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Case Results

Below are representative settlements and verdicts pursued and won by Brent Adams & Associates.

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North Carolina Workers' Compensation

• Vocational Rehibilitation Caseworker Removed - North Carolina workers’ compensation law imposes upon vocational rehabilitation workers certain duties and requirements in connection with their efforts to rehabilitate an injured worker. The North Carolina Industrial Commission has devised a specific set of rules applicable to vocational rehabilitation professionals. These rules are called the North Carolina Industrial Commission Rules for Utilization of Rehabilitation Professionals in Workers' Compensation Claims. For a copy of these rules, click here [ establish a link to the workers' compensation rules]. Chief among these rules are that vocational rehabilitation workers are not allowed to send an injured worker out to apply for jobs for which that worker is not suited. It is the vocational rehabilitation professional’s responsibility to conduct a proper investigation to determine whether a prospective job is suitable for the injured worker. The job must be suitable in relation to the worker’s age, education, experience, medical condition, physical limitations, and other factors relative to the worker’s ability to do the job. One of the most common violations of the rules is the habit of vocational rehabilitation professionals to give a list of potential employers to the injured worker and require them to go out and apply for jobs. The vocational rehabilitation caseworker will not have done any investigation into these jobs to see if they are suitable for the injured worker. This practice is against the rules and should not be tolerated. One of our clients experienced this problem with his vocational rehabilitation caseworker who required him to apply for jobs for which he is obviously not suited. We filed a motion with the North Carolina Industrial Commission and asked that this vocational rehabilitation worker be removed. The motion was based upon the vocational worker’s flagrant disregard and violation of the rules. The Industrial Commission allowed our motion and found that the vocational rehabilitation caseworker had violated the rules and, based upon this violation, the caseworker was removed. Another rehabilitation caseworker was assigned to help our client return to the workforce. So far, this new vocational rehabilitation caseworker has not violated the rules. As a result, our client is much happier and he is much better served by the new vocational rehabilitation caseworker. For a copy of the order removing the caseworker, click here [link to the order].

Accident Attorney

• MISSOURI JURY RETURNS A $27 MILLION VERDICT IN FAVOR OF A FIREMAN’S FAMILY - The jury ruled that the defendant, Survivair and its French corporate parent were 100 percent at fault in the death of fireman Derek Martin. The fireman’s family alleged in the lawsuit that the equipment used by the fire department and manufactured by Survivair was defective and resulted in the fireman’s death while he was fighting a fire in 2002. At issue was whether a faulty valve on an air mask was at fault for the death or whether the fault lay with the fire department procedures as was claimed by the manufacturer of the defective equipment. The manufacturer claimed that the deaths were caused by procedural breakdowns including firefighters working inside the burning building individually, the fire department’s failure to vent heat and smoke from the building and for firefighters having missed a distress message over the radio. The manufacturer also claimed that the fireman who was killed should have known to check the valve on the air mask before using it and also claimed that a fireman could still breathe when the air mask is stuck. The manufacturer knew about the design flaws when it sold the masks to the fire department in the late 1990s. The jury rejected the defenses raised by the manufacturer and ruled that the manufacturer was 100 percent at fault in causing the death of fireman Martin. The jury ruled that Survivair, a Santa Ana, California company must pay $14 million dollars of the punitive damages Award and that its parent a French company, Bacou Dalloz, will have to pay the additional $1 million. This is in addition to the $12 million dollars in compensatory damages that Survivair will have to pay. The punitive damages were awarded because of the aggravating circumstances including the conscious disregard for the safety of others exhibited by Survivair and its French parent. Half of the punitive damages award will go to a state fund and the rest will go to fireman Martin’s family. Another fireman, Robert Morrison also died in the 2002 fire. Morrison’s family filed suit against Survivair alleging that the personal distress alarm failed and failed to bring help when Morrison became incapacitated. Morrison’s widow reached a confidential settlement with the manufacturer before the jury decided Morrison’s case.

• ILLINOIS JURY RETURNS $15 MILLION DOLLAR VERDICT FOR SEVERELY BRAIN DAMAGED MOTORCYCLE RIDER - A federal jury in Illinois awarded a South Carolina woman $15 million dollars against Goodyear Dunlap Tires North America LTD because of a defective tire on the motorcycle she was riding which caused an accident that left her with severe brain damage. The collision occurred on an interstate highway in Livingston County, Illinois. The victim, Trish McCloud was riding back to her home from a bike rally in St. Louis when the defective tire on her motorcycle deflated and she lost control of her motorcycle and crashed. Although she was wearing a helmet at the time of the collision, her head struck the pavement so hard that it caused severe brain damage. Because of these injuries Mrs. McCloud is partially paralyzed and requires around the clock care. The jury verdict was broken down as follows: $1.5 million for disfigurement; $4.89 million for pain and suffering; $4.89 million for loss of enjoyment of life; and approximately $3.8 million for past and future medical expenses.

