It was like any other Wednesday. JC was on her way to work, driving down El Dorado Hills Boulevard, when suddenly an SUV darted out from a side street. JC tried to swerve out of the way, but the SUV hit her passenger side doors. She lost control of her car, it began to roll, and her windows shattered. Then, everything went black.
When JC awoke, she found herself hanging upside down by her seatbelt.
Other motorists pulled JC out through the driver’s side window of her car. As she waited on the side of the road for an ambulance, she developed intense pain in her neck and back. She was taken by ambulance to a nearby emergency room.
JC underwent x-rays and CT scans, but was told that “Nothing was broken” and was sent home to recover. After a few weeks of rest, ibuprofen, and ice, she hoped that she would be back to work, hiking, kayaking, the gym, and baking. She was young (she turned 37 just two weeks before) and in great shape so she believed her symptoms would gradually subside.
Unfortunately, as the days went on, she began to feel numbness in her fingers, and it slowly became harder to climb the stairs to the second story of her home. JC asked a friend who was in a recent accident for advice, and her friend immediately told her to call Demas Law Group. Attorney Kate Ebert took JC’s case and immediately recognized the seriousness of her injuries.
A lawsuit was filed against the responsible driver and the defendants took an aggressive approach — they tried to claim that JC’s injuries were not caused by the subject collision, that she was exaggerating the extent of her injuries, and that the injuries were not serious and should have resolved after a couple of months. However, JC continued to have frequent neck and back pain along with occasional numbness and tingling in her arms and legs. She did everything she could to avoid having neck or back surgery and received epidural steroid injections along with facet block injections. These treatment modalities helped decrease her pain but were not permanent solutions. JC was referred to orthopedic spine specialists and, ultimately, she underwent surgery to replace a damaged disc in her cervical spine. This surgery provided immediate and lasting relief to her neck pain. Thereafter, JC had a minimally invasive lower back surgery and the procedure greatly improved her lower back symptoms.
In litigation, it was clear the defendants would do everything they could to deny JC justice. Initially, they denied liability for causing the crash. However, attorney Ebert was able to conclusively prove that JC was not speeding at the time of the crash and that all the fault or liability rested solely with the defendant driver and the company he was working for. The defendants also resisted providing information about their liability insurance policy limits – Ms. Ebert doggedly pursued this issue and ultimately uncovered a $5,000,000 insurance policy.
When it was clear that the defendants were not prepared to compensate JC fully and fairly, attorney Ebert began working closely with attorney John Demas to start preparing the case for trial.
Demas Law Group hired a team of leading experts to prove that JC 1) was injured as a result of the subject collision; 2) the medical treatment, including the neck and back surgeries, were related to the subject collision and were necessary; 3) that JC would continue to need care into the future given her injuries; and 4) it was likely JC would need to stop working a few years earlier than expected as a result of her injuries. The deposition of the defendant’s experts forced the defendant’s insurance company to re-evaluate the case. Attorney Demas’s deposition of the defense spine surgeon gutted their defense, and attorney Demas managed to get the defense expert to concede a number of critical points. Gradually, Defendants and their attorneys continued to make higher and higher settlement offers while Mr. Demas, Ms. Ebert and JC insisted on full and fair compensation.
In the weeks before trial, Demas Law Group was able to negotiate a settlement of $3,600,000. Significant injuries warrant significant compensation and Demas Law Group has the skill, resources and persistence to pursue and achieve full justice for its clients.
