimum vehicular policy limits for liability insurance were $1,000,000, not $10,000, he would have been demanding way more than he did and would have been bussing potential clients up there by the dozens just to see if they could get themselves injured in some accidents.

The dragon lady had gotten her revenge, and he never knew it. But, I did - and that was all that mattered!

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