Vehicular Negligence

In Tennis Coach v. Local Trucker (Sacramento Sup. Ct.) Douglas Saeltzer and Conor Kelly obtained a $6,000,000 settlement on behalf of a 25-year-old tennis instructor who suffered major lower extremity injuries against a driver who collided head-on with the plaintiff’s vehicle. The client was returning home after providing tennis lessons at a club on the Sacramento Delta. The defendant driver was returning to his company’s headquarters in Rio Vista in an F-250 pickup truck. The crash was unwitnessed. After the collision the defendant denied crossing into plaintiff’s lane of traffic, and told police that the plaintiff had caused the collision. Because of his injuries, the plaintiff had no recollection of the collision. Doug and Conor obtained cell phone records which showed defendant making two separate phone calls in the minutes preceding the collision. Analysis of the physical evidence also established the collision occurred on plaintiff’s side of the road. Past medical specials totaled $963,000. Following the accident plaintiff returned to college retaining his tennis scholarship. The case settled following factual depositions, with a policy limit demand supported by four expert reports demonstrating future damages in excess of $3,000,000.