You have just been handed a file by a senior partner at the firm who asks you to finish negotiating what appears to be an ordinary car accident personal injury case. Your client suffered a broken femur but, fortunately, made a decent recovery. You review the file and learn the client had a dash-cam in his car which recorded the entire event. The video is on a disc in the file, so you load it on your computer only to find the video clearly shows your client’s light was red at the time of the accident. The insurance adjuster has already made a significant offer which will cover your client’s medical bills and, after your fees and costs, provide him with a little bit of money for pain and suffering as well. You are operating in what is known as a pure contributory negligence state, which means that if your client is partly at fault and that fault was a reason the accident happened, then your client loses.
What do you do from here and why?
