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News from Gaddis, Kin, Herd & Craw, P.C.
ANOTHER PERSONAL INJURY VICTORY IN COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
On December 4, 2008, the trial lawyers at Gaddis, Kin & Herd, P.C. won another personal injury trial in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The case involved a motor vehicle accident that occurred back in October of 2004.
Our client was driving a compact car through a downtown intersection. While she was going through the intersection another driver going the opposite direction made a left turn in front of her. The other driver had a large pickup truck. The result was a significant collision in which the truck driver fared better than our client.
Immediately after the collision our client needed treatment for 3 fractures in small bones of her right foot. These required her to get multiple casts and to walk with crutches for many weeks. She also had neck pain, pain in her knees from hitting the dash board, back pain, headaches and a large bruise on her left elbow. Her injuries required a great deal of care over the next 3 years, including extensive chiropractic treatments, multiple courses of physical therapy, massage therapy, medications and a painful injection in her left elbow.
The driver of the pickup admitted he was at fault for the collision, but his insurance company, Allstate, maintained that our client was also at fault. They claimed that our client was speeding through the intersection as her traffic light was changing. They also claimed that our client did not get all the care and treatment that her doctors recommended for her injuries, and that was the reason for her ongoing problems.
Before trial, Allstate offered to settle the case for $63,000. Our client's medical bills were about $24,000, her loss of income was about $14,000 and she needed surgery on her elbow that would cost her about $15,000. The insurance company's offer was not sufficient. However, we told the truck driver and Allstate that our client would settle the case for $120,000.
By the time of trial, our client had pretty much recovered from the injuries to her neck, back and knees, and she was no longer having headaches. Her treatment had resolved those problems. However, she was still suffering from constant pain in her right foot even though the broken bones had healed. She also had chronic pain in her left elbow from nerve damage that developed as a result of the bruise on her left elbow from the collision. The ongoing pain from these two conditions caused a significant sleep disturbance. Despite our client's ongoing problems as the trial date approached, Allstate refused to pay any more than their prior offer of $63,000. So, the case proceeded to a jury trial.
The jury returned a verdict for our client in the amount of $190,000. After interest and other adjustments the total amount recoverable by our client after trial was about $200,000.
Please view the Gaddis, Kin, Herd & Craw, P.C. disclaimer HERE.
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PERSONAL INJURY VICTORY IN MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT
On November 25, 2008, an El Paso County Colorado jury returned a large verdict for one of our clients in a motor vehicle accident case. Our client, a young woman of 23 at the time, was injured when an 81 year old motorist carelessly pulled out in front of her car causing a serious accident. As a result of this auto collision, our client initially had pain in her neck and back as well as headaches. After treatment and further testing, her doctors determined that the car wreck also resulted in mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), post traumatic stress disorder and a post traumatic vision problem.
Our client required more than 200 treatment visits to two different chiropractors to try to resolve the pain in her neck and back. Specialized injections from other medical doctors were needed for the pain and headaches caused by this car crash. Additional treatments for visual mid-line shift syndrome and cognitive rehabilitation therapy were needed to help her recover, as much as possible, from the head injury suffered in the car accident.
At trial the defense focused on the fact that our client had been in a prior car accident 3 years earlier. The previous motor vehicle accident involved a roll over incident in which our client had similar injuries - i.e. pain in her neck and back and headaches. Because of these prior injuries she treated with a chiropractor 48 times in the year before the second auto accident. The defense maintained that all of our client's injuries and conditions were a result of the prior accident.
At trial we presented testimony from seven "before and after" witnesses. These were persons who knew our client both before and after the two car accidents. Their testimony showed the jury that there were dramatic changes in our client's physical activities, thinking and emotional condition after the second accident, but not after the first car accident. This testimony helped the jury to see the truth - that the second car accident was really the cause of our client's ongoing pain, injuries and conditions.
The jury gave our client a verdict of $300,000, of which $150,000 was for non-economic damages such as pain, suffering, emotional stress and loss of enjoyment of life. An additional $150,000 was given for economic losses including medical treatment bills and lost income. When prejudgment interest was added to the verdict, as required by law, our client's total recovery exceeded $467,000.
Many lawyers would not have taken a case like this to trial because of the prior car accident. It involved similar injuries and was very close in time to the second accident. But, our client trusted us to get her a fair outcome, and we honored her trust by obtaining a successful jury verdict at trial.
Please view the Gaddis, Kin, Herd & Craw, P.C. disclaimer HERE.
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RECENT VICTORY IN MEDICAL MALPRACTICE TRIAL IN COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
In October of 2008, the personal injury lawyers at Gaddis, Kin, Herd & Craw, P.C., of Colorado Springs, Colorado, won another medical malpractice trial. The case involved the death of a man shortly after he had surgery to remove his gall bladder. Tom Herd and Gary Craw tried the case to a jury of six in Judge Timothy Simmons' court in Colorado Springs.
In January of 2005, our client's father had gall bladder surgery at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs. Dr. G, who was then practicing in Colorado Springs, was the surgeon who performed the operation. Dr. G now lives and practices in Michigan. The surgery was performed laparoscopically, i.e. by the insertion of a camera and surgical tools through 3 small incisions in the abdomen. At the start of the surgery, Dr. G saw that the patient had cirrhosis of the liver. He did not know this before surgery. Cirrhosis greatly increases the risk of bleeding complications from any surgery. Dr. G decided to go ahead anyway with the surgery, laparoscopically. When Dr. G removed the gall bladder, the patient started bleeding from his liver. Dr. G claimed that he stopped the bleeding before he sent the patient to the recovery room.
