Confidential Settlement – 34-Year-Old Police Officer Suffers Permanent Brain Injury in Head-On Collision
Our client was a 34-year-old police officer, married with two kids, and working his childhood dream job in his hometown. About two weeks before Christmas in 2017, he was on patrol at around 1:00 a.m. when a box truck driver fell asleep at the wheel, crossed left of center, and hit our client’s police cruiser at a high rate of speed. Because of the impact, our client suffered a closed head traumatic brain injury (TBI), fractured ribs, and meniscus tears in both knees.
Although physical therapy and surgery helped improve our client’s orthopedic injuries, his brain injury was permanent. From the time of the accident all the way up to settlement two and a half years later, he suffered from debilitating migraines, dizziness, short-term memory deficits, and forgetfulness. In addition to his traumatic brain injury diagnosis, our client was also diagnosed with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The PTSD was worst around loud noises, arguments, and flashing lights. This caused changes in his personality, and eventually, he and his wife separated and divorced. As a result of his complicated condition related to the TBI, our client was also declared disabled and told he could never return to work as a police officer.
Throughout the case, we were laser-focused on our client’s total recovery – not just in the sense of damages, but also by making sure he got all the medical treatment and evaluations he needed to get as much of his life back as possible. Whether it was surgical consults or neuropsychological evaluations, we were always there to guide him through a bewildering medical treatment process. When it became clear that he would never be able to return to his job as a police officer, we brought in experts in vocational rehabilitation and economics to paint the full picture of his damages for the defendant’s insurance company.
After filing a lawsuit in federal court, we arranged a private mediation and negotiated assertively for several days to obtain a significant recovery for our client. Although no amount of money can ever undo the damage of a catastrophic collision like this one, our client achieved a fair outcome that will go far in helping him and his family move forward from this tragic chapter in their lives.
