Car Accident
Verdicts & Settlements

Just before noon, our client slowed his vehicle for the obvious traffic conditions. Despite all other vehicles in the area observing and reacting to the slowed and stopped traffic, a professional truck driver, who was driving a “big rig” 18-wheeler, violently struck the rear of our client’s pickup truck at approximately 63 miles per hour. This impact propelled our client into the police vehicle at the exit ramp.

As a result of this catastrophic collision, our client sustained significant and traumatic injuries, and was rendered quadriplegic. He was hospitalized for an extended period of time and incurred large medical bills. During his hospitalization, he underwent several tracheostomies, due to the respiratory failure he suffered in this crash. Our client was discharged home with a motorized wheelchair which he struggled to operate.

Upon discharge from inpatient care, our client received in-home care daily. Unfortunately, he choked while eating due to tracheal stenosis – a condition caused by this horrific crash. His wife attempted to help him, but she was only able to witness her husband become unresponsive – a condition from which he would never recover. As a result of the multiple traumatic injuries he sustained in the collision, our client died seven (7) months after the horrific crash.

Immediately following this terrible crash, The NST trial team began its intensive investigation into the circumstances surrounding this collision. After visiting the accident scene within hours of being retained, NST hired an accident reconstruction expert to examine the vehicles involved. Initially, the trucking company tried to settle this case for six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000), which was promptly rejected because it did not adequately compensate our clients. Thereafter, a lawsuit was filed, which was extensively litigated in Federal Court. The trucking company answered the allegations brought against it by characterizing this crash as an “unfortunate accident,” denying that they or their driver were responsible for our client’s injuries and tragic death. In fact, in an effort to avoid liability, the trucking company initially tried to blame our client and his wife for actions contributing to his death.

The legal team at our Little Rock truck accident law office continued its investigation through the discovery process, and our trial lawyers uncovered many violations of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) which were committed by the trucking company and its professional driver. It was discovered that the trucking company had allowed its driver to be on duty for nearly 18 hours at the time of this crash – 4 hours over the Federally-mandated limit. It was also discovered that the trucking company had hired a driver with many serious medical conditions. The trucking company’s driver had even been prescribed certain medication the week before the crash – which, in particular, was an automatic disqualifier under the Federal regulations. Despite the obvious fault on the part of the trucking company, it continued to deny responsibility for this crash.

NST’s Little Rock truck accident lawyers continued to fight the trucking company, hiring experts to investigate the areas of accident reconstruction, trucking regulations and standards, forensic cell phone analysis, economic losses, otolaryngology and forensic pathology. In all, 15 experts were disclosed in this litigation. In addition to voluminous written document production, a total of 44 depositions were taken in this case, all across the United States. Extensive motions were filed throughout this litigation, involving several day-long court hearings. Also, the NST trial team conducted several “focus groups” whereby we presented evidence to a representative class of individuals who might make up a potential jury so that we could determine how a real jury might react to this evidence and different arguments made by the defendants.

Shortly before trial, the trucking company finally admitted that it was at fault for the crash. Yet, despite its admission, the trucking company still refused to pay our client and his wife fair compensation, only offering One Million Three Hundred Thousand Dollars ($1,300,000), which still did not adequately compensate our client. Several days before trial, the trucking company increased its offer to Three Million Five Hundred Dollars ($3,500,000), which was promptly rejected by our client because it still did not adequately compensate our client. Thereafter, with our client’s permission, we proceeded to trial.

The trial of this case began with a panel of 12 jurors. NST lawyers put on 21 witnesses, including expert and fact witnesses, in support of our client’s case. The trucking company tried to minimize the loss associated with the death of our client. On the final day of trial, just minutes before the jury was to hear closing arguments, the trucking company finally offered to settle this case for $6,301,713.00, which represented the remaining total of its insurance policy, increasing its “final” offer by nearly $3,000,000.00, and our client accepted this offer.