VERDICTS AND SETTLEMENTS
Set forth below are examples of jury verdicts and settlements that we have obtained for our clients:
$2,450,000.00 settlement in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court for our client who was severely and permanently injured when a car suddenly pulled out in front of his motorcycle.
$2,500,000 settlement in the Superior Court of Dekalb County, Georgia for the wrongful death of a 43 year old woman and her son.
$1,000,000 settlement for the wrongful death of a husband and wife resulting from a tractor-trailer collision in Athens-Clarke County.
$1,750,000 settlement in the Superior Court of Jackson County, Georgia for permanent, disabling injuries sustained by our client in a collision with a tractor-trailer.
$3,290,429 jury verdict in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court for the wrongful death and pain and suffering of a 33 year old man. Judgment was entered, which included prejudgment interest, in the total amount of $3,669,393.
$1,500,000 settlement in the Superior Court of Athens-Clarke County for permanent brain injuries sustained by our client.
$1,950,000 settlement for the wrongful deaths of a husband, wife and children resulting from a car wreck in Oglethorpe County, Georgia.
$1,000,000 settlement after two days of trial in Athens-Clarke Superior Court against a medical facility for its negligence in causing the wrongful death of a husband and father.
$1,787,500 jury verdict in Fulton County State Court for our client who suffered permanent brain injuries when involved in a car wreck.
$950,000 settlement in Madison County Superior Court for our client who suffered severe personal injuries, including multiple broken bones, resulting from a collision with a tractor-trailer.
$337,500 settlement in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court in which an insurance company paid $237,500 above its insured's policy limits of $100,000 to settle our client's claims for both personal injuries and the insurance company's bad faith refusal to settle.
$2,500,000 settlement for permanent, disabling injuries sustained by our client when struck by a truck making a delivery at his place of employment.
$380,000 jury verdict in a car wreck case in Rockdale County Superior Court for our client's severely broken right ankle.
$800,000 jury verdict in Barrow County Superior Court for our client who sustained a fractured right hip and later had to have hip replacement surgery in a case involving a tractor trailer collision.
$850,000 settlement against a trucking company in the Superior Court of Jackson County for the wrongful death of our client's husband.
$2,130,921.91 jury verdict against an insurance company in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court for its negligent and bad faith refusal to settle a car wreck case.
$1,500,000 judgment in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court for sacroiliac joint injuries from a high speed rear-end collision resulting in multiple surgeries.
$300,000 jury verdict in Athens-Clarke Superior Court for our client who had a herniated disc in his neck after a cable on a weight machine that he was using snapped.
$850,000 settlement in Athens-Clarke Superior Court for our client who sustained multiple pelvic fractures, numerous broken ribs, and a fractured right shoulder after being run over by a car while riding her bicycle to work.
In a number of cases, because an insurance company acted in bad faith, we have obtained jury verdicts that fully compensate our clients for their injuries even though the other driver did not have enough insurance coverage. The largest and most hotly contested bad faith case we have had so far was Brightman v. Cotton States Mutual Insurance Company.
Our client was a senior at the University of Georgia and a member of the Redcoat Marching Band. He was seriously injured in a car wreck in Roswell. As he was making a left turn at an intersection, his car was struck by a van coming from the opposite direction. The police thought the cause of the wreck was an improper left turn by our client. The driver of the other vehicle had marijuana in his blood. Later investigation by our experts showed that the van had been speeding.
The van was covered by two policies of insurance, issued by Cotton States and State Farm. After our investigation, we demanded the full limits of both policies. Neither insurance company would pay.
Our client's case against the owner and driver of the van was tried before a jury in Fulton County, Georgia, and resulted in a verdict in his favor in the amount of almost 1.8 million dollars. After the verdict, State Farm paid the limits of its insurance policy.
We then filed suit against Cotton States in Athens-Clarke County for its bad faith and negligence in failing to settle the case on behalf of its customer (the owner of the van) when we had offered to do so. That case was tried before a jury in Athens-Clarke County, and resulted in a verdict against Cotton States in the amount of 2.1 million dollars.
Cotton States appealed the judgment to the Court of Appeals of Georgia and to the Supreme Court of Georgia. Those courts both upheld the judgment, and it was eventually paid.
It took almost 10 years of work to obtain justice, but Cotton States ultimately paid out almost 3 million dollars on an insurance policy with a policy limit of $300,000.
See Cotton States Mut. Ins. Co. v. Brightman, 256 Ga. App. 451 and Cotton States Mut. Ins. Co. v. Brightman, 276 Ga. 683.
We have also won cases where other lawyers had given up on the case because it looked like there was no insurance coverage. Here is the story of a 12 year old girl and her parents from north Georgia that we represented.
Our client was a passenger on a golf cart that was being recklessly driven by another young girl. Because the driver was weaving back and forth in the road and going too fast, the golf cart flipped over and our client was badly hurt. She had a brain injury, liver laceration, spleen laceration, a number of broken bones in her face, scalp laceration and severe abrasions all over her body. She was in intensive care for a number of days.
The owner of the golf cart was the mother of the child that had been negligently driving it. The mother had a homeowner's insurance policy, but the insurance company refused to pay, saying there was no coverage for the golf cart.
This young girl's parents came to see us and we explained to them that the insurance on their own cars under the uninsured motorist coverage would apply to the case because the golf cart was being driven on a public road. The parents had four cars insured with Georgia Farm Bureau. We were able to use the uninsured motorist coverage on each of these insurance policies and eventually settled the case for $250,000.
In another recent case, we were able to find a way for our client to be fully compensated for her injuries when the driver responsible for the collision only had $25,000 in insurance coverage. In this case, the other driver drove onto the wrong side of the road and crashed head on into our client's car. Her left arm was so badly cut that it was almost amputated. She had three surgeries to her left arm over a six-month period of time. Her medical bills were over $66,000. She will never regain the full use of her arm and has horrible scars.
The other driver, his lawyer, and his insurance company all kept telling us that he only had the minimum insurance allowed in Georgia of $25,000. We insisted on taking a sworn statement from the responsible driver and found out that he was in the Air Force Reserves and on his way from an Air Force base in Atlanta to an Air Force base in Delaware at the time of the collision. Because he was on the job for the United States government, he was covered by a law called the Federal Tort Claims Act. We ultimately settled this case for $475,000.
