$30,000,000 Settlement – Wrongful Death

A national trucking company’s tractor trailer ran a red light and struck our client’s vehicle in the side. Our client suffered a catastrophic brain injury and died several days later in the hospital. She was a young mother of two.

The crash was captured on the tractor’s dash camera unit. The truck was speeding and barely slowed or braked before impact. The driver was not arrested but did consent to a blood draw. The toxicology results showed he had methamphetamine in his system at the time of the crash, which triggered a law enforcement investigation and charges for DUI and vehicular homicide.

Our firm led a team of attorneys who carefully reconstructed the crash and sought evidence of the truck driver’s background, history, and drug use. We obtained pharmacy and medical records, interviewed dozens of witnesses, and deposed the representative of the trucking company that hired the driver. We also found evidence the truck driver had drifted out of his lane and struck a barrier on the interstate just ten days prior to the crash that killed our client. The truck’s dash cam reported that incident back to the trucking company by electronic notification, but apparently no one at the company did anything with the information.

The defendants in this case believed that in this rural South Georgia venue, a jury would not place a high value on the damages since our young client did not make a lot of money. We demanded $30 million to settle the case early on and defense only offered was $3 million. The defense later increased the offers to settle to $6 million and then $11 million, but we never reduced our $30 million demand. Our firm pushed the litigation forward at a quick pace and secured a special trial setting. A few weeks before trial, the insurance company met our demand to settle for $30 million. We believe this to be a record-setting settlement or verdict in the history of the county where the case was pending.