Judy Skipper calls her connection with attorney John Rogers "a blessing"

As we set up for our interview today, Judy Skipper is the life of the party – smiling, laughing, cracking jokes and just making everyone feel at ease. She has an infectious personality and it’s hard to imagine her being ruffled by much of anything. However, Judy remembers a time when she wasn’t so sure of herself and she needed a friend to rely on during a difficult time.

The Accident

On September 29, 2015, Judy had just reached the top of a hill on Highway 90 in Crestview when she noticed another car approaching in her lane. She had been worrying about personal issues (her husband had passed away just eight days before) when the peculiar sight of the oncoming car snapped her back to the present. She thought “he’s playing chicken with me,” and frantically swerved to the left in a desperate attempt to avoid a collision. To her surprise the other driver swerved as well – directly into her path. She remembers the crash in snapshots – she gripped the steering wheel, braced for impact, and felt each slam as the car flipped before it finally came to rest.

Judy remembers trying to keep her composure during the helicopter ride to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola and the painful days of recovery from broken ribs, a partially collapsed right lung, and a lacerated liver. As she lay in her hospital bed wondering what her next move would be, she received a call from her insurance adjuster. He needed her to make decisions about what to do with her vehicle. That call was the tipping point for her. Judy says, “I was vulnerable. I had no one to take care of the paperwork, nobody to pick up the pieces except me.” She knew she needed someone to step in and take the wheel. The first name that came to mind was Michles & Booth. She remembered seeing their office in Crestview and asked her daughter to call.

Getting The Help She Needed

Judy is a woman of strong faith and she believes that something like “divine intervention” led her to call us for help. Attorney John Rogers came to Sacred Heart Hospital to meet with her personally at her bedside and offer the legal advice she so badly needed. At a time when she was facing so many questions and felt completely overwhelmed, she was searching for a caring person to reassure her.

Today, when she sees John again for the first time in a few months, they both offer each other a warm hug, many smiles, and a couple of laughs. It’s like watching old friends meet. Judy can’t offer enough praise of John’s kindness and understanding, saying that “he gave me his ear at a time that I needed someone to listen to me”. He offered compassion. She recalls twice when she was “having a really bad day” and just “needed to vent” and she called John. He stayed on the phone with her and really listened to what she had to say. That meant more to her than John could know, and as she tells us today, she feels “it was a blessing that I was connected with John Rogers.”

John was able to settle her claim within six months of the accident, greatly reduce her health insurance liens, and secure a financial recovery for her that is truly making a difference. She was able to purchase some land and a home, and she has her daughter and granddaughter with her, which is the most important thing of all. If you ask Judy about the best part of her experience with us, she immediately says, “It’s a wonderful feeling to have somebody that’s so interested in your welfare, to try to help you on down the line, not just for that moment, but to help you get established and get on back down the line, get back into the living process.”

We at Michles & Booth are proud to have been a part of helping Judy return to her life, and we look forward to continuing to assist those who need a helping hand to guide them through the tough times in their lives.