The patient was in the recovery room for nearly 3 hours. The entire time his vital signs were abnormal and there was bleeding from the site of the surgery. Dr. G eventually took the patient back to the operating room for a second surgery to stop the bleeding. However, he was not able to stop it because the patient had, by then, developed irreversible bleeding complications. The patient died shortly after the second surgery.
Our client, the patient's daughter, filed a wrongful death claim after we evaluated the medical and legal issues in the case. We claimed that Dr. G was medically negligent and failed to give our client's father informed consent of the risks of the surgery.
Dr. G maintained that he had done nothing wrong and that the patient's death was just an unfortunate risk of surgery. Nonetheless, he offered to settle the case for $10,000. Our client would not accept that offer. Ten days before trial our client offered to settle the case for $150,000.00. At the time of the surgery her dad was retired and there was no loss of income as a result of his death. Dr. G rejected that offer and preferred to take the case to trial.
After trial, a jury of six El Paso County citizens returned a verdict in favor of our client after finding that Dr. G was medically negligent. The total our client recovered for her father's wrongful death was approximately $300,000.
Please view the Gaddis, Kin, Herd & Craw, P.C. disclaimer HERE.
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RECENT JURY VERDICT IN A CAR ACCIDENT CASE IN COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
A jury in El Paso County, Colorado returned a favorable verdict in another car accident injury case for a client of the personal injury lawyers at Gaddis, Kin, Herd & Craw, P.C.
The case involved a read-end motor vehicle accident. Our client was 30 years old at the time of the car crash. He was riding in the back seat of a pick-up when another motorist crashed into the back of the truck. The collision caused our client's head to break the rear window of the pick up. He was transported from the scene by ambulance to the ER with headaches and pain in his back.
After the motor vehicle collision our client had ongoing headaches. About ten months after the accident he also developed severe neck pain. An MRI revealed that he had a herniated disk in his neck at the C5-6 level. There was disagreement over whether the accident caused the herniated disk in our client's neck.
3 ½ years after the crash our client had surgery at the VA Medical Center in Denver to repair the disk herniation and to stabilize his neck. He missed 8 weeks of work because of the surgery and necessary recuperation time.
We tried to settle the case for our client, but the other driver's insurance company initially resisted settlement. So, we filed a law suit for our client. More than 1 year after the case was filed a $50,000 offer of settlement was made to our client. About a year later, and 2 weeks before the trial date, a $125,000 offer was made. At 4 p.m. on the Friday before the trial date, the insurance company for the negligent driver raised their offer to $200,000. That offer was not acceptable to our client. However, our client agreed to settle the case if the insurance company would pay $240,000 for his injuries. The insurance policy limits were $250,000. The insurance company would not agree to pay $240,000 to settle the case, forcing the case to trial.
After a trial in October 2008 a jury returned a verdict which, with interest, was just over $397,000. Our client's total recovery, after litigation costs are assessed by the court, was approximately $420,000.
Please view the Gaddis, Kin, Herd & Craw, P.C. disclaimer HERE.
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JURY VERDICT IN A CAR ACCIDENT CASE IN COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
The personal injury lawyers at Gaddis, Kin, Herd & Craw, P.C., of Colorado Springs Colorado, recently won a substantial jury verdict in an auto accident case.
Our client, a young woman, was driving her compact SUV on a county road in El Paso County, Colorado. A young man driving a pickup truck in the opposite direction was going too fast for a curve in the road. He crossed over the center line and sideswiped the driver's side of the young woman's SUV. This caused her to loose control of her SUV, which rolled over into the ditch on the side of the road.
As a result of this accident the young woman developed pain in her left shoulder within a few weeks after the car crash. When conservative medical care, i.e. physical therapy and medications, did not resolve her shoulder problems, her doctors recommended arthroscopic shoulder surgery. The surgery was done about 11 months after the auto collision. The surgery went very well and improved her condition. But she continued to have left shoulder pain and limitations in lifting and reaching overhead with her left arm. Her doctors and physical therapists worked hard trying to improve her left shoulder symptoms, but were not successful in achieving a full recovery. Our client was left with chronic shoulder pain and restrictions on the amount of lifting and left shoulder activity she should do.
The young man's insurance company, a large and well-known, national auto insurer, refused to admit that he was in any way responsible for the collision until just a few weeks before trial. Then they offered to settle for $50,000.
Our client declined this offer. She decided to have one of the auto accident lawyers in our Colorado Springs office take her motor vehicle case to trial before an El Paso County jury. She was advised that juries in El Paso County Colorado are generally not plaintiff-oriented, or known to award large verdicts. But she trusted the trial lawyers at Gaddis, Kin, Herd & Craw, P.C. to do better for her at trial than what the insurance company would offer.
During the trial the young man and his insurance company aggressively maintained that our client's left shoulder problems were not caused by the auto wreck. Instead, they pointed to pre-existing medical conditions she had, and her history of strenuous work, as the cause of her shoulder problems. Our trial lawyers presented expert witnesses who thoroughly evaluated the case and testified that the car accident was the cause of our client's left shoulder injuries.
After a 4 day trial the jury returned with a verdict. Our client won her case and received a jury award of $451,933 in money damages for her shoulder injury and future work limitations. Our lawyers, who are specialists in personal injury trials, then asked the trial judge to award interest on the $451,933 verdict, and, for a court order that the young man's insurance company be required to pay the expenses our client incurred by going to trial. The trial judge awarded interest on the jury verdict as well as trial costs and expenses.
By the time the case was finished, Gaddis, Kin & Herd's highly respected auto accident trial lawyers had recovered more than $650,000 for our client in this successful personal injury claim.
Please view the Gaddis, Kin, Herd & Craw, P.C. disclaimer HERE.
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