Faced with an 85-year-old client with limited medical bills and no surgical procedures following a car accident, plaintiff attorney Peter Bowman decided to tell a story: the journey of plaintiff Inez Stewart, who found her life derailed after a May 2017 car crash.

Bowman, a partner with Stratford-based Billings, Barrett & Bowman, said his strategy was a simple one: Let Stewart tell her story in her own words.

It's not a technique all attorneys use, but Bowman said it paid off in the Hartford Superior Court lawsuit filed in March 2019.

The insurance carrier doubled its $50,000 offer and settled the case for $100,000 on Feb. 14.

"The videotape was so, so important," Bowman said Thursday. "Here was an active woman, even though she was 85 years old, whose activities lessened after the accident and because of the accident. The videotape really took us over the top."

Stewart, Bowman said, spoke on the tape about her life after the two-car accident in West Hartford and how it's changed. Those changes, Bowman said, included her talking about the "difficulty she now had getting to church, getting in and out of cars, and getting onto the senior transportation bus."

Bowman continued: "She expressed herself in her own terms. The video showed her using a cane, because of the accident. It humanized her story. Having the insurance company see the video increased the value of our case."

Another obstacle: his client's advanced age.

"She had no surgeries, her medical bills were only $26,614 and her life expectancy was only a few years," Bowman said. "Insurance companies are running off actuarial tables, and historically pay less if the client is older."

Stewart, who was wearing a seat belt, was a passenger in a Honda Accord that her daughter Faith was driving. Her complaint alleges a Chevrolet Impala that William Canora was driving T-boned the Stewart vehicle. Canora was issued an infraction for failure to yield.

Stewart is a Bloomfield resident. She suffered a left knee fracture and strained her neck and back.

"My client lives alone," Bowman said. "She is able to function but is limited on where she can travel." The settlement money, Bowman said, was disbursed Thursday.

Canora's attorney, Harold St. Juste of the Law Offices of Cynthia M. Garraty in Hartford, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. But court pleadings show the defense denied liability, and left it to the plaintiff to prove its case.

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