Legal Question in Personal Injury in Pennsylvania

My wife was injured in a one-car accident where she was the passenger. The driver was severely intoxicated at the time and crashed the car at high speed into a grove of trees in a very secluded area. He took a cell phone out of her hands when she tried to call 911, and threw it into the bushes, then fled the scene, leaving her for dead. He apparently sobered up enough to temporarily grow a conscience, and returned to the scene with a friend (in a different car), pulled her out of the car, and dropped her at a hospital as a "Jane Doe."

Eventually, the police were called, and she remembered enough to tell them everything that had happened. (Of course, his first act with the police was to tell them that SHE was the driver...but when they found only his DNA on the driver's air bag, and hers was covered with her blood, it became clear and he was eventually charged for drunk driving, among other things...)

Once she was out of the hospital, she hired a personal injury attorney that filed a suit against the driver (or more accurately, his insurance company), which ultimately settled -- mostly for superficial injuries, fractures, etc.

Years later, she has a collection of chronic painful injuries that all stem back from that accident. Her attorney must have been desperate for a paycheck that year, because none of the settlement was for her head or back injuries, which have become debilitating now..

The question is this: can she sue the guy and/or his insurance company (again) for the other injuries which were never accounted for in the original settlement?

...or should we sue her personal injury attorney for legal malpractice? ...or both?

1 Answer from Attorneys

Related Questions & Answers

More Personal Injury Law and Tort Law questions and answers in Pennsylvania

Looking for something else?