• FOUR MILLION DOLLARS AWARDED TO PARENTS OF A 5 YEAR OLD DROWNING VICTIM - A five year old boy drowned in a Maryland Country Club pool because safety rules were not followed. The child's parents brought suit for the negligent wrongful death of their son. The Maryland jury found that the country club’s pool servicing company, DRD Pool Service, Inc. was negligent because they failed to adequately train its lifeguards and properly staff the pool. The jury required the company to pay the parents $2,000,076 dollars each. The $76.00 served as a symbol of the child’s birthday which was July 6. The 16 year old lifeguard who was on duty when the child drowned had only been on the job for three weeks. This lifeguard had been swimming at the pool with an adult family friend and two other children when the five year old drowned. The parents of the dead child have set up a foundation to honor their son. They are also working with lawmakers to create uniformity and safety requirements at public pools. They are trying to have more stringent rules enacted. Anne Arundel County, where the Country Club was located, only one lifeguard is required for every 50 swimmers. The parents are asking for legislation that would lower that ratio to one lifeguard per 25 swimmers.

• CRASH WITH CONCRETE TRUCK RESULTS IN $ 3 MILLION SETTLEMENT - The insurance company for a Ready Mix Concrete truck agreed to pay $2,970,000.00 to a mother and daughter injured by the negligence of the driver of the truck. The concrete truck had turned left in front of the mother and daughter who were riding in an oncoming vehicle. The victims filed their claim against the truck driver’s employer. Under North Carolina law, an employer is liable for the negligence of employees when such negligence arose out of and in the course and scope of the employment. The injuries suffered by the mother who was driving the car were very serious. She suffered multiple hip and leg fractures which required 11 surgical procedures. These injuries left the mother totally disabled and unable to walk unassisted. The mother required ongoing care and must live in a handicapped-accessible home. She had past medical expenses of $520,676.00. She will continue to experience medical expenses in the future as a result of these injuries. The defendant concrete company voluntary paid the mother $2,820,000.00 for her injuries. The 13-year-old daughter’s injuries were much less severe than those of her mother. The daughter sustained a traumatic enterotomy which required surgery and resulted in surgical scarring. Her medical expenses were $58,318.00. The concrete company paid the daughter $150,000.00. While this settlement which totaled nearly $3 million involved a lot of money, when compared with the tragic life-changing injuries suffered by the mother who will never walk again, the amount seems quite low .

• $ 350,000 in slip and fall claim -

   

              Slip and fall cases, particularly at a retail establishment such as a grocery store, are extremely hard to win.

   

              This is particularly true in North Carolina which has a strict contributory negligence rule.  Under that rule, if the jury should find that the injured party was himself negligent   at all, even 1 percent negligent, the victim would not be able to collect for his injuries.

   

              South Carolina has a comparative negligence rule which, while not nearly as harsh as North Carolina’s rule, does impair the ability of claimants to recover for slip and fall cases. 

   

              In spite of this difficulty, an Akin County of South Carolina jury recently returned a verdict of $350,000.00 for a patron of the Piggly Wiggly grocery store who slipped and fell on water left when the stores bag boys were mopping.  It appeared the victim hit her head on the floor during the fall.

   

              The evidence was that even though Piggly Wiggly had a procedure which required clearing the store of customers before the bag boys started mopping, on the day that the victim fell the defendant’s store manager failed to clear the store and the bag boys began mopping even though customers, including the victim of the fall, remained in the store.

   

              The injured victim was never told about the water on the floor.  As she approached the cash register to check out, her feet slipped out from under her and she fell.

   

              The victim sustained serious injuries in the fall.  She herniated her disc    which required surgery.  That surgery resulted in severe complications including a spinal fluid leak which required the intervention of a neurologist, a pulmonary specialist and an infectious disease specialist.  This fluid leak resulted in a second surgery to remove the hardware and perform a debone graft.  She suffered an 18 percent whole person permanent impairment from these injuries.  The claimant incurred $147,000.00 in medical bills.

   

   

   

   

   

   

• $ 7,000,000 for wrongful death of young mother -             A Beaufort County, North Carolina jury, sitting in Washington, North Carolina returned a verdict of $7 million against the Greenville Family Medicine Clinic.

   

              The victim, a 21-year-old wife and mother of an 18-month-old baby died from complications associated with birth control pills prescribed by the defendant Greenville Family Medicine Clinic.

   

              Although the defendant denied any wrongdoing, it only took the Beaufort County jury 35 minutes to return a verdict of $7 million in favor of the dead woman's husband and young baby.

   

              In addition to the $7 million verdict, interest of approximately $5 million was added for a total recovery to the family of $13,000.00.

   

              Under North Carolina law, interest is payable on personal injury and wrongful death judgments from the date the lawsuit was filed.  The young mother died on June 14, 1997 and suit was filed in 1999.  Therefore interest from 1999 until the date of the final trial accumulated at the rate of 8 percent per year.

   

              The case had previously gone to trial but the jury in that earlier trial could not make up their mind.  Therefore, the case had to be tried again.

   

              In April of 1997 the young mother changed her birth control medication to Nordette 28 birth control pills.  Over the next several months   after she started with these new birth control pills she experienced severe headaches.  The Greenville Family Medicine clinic documented the headaches, nausea, diarrhea, fever and dizziness and noted that she was taking the Nordette 28 birth control pills.  However the defendant doctors' clinic continued to prescribe birth control pills for the mother even though the manufacturer of the pills had warned that patients who experiences persistent and recurrent or severe headaches should stop taking the pills.

   

              Two days after the defendants prescribed Bactrim DS Phenergan for nausea and Phrenilin for headaches the young mother was transported by ambulance to the local emergency room with complaints of vomiting, numbness, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness.  The young woman's husband was not satisfied with this visit and took her to a hospital in Greenville the same day.  By then however, the woman had passed out and was difficult to arouse and was not able to obey commands.

   

              A  CT scan and MRI showed that she had blood clots in her brain.  Her superior sagital sinus vein was completely blocked and her brain herniated.  Life support was removed and she died on June 14, 1997.

   

              The jury accepted the family's assertion that clotting was a well recognized problem with birth control pills containing estrogen and that the warning given by the manufacturer of the drug was completely ignored by the defendants and that the pills caused the fatal cerebral thrombosis.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

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  Carter Lumber company has agreed to pay the  family of a three-year-old child $3,375,000.

   

  The settlement came before the lawsuit was ever filed.
  
  The dead child's family claimed that the lumber truck owned by  Carter Lumber Company crossed a centerline and hit  the family van while they were driving to the beach.

   

  The impact of the collision nearly ripped off the left side of the van.

   

  The child suffered severe head trauma, abdominal and chest injuries, skull fractures

General

• Top Verdicts Lower in 2006 than in 2005 -

  TOP TEN VERDICTS LOWEST FOR SECOND YEAR IN A ROW

   

  America's ten largest jury verdicts rendered during 2006 were smaller than the ten largest verdicts entered in 2005. 

   

  According to Lawyers USA, the total top ten verdicts in 2006 totaled one third of those verdicts returned in 2005.  In turn, the top ten verdicts in 2005 were half of the total rendered in 2004. 

   

  These verdicts to individual plaintiffs indicate a marked trend away from extraordinarily high verdicts in America. 

   

  According to Lawyers USA, the highest verdict for a single plaintiff in America during 2006 was for $216 million dollars.  Certainly, this was a huge verdict.  However, it is the smallest No. 1 verdict to an individual plaintiff since 1993.

   

  In 2004 all ten top verdicts for individual plaintiffs were in excess f $100 million dollars.  In 2006 there were only three such verdicts above $100 million dollars. 

   

  All of the ten largest verdicts in 2006 were smaller than the verdict in the correspondent position in 2005.

   

  The imposition of caps on jury verdicts may have played a part in the trend towards lower verdicts. 

   

  According to the Texas Alliance for Patient Access, medical malpractice suits in Texas for larger cities have dropped by 50 percent. 

   

  Big business, big insurance companies, the organized medical establishment has for more than ten years engaged in a ferocious political, legal and public relations campaign to poison the mind of the public against our traditional civil justice system.  Apparently, their efforts are working. 

   

  Jury verdicts for punitive damages (damage given only for the purpose of punishing the wrongdoer and setting an example) were one sixth of the punitive damages and Awards during 2005.  As a percentage of the total, punitive damages accounted for 38 percent of the aggregate verdicts in 2006 compared to 70 percent during the previous nine years. 

   

   

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   A beach trip for the family of young Drew Taylor ended tragically when a lumber truck crossed the centerline and struck the families van.

  
  The impact of the collision nearly ripped the left side of the van completely off.

  Three-year-old Drew Taylor was taken to the hospital with injuries which included severe head trauma, abdominal and chest injuries, skull and arm fractures

• -

  A trip to the beach for the family of Drew Taylor ended in tragedy when a lumber truck crossed the centerline and hit the family's van head on.

   

  The impact of the collision nearly ripped off the left side of the family's van and call severe injuries to three year old Drew Taylor.

  
  The injuries to the child were severe. The child's body suffered severe head trauma, abdominal and chest pain, skull fractures and a fractured femur as well as the pelvis.
   

  The child underwent surgery and later died.
  
  The insurance company for the owner of the lumber truck, Carter Lumber of the South agreed to pay $3,375,000 before a lawsuit was ever filed.

   

  Although the death of an infant is always tragic, these cases usually do not result a high settlement or verdict.

Please note that every case is different and these verdicts and settlements, while accurate, do not represent what we may obtain for you in your case.

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