Our client rear-ended the Defendant when she came to a sudden and unexpected stop to retrieve a ladder that fell off her truck when she made a unexpected U-turn in front of our client. The Defendant claimed our client was solely responsible for the crash under the rebuttable presumption doctrine for a rear-end collision in Florida. Our client underwent a 1 level lumbar hemilaminectomy and a subsequent revision. Our client filed his lawsuit against the at-fault driver and his underinsured motorist carrier. Both Defendant’s denied liability and also claimed our client’s injuries were degenerative and pre-dated this crash. They relied heavily on our client’s job as a manual labor as a cause of his low back problems. Through the Defendant’s deposition we were able to get her to concede she did not properly secure the ladder in the back of her truck and that she came to a stop in the middle of the road to recover the ladder after making her U-turn. We also were able to get her to concede that she did not place her hazards on and the crash happened almost immediately after she slammed on her brakes. The case resolved for both the at-fault driver’s and the underinsured motorist policy limits shortly after this deposition.
Practice Area: Motor Vehicle Accident