Impossible to tell from the details provided, but I suspect the portion of the uninsured-underinsured he collected was from the driver's insurance policy. His son was a passenger in the vehicle that was struck, and the driver's insurance would cover the driver and passengers.
Yeah, I can easily understand why he would collect a majority of the money from the at-fault guy - and even a portion of the victim driver’s payout.
If I read the ruling (http://www.state.il.us/court/opinions/AppellateCourt/2012/5thDistrict/5100037.pdf)* correctly, there were five total victims in the accident - Herrin’s son who died; the victim driver, Duncan; two of Duncan’s sons; and another teen friend.
Herrin somehow ended up with more than $677k while the rest was split between the remaining four (one of whom has had at least two surgeries.) It doesn’t seem fair that a lady who wasn’t at fault and paid the premiums for the extra coverage would be left with such a small portion to cover what I would imagine are some rather hefty expenses. The accident wasn’t her fault yet she was treated almost as if it were.
*Per the ruling, Bramlet (at-fault driver) had a standard policy which paid $100k. Duncan (victim driver) had a policy with added uninsured-underinsured coverage which paid $800k. And Herrin (dead victim’s father) also had uninsured-underinsured coverage which covered his son and paid out $1.6 mil even though the son wasn’t driving or a passenger in a family vehicle. (Though I’ve never heard of such coverage, the way the ruling reads, this was separate from life insurance.)
The court’s line of thought seems to have been:
~The $1.6 mil was Herrin’s alone, no split nor should there have been.
~The $100k was split with the lion’s share going to Herrin whose loss was the greatest, no problem there either.
~The $800k was also split which would have been fair if Herrin hadn’t received such a disproportionate (key word) share of that payout. Herrin collecting such a large portion from the other victim’s policy in effect punished her for his son’s death which was completely outside of her control.