Blackrook
Diamond Member
- Jun 20, 2014
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12 things you need to know about the Prodigal Son
Have you ever met someone in so much pain that you had to step out of your normal role in life and reach out to them and try to give them comfort?
I was in that situation one day as I sat in my law office with a young Hispanic woman, she was in her young 20's and the look on her face was of tragedy and grief almost beyond consolation.
She was there to sign an affidavit that she did not have financial resources beyond the limits of a $50,000 per person/$100,000 per accident automobile policy. The reason she was signing this is because she had been involved in an automobile accident that had caused two vehicles with four elderly people to have a high-speed head-on collision, killing all four. And it had been determined that the accident was her fault.
She was not my client. The insurance company was my client and I was preparing the affidavit on their behalf, to protect THEM from the possibility that the plaintiffs would continue the lawsuit and expose the young lady to an excess verdict. When there is an excess verdict, there is a high likelihood that the insurance company will be forced to pay it, so there is an incentive to settle out of court. A deal had been struck that when the young lady signed the affidavit, the plaintiffs (relatives of the four decedents) would settle for policy limits and divvy up the $100,000 among them. And she would be left alone, not forced to pay anything beyond policy limits.
I typed up the affidavit, with her giving me her financial information to prove that she had no assets beyond the limits of the policy, no real estate, no stocks, no bonds. I did not owe this young lady anything in the way of legal advice, other than to take her information and to tell her where to sign on the form.
But I decided to go beyond my role as some other party's attorney requesting a stranger to sign a legal form. I asked her if she was Catholic, because most Hispanics are. She said, yes. So I told her something that I felt she desperately needed to hear. That God, no matter what any of us has done, loves us, and there is nothing, NOTHING, we can do to lose that love. And that God loves her, and forgives her, no matter what she has done.
She broke down and cried, and I hope that those tears sprang from hope rather than despair, and I think they did. It was all I could do. I don't think a person ever fully recovers from something like this. But I hope that where ever she is, she has taken these words to heart, and allowed God's love and forgiveness to fill her heart and heal her.
Have you ever met someone in so much pain that you had to step out of your normal role in life and reach out to them and try to give them comfort?
I was in that situation one day as I sat in my law office with a young Hispanic woman, she was in her young 20's and the look on her face was of tragedy and grief almost beyond consolation.
She was there to sign an affidavit that she did not have financial resources beyond the limits of a $50,000 per person/$100,000 per accident automobile policy. The reason she was signing this is because she had been involved in an automobile accident that had caused two vehicles with four elderly people to have a high-speed head-on collision, killing all four. And it had been determined that the accident was her fault.
She was not my client. The insurance company was my client and I was preparing the affidavit on their behalf, to protect THEM from the possibility that the plaintiffs would continue the lawsuit and expose the young lady to an excess verdict. When there is an excess verdict, there is a high likelihood that the insurance company will be forced to pay it, so there is an incentive to settle out of court. A deal had been struck that when the young lady signed the affidavit, the plaintiffs (relatives of the four decedents) would settle for policy limits and divvy up the $100,000 among them. And she would be left alone, not forced to pay anything beyond policy limits.
I typed up the affidavit, with her giving me her financial information to prove that she had no assets beyond the limits of the policy, no real estate, no stocks, no bonds. I did not owe this young lady anything in the way of legal advice, other than to take her information and to tell her where to sign on the form.
But I decided to go beyond my role as some other party's attorney requesting a stranger to sign a legal form. I asked her if she was Catholic, because most Hispanics are. She said, yes. So I told her something that I felt she desperately needed to hear. That God, no matter what any of us has done, loves us, and there is nothing, NOTHING, we can do to lose that love. And that God loves her, and forgives her, no matter what she has done.
She broke down and cried, and I hope that those tears sprang from hope rather than despair, and I think they did. It was all I could do. I don't think a person ever fully recovers from something like this. But I hope that where ever she is, she has taken these words to heart, and allowed God's love and forgiveness to fill her heart and heal her.
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