A two week jury trial results in a $575,000 award in a rear-end collision

The Plaintiff was rear-ended in stop-and-go traffic when the defendant driver looked down to grab her cell phone from her purse. Upon inspection of the cars, neither car had any visible damage. Nevertheless, Plaintiff immediately felt discomfort in her low back.

As days passed, her low back pain worsened, with stabbing pain, numbness, and tingling sensation on the top of her left foot and ankle. An MRI revealed that the Plaintiff had a herniated disc at the L3-L4 of her lumbar spine. As time passed, the pain in her left leg and foot became worse. For several months she tried physical therapy treatment and received steroid injections to try to get better. But her symptoms did not improve. As a result, she underwent low back surgery, improving her lower back pain and lower extremity pain.

Defendant’s experts claimed that the Plaintiff only suffered a strain/sprain and that the need for surgery was due to a degenerative disc condition that was unrelated to the rear-end collision. Defendant’s other expert claimed that the speed of the defendant’s vehicle was less than five mph that it was unlikely that the plaintiff sustained any injury to her low back. After a two-week jury trial, the jury awarded the Plaintiff $575,000.