Linda was on her way home from work and was driving on I-20 in DeKalb County, Georgia. Suddenly, a tractor-trailer came into her lane, struck her car and caused her to spin out and crash into the median wall. She injured her shoulder in the wreck and had to have arthroscopic surgery.
When the trucking company denied causing the wreck and blamed Linda, she came to BBGA attorney Michael Ruppersburg for representation. Michael prepared the case for trial and secured a $150,000 settlement with Castlepoint National Insurance Company for Linda, which was three times her medical bills.
THE INJURIES
Linda was having pain in her shoulder, neck and back after the wreck and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. She was treated and discharged with instructions to follow up with her primary care doctor. Linda continued to have shoulder pain so her primary care doctor referred her to an orthopedic surgeon. The orthopedic surgeon ordered an MRI, which showed a suspected rotator cuff tear.
When physical therapy and cortisone shots didn’t help, the surgeon recommended she have rotator cuff surgery. The surgery revealed that Linda did not actually have a torn rotator cuff, but had bursitis and a partially torn labrum, which the surgeon then repaired. Here’s a medical illustration of the surgery that we had prepared for trial:
LAWSUIT & SETTLEMENT
We filed suit against the truck driver and the trucking company. Even though the police investigated, found the truck driver at fault for the wreck, and gave him a ticket, the truck driver and trucking company denied causing the wreck and said Linda was to blame.
The truck driver testified that Linda sped past his tractor-trailer, lost control of her car and struck his truck and then spun out and hit the median wall.
Now, you’d think that if that’s what actually happened, the trucker would have told the police officer who investigated the wreck about it so he wouldn’t be found at fault for the wreck. But the police officer said the trucker did not say anything about Linda speeding past him and losing control of her car.
In fact, we proved that the first time the trucker told anyone about Linda allegedly causing the wreck was at his deposition, which was nearly a year after the wreck.
Further, using 911 records, we found witnesses to the wreck who disproved the trucker’s testimony and said the trucker was at fault.
We prepared the case for trial and it was set to go to court in early 2016, when the insurance company finally offered a $150,000 settlement, which Linda decided to accept.
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