Verdicts & Settlements

RESULTS: $525,000 Settlement in Mediation

Court: Confidential

ATTORNEY: Richard N. Shapiro

PARALEGAL: Paula S.

WHAT HAPPENED:

On January 4, 2023, our 43-year-old client, a sales manager, was traveling northbound on Great Neck Road in Virginia Beach, Virginia, northbound at the intersection with North Wolfsnare Drive. A parcel delivery driver was traveling eastbound on North Wolfsnare Drive, a secondary road, and was crossing Great Neck Road. The professional delivery van driver cleared the center median but then failed to yield the right of way to our client on Great Neck Road and negligently caused a major collision with our client’s SUV (green arrows in graphic).  The delivery driver (red arrows) was ticketed for failure to yield the right-of-way, tried in absentia, and found guilty.

The sales manager was transported to Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital by rescue squad.  She complained of head injury, neck and back pain, as well as her left shoulder being dislocated. Our client could not account for a few seconds immediately after the two collisions between the vehicles, and it was determined after she was at the hospital that she suffered a traumatic brain injury and concussion. She was given a shoulder sling, prescriptions for Robaxin and Toradol, and discharged from the hospital.

She began treatment with OrthoVirginia for instability of the left shoulder joint, right-hand pain, and left shoulder pain. Her orthopedist ordered an MRI and physical therapy and kept her off work. The MRI showed a tear of the left glenoid labrum, acute posterior instability, and bone edema in the anterior humeral head with a reverse Hill-Sach’s lesion. Due to the dislocation, she suffered a loss of internal rotation, and it was recommended that she have therapy for capsular stretching and for pain in her rotator cuff. She was also treated with a second physician at OrthoVirginia for right-hand pain, sprain of her right thumb, weakness, and loss of dexterity.

Our client saw a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician in early March 2023 for continuing problems with her TBI/concussion. She had been having daily headaches, worsening with bright lights, dizziness, blurry vision, and complaints of irritability, anxiety, and being overly emotional.  She began magnesium for her headaches and was encouraged to continue her current physical therapy and to request physical therapy for her neck and upper back. She reported improvement of her headaches while on the magnesium, along with physical therapy.

Our client was treated for her TBI symptoms at Virginia Orthopedic & Spine Specialists. She noted significantly slowed thinking, being drowsy, balance issues, sensitivity to light, inability to multitask, and sensitivity to sound. She was prescribed visuo-vestibular physical therapy and Cawthorne Cooksey exercises to do at home. Mainly because of her inability to concentrate due to the TBI symptoms, she was kept out of work as a sales manager for almost two and a half years. Fortunately, at about that point in time, over a year later, her major TBI-related symptoms lifted, and she is a lucky TBI victim to have had this improvement after a year.

Ultimately, our client underwent about a year and a half of both physical therapy and speech language pathology for her TBI, and she slowly, methodically improved over that course of time.

Our client, the sales manager, was unable to perform many of the practical, day-to-day tasks she has traditionally handled, such as activities with her young children and household chores. Whereas she was once able to swim, play pickleball, tennis, and rock climb with her children, she was forced to reduce the amount of physical activity or face the consequences of increased activity, i.e., blurry vision, fogginess, and headaches.

KEY LEGAL STRATEGIES:

We referred our client to a physical medicine and pain doctor who had a subspecialty in traumatic brain injury and concussion. He did an objective test, which demonstrated that she suffered a traumatic brain injury. Moreover, we knew we would have to prove to the defendants not only that she suffered her TBI but also the permanent aspects of her shoulder injury and her thoracic spine injuries. We engaged a medical illustrator to help bring home the seriousness of those injuries (See images in this report).

Ultimately, our client had about 1.5 years of lost wages and about $70,000 in medical expenses. She was a very lucky person to have suffered a significant traumatic brain injury. She had the symptoms dissipate about a year and a half after the serious motor vehicle incident. Her traumatic orthopedic injuries included tears to her left shoulder and multiple thoracic disc protrusions. We engaged Amicus Visual Solutions to create the medical illustrations that are seen here in this settlement report.

We suggested potential mediation between the parties to the opposing attorneys. During the course of litigation, the parties agreed to a non-binding mediation with a retired Circuit Court judge and then resolved the case for $525,000. Certain particular terms of the settlement are confidential, and therefore, those details have been omitted from this case result report.

THE RESULTS:

$525,000 Settlement (confidential terms)