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This is a list of our firm's case results. We can't guarantee you'll receive the same results, but we can guarantee we'll work tirelessly on your behalf and try to obtain the jury verdict/settlement you deserve.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that every case is different and these verdicts and settlements, while accurate, do not represent what we may obtain for you in your case.

Chesapeake Driver Rear Ended When Slowing Car To Avoid Deer

Staff: John Cooper, Esquire; Roz Hughes, Paralegal

Court/Date: Chesapeake Circuit Court, Chesapeake, Virginia, 2008

Case Description: Driver rear ended when stopping because of deer darting across the road suffers serious injuries including chronic, traumatic headache and backache from collision.

What Happened: Our client was driving on Millville Road near his home in Chesapeake, Virginia (VA) when he saw deer near the side of the road. He slowed almost to a stop to avoid the animals which crossed right in front of his vehicle. The front end of his car clipped the deer who though dazed ran off. Driving behind our client was another car that ran into the back of our client’s vehicle because that driver was distracted looking at the deer and did not even see our client’s vehicle slowing. The at-fault driver was following too close and failed to keep her car under control.

Our client who was struck from behind ended up hitting his face on the steering wheel and had eye pain and headaches after the car wreck. He also suffered with problems in his spine, especially his neck and low back after the car accident. The client had to go to the emergency room at Chesapeake General Hospital for concussion, blurry vision, and facial contusion. The headaches and eye problems were bad enough to affect the gentleman’s ability to do his job as a longshoreman which involved working high above the ground with cranes and similar work equipment.

Outcome: The settlement reached with the insurance company was over twice what they had been willing to pay prior to going forward with a lawsuit. The amount was enough to make sure that the client’s doctor bills were paid, his health insurance was paid back money that they were owed from the case, and significant money was available to the client to take the sting out of his lost wages. All and all it was a fair compromise of a difficult case.

Key Legal Strategies: Proving that the driver who rear ended our client was at-fault was relatively easy in this case. There was some questions as to whether the defendant at-fault driver would try to get out of responsibility by saying that the deer jumping out was a sudden emergency and therefore no one was to blame for causing the accident. Once we took the deposition of the lady who was driving the car who hit our client from behind, I was able to show that she was clearly not paying enough attention to the road and didn’t see what she should have seen had she been keeping a proper look out. This made the liability part of the case clear. The question then was what were our client’s injuries caused by the wreck and how serious were they.

The key medical issue in the lawsuit was that the Plaintiff we represented had been in a prior workplace accident a year or two before the car wreck we were helping him with. The prior case resulted in a workers’ compensation claim and in fact the Norfolk, Virginia (VA) attorney who handled that sent this car accident case to our law firm to handle because our firm focuses much of its practice on this kind of injury case involving automobiles. The client in this prior accident had a lumbar back surgery done by a neurosurgeon and had some migraine headaches after the surgery during his recovery.

In order to figure out what the case was worth and how much of the $100,000.00 USAA insurance policy we could expect to get the client in compensation, John Cooper got on the phone with the neurologist who had treated the headaches both before and after the car wreck. John was able to confirm that this neurologist, one of the best neurologist in Hampton Roads, Virginia (VA), would testify for the plaintiff that his blow to the face and head in the car wreck did cause an aggravation of his medical condition making his headaches worse. One of the critical issues was to show that the headaches after the car accident were located on a different part of the skull and were of a different type than the prior migraines.

Awarded: The case settled shortly after the insurance defense lawyer took our client’s deposition for approximately $73,500.00.

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