Semi-Truck Wreck - You're a Liar; You're not Hurt.

$646,000 VERDICT

In 2017, our 30-year-old client was on her way to work. She approached an intersection with an off-ramp from the interstate. At the intersection, the vehicles traveling down the off-ramp had a stop sign. Our client did not have a stop sign. She had the right of way. As she continued driving and entered the intersection, a semi-truck smashed into the passenger side of her car. The truck pushed her 72 feet and into a building. Her car was destroyed. The semi-truck had struck the passenger side of her car and she did not have any broken bones or severe trauma, so besides having significant bruising, shock, and whiplash on the day of the wreck, she thought she was “okay.” However, as the days, weeks, months, and years wore on, she realized that something was very wrong. She went to every kind of treatment, but doctors couldn’t give her an accurate diagnosis. She wasn’t getting better. She tried to work and go on about her life, but everything was hard. Nothing was the same. Everything had changed.

The insurance and trucking company defended the case by saying she was lying about her permanent injuries. The defense attorney told us, “She’s not hurt; she’s lying about it.” They saw her as someone trying to suck the system. The truck driver also claimed, despite available video of the aftermath of the wreck, that he had stopped at the stop sign and that she had driven into him. The insurance company, despite the driver’s statement contradicting all the evidence, took him at his word and defended him based on this assertion as well.

The Dixie Law Group, PSC, hired medical experts and traffic reconstruction experts to prove the facts of the case and damages to the client. The insurance company offered $25,000, then $50,000, then $100,000, then $175,000 on the eve of trial. The client and Dixie Law Group, PSC, declined the offers and took the case to trial in federal court. The jury returned a unanimous verdict of $646,000 for the client.