Attorney Amy M. Risseeuw presented a seminar to other local attorneys at the monthly meeting of the Outagamie County Bar Association yesterday. Attorney Risseeuw’s presentation, entitled the Low Impact Tool Kit, addressed personal injury cases involving car accidents with minimal property damage.

Insurance companies call these minimal property damage cases “low impact,” even though the amount of property damage has almost no scientific correlation to the impact or injuries a driver experiences. Low impact automobile collision cases have become a distinguishable subset of personal injury practice with its own set of challenges and defenses. As such, the defenses are often predictable and well-orchestrated through repeated use.

The main defense is to count on the jurors’ preconceived expectations that a car accident will involve completely crushed cars, broken windows, and spectacular crashes as seen on television. Most jurors have never been in a car accident and have no personal experience feeling the amount of force involved when two vehicles collide.

Through using the advice and tools Attorney Risseeuw presented, other attorneys can better explain to the court and jury the issues involved in many low impact crashes.