Bullitt jury awards $4.5 million in suit

LOUISVILLE -- A Bullitt County jury has ordered an insurance company to pay a young woman $4.5 million after its refusal to cover an insurance claim forced her parents to declare bankruptcy because of her medical bills.

The jury ruled recently that Cincinnati Insurance Co. violated the state's Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act, which governs how insurance companies do business, when it refused to pay for the girl's medical treatment after she was severely injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident in 2011.

Haley Belt of Louisville was 16 when she was injured at a party after the vehicle she was riding rolled on its side, crushing her leg, ankle and foot and stripping the skin and muscle from her leg.

She has had 13 surgeries to repair her leg -- which doctors once thought they would have to amputate -- and hip, said her lawyer, Jennifer Moore of Louisville. Moore said it's unclear if Belt will need additional surgeries.

Read more: http://www.paducahsun.com/news/kentucky/071316_PS_Jury_Awards-538347