California DUI Accident Case Result
San Diego drunk driving accident lawyer Mark C. Blane represented an injured La Mesa man who got injured after being rear-ended by an intoxicated driver. The intoxicated at-fault driver blew over 2.0 from a field sobriety test after the San Diego police officer suspected the man was indeed drunk. The intoxicated man was arrested for DUI and booked at the downtown police station in San Diego.
Mr. Blane tracked the criminal conviction record of the drunk man while his injured La Mesa resident client was treated for his injuries. Mr. Blane's client sustained an Emergency Room visit with X-rays and a CT-Scan of the head, and he followed up with his primary care physician and basic physical therapy. The man completed his therapy but was found to have a loss of motion segment integrity in his neck and was assessed a 30% whole person impairment under the American Medical Association guidelines. Mr. Blane used this medical finding as evidence of future medical, duties under duress, and loss of enjoyment of life. Without this medical finding, the insurance would have treated the injury case as a basic soft tissue injury case with no impairment.
To this end, Mr. Blane used the conviction records of the drunk driver to prove the man pled guilty to the DUI charge and asked the insurance company to add "punitive exposure" damages on top of just negligent pain and suffering damages. By doing this, Mr. Blane was able to obtain policy limits for his injured client who would have had a tougher time obtaining said policy limits on his own. A good injury lawyer will always want to track the criminal conviction record in a DUI accident case to help bolster the personal injury civil side as it is quite possible a jury would get to find out the person was not only negligent in causing an auto accident, but also intoxicated (punitive damages).
