Let’s face it: getting injured is no walk in the park, and a lot of us who get injured due to someone else’s carelessness or negligence want the whole thing to be over so we can get on with our lives. Therefore, we breathe a sigh of relief when our attorney comes to us with a settlement agreement as it essentially signals light at the end of the tunnel.

That said, nothing is as it seems in the sometimes complex and murky world or personal injury law. If you’re dealing with a large corporation such as Walmart, Target, SC Johnson, Bayer or American Airlines to name a few, chances are their corporate structure might be created in such a way as to make smaller subsidiaries take the fall and that none of the legal liability falls on them in an effort to ensure they don’t pay out millions in settlements.

Therefore, the crafting of a settlement agreement in the context of an injury claim is something that must be taken seriously and done in a manner that is thorough and meticulous to avoid any irreversible missteps which may lead to your not receiving the compensation you deserve.

This phenomenon is known as the “unnamed plaintiff” where a settlement agreement inadvertently releases the defendant’s affiliates, parent companies, subsidiaries, and related entities, one of which may have been a culpable party with regard to your injuries. Read on to find out just exactly how we as a best nationwide injury law firm prevent this from happening, ensuring you get the maximum compensation possible.

Are you looking for the best injury lawyer? Please call us NOW at (314) 481-63338 to learn more about your legal options for justice and compensation. The experienced, countrywide personal injury attorneys at McCready Law have combined experience spanning over 90 years where we’ve helped tens of thousands of injured Americans from all corners of the country as well as from various socioeconomic backgrounds, helping them recover money damages after getting injured on account of the negligent actions of other individuals or large corporations.

To date, we have recovered over $260 million and counting for our clients, and our success is due to a number of factors such as personally handling all claims that come into the firm and not letting paralegals or inexperienced legal assistants work on them as seen in most law firms, our commitment in making sure that we put a capable and aggressive team for each claim made of physicians, investigators as well as industry-respected experts, as well as not being afraid to litigate claims in a court of law if we believe the client deserves maximum compensation based on their injuries or the actions of the defendant.

By contrast, most law firms simply engage insurance company representatives in settlement negotiations which may be fast but end in the injured party getting the short end of the stick via paltry payout. In addition to running a bilingual firm (hablamos Español), we have nationwide reach thanks to our trusted network of referral attorneys and law firms, and we take on all cases on contingency fee basis, which simply means that there are ZERO UPFRONT FEES for the duration of the processing of your claim, as we only levy our fees at the end of the suit, and only if we’ve recovered compensation on your behalf.

If you were in an auto accident, slipped and fell, got injured at work or at a retail store anywhere in the country, please call us NOW at (314) 481-63338 to learn more about your legal options for justice and compensation – our intake team is standing by.

Uncovering Hidden Figures – Don’t Sign That Settlement Agreement First

Litigation at its core involves power dynamics and the motivation for both defendants and plaintiff to achieve permanent resolution. Therefore, defendant want assurance that one they cut the settlement check, the matter is forever closed for all related parties. To this end, the at-fault counsel will draft an all-encompassing release agreement with catch-all language. If you approach this claim independently without legal counsel, you may not have full understanding of the implications of signing such a document, as you may assume the matter is straightforward – the defendant was the driver and that they must pay the damages you incurred.

However, everything is nuanced in the world of personal injury law, and the driver in this instance may be working for a large delivery company which in itself may be a subsidiary of a large logistic corporation with roots in 50 countries. If you sign a broad release, you could release all these parties and potentially miss out on compensation that could have been ten times what the original offer was after in-depth investigation.

How to Mitigate The Unnamed Plaintiff Conundrum in an Injury Claim

To prevent this, here is what McCready Law does the following:

Meticulous Review of Company Documentation

• We meticulously review existing case files during the discovery phase; this involves re-examining every piece of paper, email and transcript with a fresh pair of eyes in order to suss out any clues that may have been overlooked. This may reveal things like corporate records that provide a list of subsidiaries or a corporate family tree together with articles of incorporation or business licenses that name other countries.
• We also take a close look at business cards and email signatures to identify if there are individuals with different company names in their email signatures to unearth layers associated with the company at hand
• We will also examine invoices or contracts with third party vendors that may reveal the name of a parent company or affiliate
• Perhaps the most important assignment related to this documentation review lies in the examination of the defendant’s insurance policy where parent companies and subsidiaries are listed as a mandatory requirement which might unearth unwitting participants and shell companies to name but a few.

External Corporate Research

• We as a law firm perform independent research in state and federal corporate databases that are maintained by the Secretary of State to look up the defendant’s corporate filings where board members, parent companies, registered agents and so on are revealed.
• We also take a look at Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC filings where specific documents such as Form 10-K list all the company’s subsidiaries and reporting structure.
• If the company is substantial, we search industry and news reports such as business journals, trade publications, news archives and any articles about mergers and acquisitions to determine if there is a larger entity that holds significant liability

Best Nationwide Injury Attorneys – Call Us Today!

This post underscores the importance of timely legal representation even when your injury claim seems cut and dry; in the world of personal injury law, nothing ever is. If you were injured at a store, at a sporting event, at your apartment or rental property, during a medical procedure, on the road or anywhere else where you feel that nothing is as it seems with regard to defendant liability, please give us a call NOW at (314) 481-63338 to learn more about your legal options for justice and compensation. We take on cases nationwide and your first consultation is 100% FREE. Thanks for choosing McCready Law, and we look forward to helping you.