We represented the wife and young daughter of a man who was killed while riding as a passenger in a drunk driver’s vehicle.
The vehicle ran off the road, overturned and collided with trees. Both the driver and passenger were not wearing seatbelts.
The driver was arrested and charged with; DUI, DUI manslaughter, reckless driving, felon in possession of a firearm, and failure to wear a seat belt.
We were able to avoid the defense of “assumption of the risk” and settle the case for the limits of our client’s underinsured motorist policy limits. In this case, neither the drunk driver nor the car (which belonged to his mom) had any insurance coverage. We accessed our client’s auto insurance policy and his parent’s policy (on which he was still a named insured). In Virginia, knowingly riding with a drunk driver can be a total bar to your recovery if you get injured because you have “assumed the risk” by getting into the car.
A portion of the proceeds of the settlement helped set up a college fund for his young daughter.
This case settled for:
