When Evidence Established Defendant In Motor Vehicle Accident Was Distorting The Facts Jury Gave Victim $300,000
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-07-24 20:03:30 | Word Count: 543
Experienced lawyers know that being able to show that a person was wrong or lied in regard to one aspect of their claim is frequently enough to be able to disprove their entire claim. Pull at one thread of a story and it may all unravel. The hard element is finding that thread. The key often lies in the way people distort facts. People who are lying far too often do not keep the story simple. They embellish it in an attempt to make it seem credible.
Consider, for instance, a claim that concerned a motor vehicle accident which took place in a four way intersection. An SUV drove into an intersection as a woman was in the intersection on her bicycle. There were no bystanders in the area who saw the accident. According to the victim, she had entered the intersection only after having stoped at the stop sign controlling the intersection. But according to the defendant, it was the bicyclist who was at fault for the accident by going into the intersection without yielding the right of way. This would have been a simple, clean story. Without witnesses it would normally be a matter of whether a jury would believe the driver or the bicyclist. Yet the driver did not stop there. The defendant additionally maintained that the bicyclist was hard to see since she had on dark clothes, and was riding a bicycle without appropriate illumination.
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The victim was thrown onto the pavement with so much force that she sustained a significant injury to her knee. Due to this injury she had to have arthroscopic surgery.
Two very important things were done right in this claim. First, after the accident the fire department found a dislodged bicycle light at the location where the accident occurred. Second, the law firm that helped the bicyclist learned about this finding and approached a member of the fire department to testify at the trial of the case. With this information the jury took just 1 hour to find for the bicyclist. The jury awarded her $300,000.
This claim presented an example in which the lack of witnesses to the accident might have stopped the plaintiff from getting compensation for her injuries. There is clearly no way for us to look inside the mind of a defendant to understand why he or she would distort the facts or even plain lie about the way an accident took place. Presumably, the defendant had enough insurance to pay for the victim's compensation. Presumably, the defendant realized the extent of the injury the plaintiff suffered as a result of the accident. Yet, if not for the testimony of the fire department member, the defendant's claims about the circumstances of the accident (which the jury obviously did not believe) would in all probability have blocked the plaintiff from being compensated for her injury.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting personal injury cases. To learn more about how a bicycle accident attorney may help you and about other cases including pedestrian accident cases visit the websites
