$500,000 Settlement for Broken Wrist in Car Crash

$500,000 Settlement for Broken Wrist in Car Crash

Darl Champion and Andrienne McKay obtained a $500,000 settlement for a client who broke her wrist in a car crash in May 2022. Our client was driving her pickup truck on Ponce De Leon Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia, when a driver in front of her suddenly slowed and tried to make an illegal left turn by getting into a lane that was for traffic coming in the opposite direction. When another car was driving toward him, he jumped back in front of our client, cutting her off. Our client did not have time to stop, and she rear-ended his car.

The other driver blamed our client at the scene. He told the investigating officer from the Atlanta Police Department that he was just driving down the road and had put on his left turn signal when our client suddenly slammed into him. He denied stopping or slowing down and denied getting into another lane. Our client was adamant that the other driver abruptly made an improper lane change and then cut her off. The officer was unable to determine who was at fault, and neither driver was cited. All of the interactions with the investigating officer were captured on the officer’s body cam.

An event recorder download of the other driver’s car showed that he was actually stopped at impact, contradicting his statement that he was driving down the road when he was rear-ended. Nevertheless, the insurance company for the other driver denied liability because our client rear-ended him, and it was a he-said-she-said as to what happened.

After filing a lawsuit, Darl Champion took the deposition of the defendant. In his deposition, he told a different story than what he told the investigating officer. Now, he claimed he was trying to make a U-turn when he was hit. He admitted he did change lanes and that he did stop. However, he denied getting back into our client’s lane and cutting her off. When he was confronted with the officer’s body camera footage, where he told the officer something totally different, he admitted that he lied to the police officer. Darl was able to show that he lied to the police officer several times during the questioning at the scene.

After the defendant’s deposition, his insurance company agreed to settle the case for $500,000.