Case Result Settlement $1,500,000

This case arose from a horrific head-on collision on March 17, 2022, shortly before midnight. The clients, husband and wife, both in their 30s, were struck by the defendant’s car because he was driving in the wrong lane and hit their car head-on. The clients were returning home after visiting their prematurely born girl in the hospital. The force of the impact caused the wife to lose control of the car, and it careened over a dirt and brush embankment and rolled over for approximately 200 feet before coming to rest on its right side.

The car sustained major damage, and all the windows were shattered. The clients were unable to get out of the car until the California Highway Patrol arrived. A witness told the officer, “It was as if the driver … thought he was traveling in the correct lane.” The witness testified in deposition that the defendant drove in the wrong lane for at least ten minutes.

As a result of the crash, the husband sustained an extensor tendon laceration with a deep 1.5-inch cut to his left wrist from glass that shattered while the car was rolling down the embankment. He has a permanent nerve injury in his left hand with numbness from his thumb to his index finger, extending to his wrist. His wife’s injuries included blunt chest and abdominal trauma and neck and back pain. She was diagnosed with a broad-based disc protrusion at L5-S1 and L4-L5 and experiences ongoing low-back pain.

A demand was made early in the litigation for the automobile policy limit and was never reduced during the litigation, nor was mediation agreed to by plaintiffs’ counsel. The case settled after the deposition of the witness, and a deadline for opposing counsel to settle for the policy limit before expert depositions began and the case proceeded to trial.