My name is Mike Kessler. In June 2010, when I was 70 years old, I was driving my Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Dewey, Arizona, when a pickup truck towing a car downhill lost control, through a yield sign, came into the intersections fast, and forced me to drive off the road to avoid being hit. I flipped over the handlebars, landed on my back, and the Harley came down on my chest.
Sherrif’s Deputies investigated, did a minimal report, and did not even cite the other driver, even though he admitted to them that he did not stop for the yield sign. There were no eyewitnesses to the crash itself, just someone who looked when he heard the crash.
I felt hurt, not too bad. I refused the ambulance and ER. I didn’t see any doctor for any crash injuries for about a week to ten days.
I hired a lawyer in Prescott Valley. He worked on my case for a while and then handed it back to me, saying there were “too many problems with it”. I had a 2007 low back surgery involving laminectomy and fusion at two levels. Three of my treating doctors later told me that they could not support my claim for the crash making my low back arthritis or pain worse because my pain is similar to the arthritic pain to be expected after my 2007 surgery.
I did not learn until nearly 16 months after the accident date, when I went into the hospital for something else, that I had an unhealed wrist (scaphoid bone) fracture. I told my hospital orthopedic surgeon that I was thinking my wrist pain was just from arthritis, and I had been taking Alieve for it. This doctor said that the crash was the most likely cause of my wrist fracture.
I saw Chris Jensen at Law Day in Prescott Valley, where he was acting as a volunteer lawyer. I asked him about what I need to do to represent myself in this case. He gave me some helpful information, but told me I had a difficult case.
I contacted Chris Jensen again about three weeks before the statute of limitations deadline, asking him to represent me.
Jensen Law Firm filed a lawsuit for me. Chris Jensen was able to get additional evidence from my orthopedic surgeon to support that the motorcycle crash caused my wrist injury after the other driver’s insurance company started fighting my claim because the other driver denied failing to yield, my gaps in and lack of treatment, delay in finding the wrist fracture, etc.
I am very happy with the coverage-limits recovery I got. I recommend Jensen Law Firm for any type of auto crash case — they are the best.
Michael Kessler – 08/30/12