Plaintiff was a 30-year-old single mother who was run over by an automobile driver on a rural road in Marin County when she was riding with her bicycle club.
The collision forced plaintiff off her bicycle. She hit her head hard even though she was wearing a helmet and fractured a vertebrae in her back.
The defense claimed that the fractured vertebrae were not particularly significant since it did not affect the spinal cord. Further, the defense took the position that because plaintiff was wearing a helmet, and simply fell to the ground off her bicycle, there was not enough force to cause a traumatic brain injury. In addition, the defense claimed that plaintiff was able to return to work and was not working only because she was receiving disability payments which equaled her pre-injury income.
By retaining a biomedical engineer, neuropsychologist and vocational expert, the law offices of Winer, Burritt & Scott, LLP, was able to prove that there was enough force in the accident to cause plaintiff to suffer mild traumatic brain injury which was impairing her ability to return to work even though to the rest of the world, she appeared “normal.”
RESULT: $675,000 settlement on behalf of the plaintiff