Partners Jennifer L. Russell and Stephen W. Moore and Associate Mark S. Levine had a very successful defense verdict in a case involving a three vehicle rear-end accident that occurred on the 105 freeway.

Partners Jennifer L. Russell and Stephen W. Moore and Senior Counsel Mark S. Levine had a very successful defense verdict in a case involving a three vehicle rear-end accident that occurred on the 105 freeway.

Facts: Our client admitted to rear-ending plaintiff’s vehicle and pushing the vehicle forward into a third vehicle. Damage to plaintiff’s vehicle was over $11,000. The 40-year old plaintiff was transported from the scene by ambulance and taken to the hospital for complaints to her head, chest, neck and back. Plaintiff underwent treatment including physical therapy, 3 epidural injections and nerve blocks and eventually underwent neck surgery consisting of an anterior interbody cervical fusion and decompression.

Damages: Plaintiff alleged medical specials over $180,000 along with loss of earnings, future earning capacity and continuing pain and suffering. Just prior to trial the defense team was able to negotiate with plaintiff to lower the accepted medical specials to $110,000 and after defendant’s motions the plaintiff agreed to withdraw the loss of earnings and earning capacity claim.

Demand: Plaintiff argued the neck surgery and all of the treatment was reasonable and a result of the accident therefore based on plaintiff’s future life expectancy she would suffer continued pain and suffering for at least 40 more years. Prior to trial plaintiff’s demand was 1 million dollars, during the trial and prior to verdict plaintiff demanded 1.1 million dollars. At the time of trial plaintiff asked the jury for a total of 6.9 million dollars.

Result: After deliberating for just over 2 hours the jury returned a verdict in the amount of $250,260 which included zero for future pain and suffering.