Date 8.12.2021

Jury Awards $3,375,530 After Crash Steals Grandfather’s Ability To Care For His Grand-kids

Posted By: Coker Law

Johnny Brasher is a proud grandfather who loves to spend time with his grand-kids.  He was on his way to pick them up from school to volunteer at their running and walking club when he was rear-ended by a negligent driver.  Unfortunately, this was no ordinary fender bender.  The force of the crash slammed this grandfather’s head against the head rest resulting in a concussion as well as neck and low back pain. His concussion symptoms caused Johnny to suffer from disorientation, memory loss, stuttering, and tremors. In addition to this traumatic brain injury, Johnny was also experiencing excruciating pain from the injuries to his neck and lower back.

Injury Led To Spine Surgery

He sought help to ease the pain with chiropractic and pain management treatment, but ultimately, he needed neck fusion surgery to eliminate the pressure from the disc herniation on his spinal cord. The surgery was successful in that respect, but unfortunately, his neck pain didn’t go away even after the surgery. He also had to undergo several nerve burning procedures to his neck and low back, which were helpful for him to manage his required daily life activities. Despite his treatment, this pain was keeping him from living his normal life and prevented him from being able to spend as much time with his precious grandchildren. As a result of his inability to care for his grandchildren and the frustration of dealing with his daily pain symptoms, Mr. Brasher started to suffer from depression.

When the insurance company for the at fault driver, driver’s employer, and owner of the vehicle driven by the at fault driver didn’t make reasonable settlement offers to compensate Johnny for the immense losses and suffering he incurred, he turned to Coker Law to help him prove his case.

Coker Law Takes On This Complex Case

The legal team at Coker Law did not hesitate to bring Johnny’s case to court. At trial, the Defendants claimed that because he was already on disability from a prior hip replacement four years before the crash, his life was essentially no worse from the crash. The defense also argued that Johnny already had neck pain, low back pain, and depression before the crash. “This was a complex case involving a significant number of experts and thousands of pages of medical records dating back to the 1990’s,” said Fraz Ahmed, lead trial attorney and Coker Law Shareholder. “Not only did the Defendants raise multiple defenses including Johnny’s prior pain and disability status from his hip replacement, but they also argued the amount of property damage from this crash could not have been enough to cause his injuries.”

The Coker Law legal team was able to show the jury that although it was true Johnny had suffered brief periods of low back pain before the crash and a brief period of depression after his hip replacement surgery that forced him to retire from his 35-year career as a pressman, Johnny had embraced his new life, moved forward, and had begun taking a more active role in activities with his grandchildren. He would walk several miles each week, go to the YMCA with his grand-kids, pick his grand-kids up from school, volunteer at their run/walk club, and spend countless fun hours playing with them. This all changed after the crash as Johnny wasn’t able to get behind the wheel to safely drive his truck, and he began missing out on all of these activities with his grand-kids.

“The Defendants even had Mr. Brasher secretly followed by surveillance investigators,” added Ahmed.  “But because of our experience in cases like these, our trial team was able to successfully anticipate these arguments by the defense and we were able to prove to the jury how significantly this crash impacted Mr. Brasher’s life.”  The jury award will now provide the medical care Mr. Brasher needs so he can focus on his grand-kids again and not how much of his life this crash has stolen.

Case Title: John Brasher v. Dwight Paul, Driver’s Direct, Inc., and Walker Ford Company, Inc.

Attorneys/Staff involved in Case:  Fraz AhmedDavid ThompsonDana Jacobs, Stephanie Hiers, Mario DeLeon, Co-counsel Josh Bradley, Trial Media Specialist Alec Morrill

Date of Jury Verdict:  July 2, 2021

Amount of Jury Verdict:  $3,375,530.17

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