How a Case Goes From $15,000 to $3 million.

"John was like an angel that flew out of the sky from Orange County. He was the hope that we needed." Debbie Prock

A nationally known motorcycle accident lawyer advised Mr. Rickey Prock to settle his very serious motorcycle accident case for $15,000. Rickey's sister immediately called Mr. Bisnar.

"Would you please talk to my brother? He is in a hospital in Sacramento about to lose his leg from a motorcycle accident and his attorney won't return his call. He desperately needs to talk to someone," his sister pleaded.

His sister explained that Rickey had been seriously injured in a motorcycle accident three days after his wedding, that his doctor wanted to amputate his leg and that his top notch motorcycle accident attorney told Rickey that his case was only worth $15,000. "He is desperate to talk to someone that can help him. He doesn't know how he is going to pay his medical bills or ever support his family. Please can you talk to him? His attorney won't return his call", she pleaded.

Knowing that such a discussion should be face to face rather than over the phone, Mr. Bisnar canceled the rest of his day and boarded the next flight to Sacramento. When Mr. Bisnar reached Rickey's hospital room, Rickey and his wife, Debbie, were in a panic. "How will we pay all these medical bills? Will we lose our home that we just went into escrow to purchase? How can this be," they asked?

Mr. Bisnar began asking Mr. and Mrs. Prock about what happened and what the motorcycle accident attorney had told them. They explained that Rickey was hit by a car while on his motorcycle in the course of running an errand for his employer. He had hired a nationally known motorcycle accident lawyer that they saw on television. The lawyer told them that the negligent driver's insurance limit was $15,000. The lawyer told them to take the $15,000 and hasn't returned a phone call since.

Mrs. Prock was crying and handed Mr. Bisnar the traffic collision report of Rickey's motorcycle accident. Mr. Bisnar looked over the report and asked a few questions.

Mr. Bisnar then explained to the Procks that since Rickey was technically "on the job" at the time of the motorcycle accident, all of Rickey"s medical bills would be paid by his employer's workers' compensation insurance. He explained that Rickey was entitled to temporary disability payments.

"What about the $15,000 settlement," they asked? Mr. Bisnar explained that if the negligent driver only had a $15,000 insurance policy and no one else was legally responsible for Rickey's injuries, than the lawyer is probably right, $15,000 is the best they can do.

Rickey asked to hire Mr. Bisnar, explaining that he had received more information from Mr. Bisnar about his circumstances, his rights, his options and the probable outcome of his case than he had received from his present lawyer after weeks of representation. Mr. Bisnar reluctantly agreed to represent the Procks but made it clear that there probably wasn't much he could do for them.

On his way back to the airport, Mr. Bisnar, armed with the traffic collision report, went to the scene of the motorcycle accident. He inspected the scene and the report together. "Why was a man in a Ford Taurus station wagon going across a major highway in the morning hours of a work day from a small shopping center to a beer bar," Mr. Bisnar asked himself? He had a hunch. Was the driver of the Ford a route salesman calling on his customers in the shopping center and the beer bar?

Within weeks Mr. Bisnar's investigator reported that the driver of the Ford was a route salesman. He sold products to a liquor store in the shopping center and to the beer bar that he was obviously going to at the time of the accident. Now the route salesman's employer, a national beer and snacks distributor was on the hook for Rickey's injuries.

Mr. Bisnar eventually settled Rickey's case for benefits totally well in excess of three million dollars. The Procks' paid off all their bills and purchased a home. They went on the honeymoon that never had. They then went back to focusing on fighting Debbie's cancer and taking care of her disabled son.

"John was like this angel that flew out of the sky from Orange County," Debbie says. "He was the hope that we needed."