I just read an article concerning an accident caused by a person talking on his cell phone that I had to blog on. Turns out the accident victim hired a personal injury lawyer to exact some justice from the culprit who took away the life he enjoyed before this auto accident happened. Sounds like they got a good result.
The car accident happened in Palo Alto in 2006 when a city employee Rubin Salas ran into the rear-end of the car that victim Silvio Obregon was driving. The thing that sets this apart from a normal cell-phone talking accident is that the employee was not actually on the phone, but was reaching for the phone and allowed himself to be distracted. The injuries to Silvio Obregon were severe: he experienced a significant spinal cord injury which left him debilitated.
After what appears to be a time of legal wrangling, the case was resolved against the city in December of 2009 for almost $1.5 million. The employee that hit Obregon, predictably, no longer works for the city. The City Attorney Donald Larkin said that the payout was the largest that they had in some time for a personal injury accident claim. He did acknowledged, though, that the injuries to Mr. Obregon justified the amount of the settlement.
This accident claim is similar to one we took to trial in Ogden, Utah back in March of 2008. In that case, my client received a spinal cord injury in an Ogden car accident case from the driver of a billboard company that failed to look when he pulled out from a neighboring Ogden, Utah business. We tried to resolve this Ogden, Utah auto accident case with the insurance company, but the most that they would offer was $230,000, for what was a significant spinal cord injury that effectively prevented my client from working. So … we took the case to trial. After a seven days, the jury returned a verdict of $1.63 million – an amount well above the insurance company’s top offer before trial. After the verdict, the insurance company threatened to file a motion reducing the amount of the verdict. We later reached an agreement to resolve the case.
So kudos to the attorneys who helped Mr. Obregon get some justice for the wrong that was committed against him.
Ron Kramer is a Utah personal injury and trial lawyer who handles personal injury and accident cases, with offices in Bountiful, Draper and Provo, Utah.