Congratulations to Roger Booth, his team and his clients on this outstanding settlement on a case for which there was no client to testify regarding the facts of the accident.
The crash occurred when the decedent (a 73-year-old truck driver), traveling northbound on a small rural road, began a left turn at an intersection. The defendant, also traveling northbound behind the decedent, collided with him in the intersection. Both trucks caught fire. The defendant was able to exit his truck, but the plaintiff/decedent suffered a horrific death as his tractor became engulfed in flames. The challenge in the case was that there were no independent eyewitnesses. The plaintiff obviously died before he could give a statement. The defendant’s version was that the decedent was parked along the northbound shoulder and suddenly pulled out, headed due west straight across the road, and forced the defendant to take evasive action. There were no eyewitnesses.
The entire case became the accident reconstruction. Within a few weeks of the accident, the team from Booth & Koskoff inspected both trucks and the accident scene with the accident reconstructionist. The police had done a good job of documenting the physical evidence, including skid marks and positions where the vehicles came to rest. Some skid marks remained visible during the scene inspection. On the basis of all data, the expert ran a series of computer crash simulations which showed that the defendant had clearly begun an illegal maneuver (trying to pass the decedent on the left at an intersection) before the decedent could have possibly impeded his path.
Interestingly, the expert never prepared a report or testified by deposition. When the Booth firm noticed the deposition of the defendant driver, the case promptly settled for policy limits. Did the defense reconstruction experts draw the same conclusions on causation? Or did the defendant driver decide against lying under oath in a deposition?
Enough thanks can never be given to the never-ending efforts of trial lawyers like Roger Booth for persevering on behalf of those injured due to the negligence of others – especially those who pay the ultimate price and never even get to tell their story.
Advocate Capital, Inc. is pleased to play even a small role in assisting trial lawyers with the important work they perform every day to insure justice for injured citizens.
Senior Vice President
