It’s not very often that a car accident involves a hit and an ACTUAL run.  Unfortunately, in the summer of 2021, our client was the victim of exactly this.  She was stopped at a traffic light on Nolensville Pike in Nashville when her car was rear ended.  The negligent driver jumped out of his still moving car and ran away from the scene of the accident.  His car continued to roll and smashed into a tree past the intersection. satisfiedclient

A crash report was made, but the police were unable to track down the runaway driver.  Our client was in pain and didn’t know what to do.  Facing substantial medical bills, she called us.  After helping her understand how we could help her, she hired us to represent her.  

Weir & Kestner Injury Lawyers immediately began investigating the accident.  We confirmed this was a hit and run accident that triggered Tennessee’s uninsured motorist statute.  We then filed notice with her automobile insurance carrier asserting a compensable uninsured motorist (UM) claim.  We’ve written about UM claims before, which you can find here. 

In order to maximize our client’s injury claim, we filed a lawsuit against the negligent driver.  You may be thinking, how do you sue a defendant that ran away and can’t be found?  Tennessee’s UM law is quirky (as discussed here).  We filed a lawsuit against the unknown defendant using the name “John Doe” as the defendant and issued the court summons.  We directed the Davidson County Sheriff  to serve “John Doe”with the lawsuit.  Of course, unable to serve the unknown defendant, the sheriff returned the summons marked “no address listed.”  This is enough to constitute valid service under Tennessee UM law.  Now, our client’s UM insurance carrier had to defend the case.  

With the UM insurance carrier defending the case against her, Weir & Kestner Injury Lawyers aggressively executed a litigation strategy and prosecuted the claim to the fullest extent of the law.  Once our client recovered from her injuries we entered into negotiations with the UM carrier.  When the parties achieved a number that adequately compensated her we were able to resolve the case.