Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

A Cherokee County personal injury case involving a defendant driver who was driving under the influence of drugs (DUI) settled for $115,000.00. This case (Jason Castillo v. Amy Leigh Swafford and Frederick Krautwurst - Case # 10SC2751AJ) involved a car wreck that involved the defendant rear-ending the car being driven by the plaintiff, Jason Castillo. The defendant, Amy Swafford, was arrested for driving under the influence, unlawful possession of hydromophone, and following too closely. Frederick Krautwurst was included as a defendant for negligent entrustment of his vehicle to Ms. Swafford. Negligent entrustment is a separate negligent act when the owner of a vehicle negligently entrusts his vehicle to someone who he should have known was incompetent or incapable of safely driving.

The injuries to Jason Castillo (a 35 year old male who worked for Bank of America) involved multiple soft tissue injuries to the neck and back. His treatment consisted of physical therapy, dry needle therapy, electrical stimulation and deep tissue massage therapy.

This case was settled prior to the jury trial for $115,000.00.

What made this Cherokee County personal injury case worth $115,000?

Attorney Richard Griffin of The Griffin Law Firm, P.C. did not represent any of the parties in this lawsuit. However, as an experienced and successful personal injury lawyer and wrongful death lawyer, he identified the following factors that would have created $115,000 settlement for this Cherokee County personal injury claim:

(1) Medical Expenses: The medical expenses for soft tissue injuries tends to involve conservative care (physical therapy or chiropractic care). Conservative care tends to cost less than the cost of pain management involving injections, epidurals, nerve blocks, facet injections, and other pain management procedures. If a patient does not recover after conservative care and pain management, then a surgical evaluation is usually the next step. Personal injury cases involving surgeries usually have the greatest value. This personal injury case would have likely been much more valuable if it had involved disc herniations or fractures because these injuries often require a life time of treatment at a very high cost.

(2) Injuries: The personal injury victim in this Cherokee County personal injury case had soft tissue injuries only. These are painful injuries, but jury verdict research normally shows soft tissue injuries result in lower recoveries than broken bones (fractures), spinal injuries, disc herniations, traumatic brain injuries, and other permanent and catastrophic types of injuries.

(3) Negligent Entrustment: This allows the personal injury claim to include the owner of the vehicle as a named defendant in addition to the negligent driver. More personal injury defendants means that there are potentially more insurance policies and people to pay any future personal injury jury verdict.

(4) Venue: Cherokee County personal injury claims often have lower values since this is a more conservative county. Dekalb County personal injury venues, Fulton County personal injury venues, and Clayton County personal injury venues are usually viewed by most personal injury attorneys as more likely to render higher jury verdicts than most of the other Georgia Counties. A Cherokee County venue probably lowered the settlement value per most jury verdict research.

(5) Punitive Damage Exposure: This is likely the main reason this case settled for $115,000.00. In Georgia personal injury cases and wrongful death claims allow for compensatory damages which are the actual past and future medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering. However, if the defendant is guilty of conduct that shows a reckless disregard for human life, then the plaintiff can seek punitive damages as well. Punitive damages are damages that are meant to punish the defendant for this bad conduct to hopefully deter the defendant from behaving in this dangerous manner in the future. The best examples are driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs or hit and run drivers (drivers who leave the scene of the accident). This case would normally would not have settled for $115,000 if not for the punitive damage (DUI) conduct of the defendant.

The value of every personal injury or wrongful death claim is different as the facts of each case change. These types of claims often rise from car wrecks, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, bicycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, slip and fall accidents, or dog bite cases. Therefore, it is very, very important to contact an experienced and successful personal injury attorney or wrongful death attorney for a free consultation if you or someone you know has a personal injury case or wrongful death case.