CALIFORNIA MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT ATTORNEYS

When you are involved in a car accident anywhere in Northern California or Nevada, you need to be represented by experienced California and Nevada auto accident attorneys.

We have recovered millions of dollars for victims of motor vehicle accidents throughout California. Our auto accident lawyers have successfully represented clients injured in crashes involving cars, trucks, motorcycles, 18-wheelers, vehicle rollovers, and accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists. When you need experienced attorneys to negotiate with insurance companies and litigate your accident injury claim, rely on our proven track record of results.

When serious injury or death results from an automobile accident it is essential that you speak with an attorney who specializes in these claims as soon as possible. If you wait to speak with a lawyer, valuable evidence in your case may be lost. Automobile accidents kill more than 4,000 people each year in California. An additional 300,000 people are injured in automobile accidents. Attempting to negotiate with insurance companies without a lawyer is often perilous and counter productive. Full settlement value can only be obtained once an insurance company knows that you are serious, that all important evidence has been collected, and that your attorneys mean business. At Walkup, when we take a case, our auto accident attorneys immediately begin a thorough investigation and secure important physical evidence, obtain witness statements, and begin the process of collecting medical records. These items are critically important in any successful automobile accident injury claim. Our automobile accident lawyers will negotiate with the responsible insurance company in the hopes of reaching a fair settlement. If such a settlement cannot be obtained, our auto accident team will not hesitate to file suit and prosecute your case to and through trial, if necessary. Our automobile accident specialists are trial lawyers, capable of taking any case regardless of the nature and extent of injury, through trial. Walkup auto accident lawyers have settled and tried cases involving neck injury, head and brain injury, paralysis, herniated ruptured discs, loss of limb, and wrongful death.   

Our Results

BICYCLE ACCIDENT — SUBDURAL HEMATOMA WITH RESULTING PERMANENT BRAIN INJURY

Our trial attorneys obtained a jury verdict in Santa Clara County in the amount of $14,000,000 for a South Bay engineer who sustained permanent brain damage when involved in an automobile vs. bicycle collision. Our client, who was observing all appropriate traffic laws, was struck by a car that made an improper left-hand turn. As a result of contact between his head and the vehicle windshield, the plaintiff sustained a transsection of the meningeal artery and a massive subdural hematoma causing brainstem compression. He was in a coma for an extended time following the collision. Thereafter, he required home modification, intensive nursing and attendant care and lost his job and earning capacity. Prior to the happening of the collision, he was employed by a high technology firm in the Silicon Valley. After the collision he was no longer able to work. Permanent residual complaints included difficulty with walking, memory, initiation, and executive function. The verdict in the case also included an award to the client’s wife for the loss of her husband’s services.

HEAD-ON AUTOMOBILE COLLISION – PERMANENT BRAIN INJURY TO 21-YEAR OLD WOMAN

We obtained a jury verdict in Sacramento County in the amount of $8,875,000 for injuries sustained by a 21-year-old woman in a high speed automobile collision. Our client’s car was struck by a vehicle that was speeding and making an illegal left-hand turn. The defendants in the case included the driver of the offending vehicle and a national car rental agency, which had rented the vehicle to the defendant. The 21-year-old client was still in high school at the time of her injuries. She sustained significant head trauma and was in a coma for a lengthy period following the accident. Thereafter, she required intensive inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. By the time of trial, she was still experiencing significant problems with both short-term and long-term memory, speech, gait, cognition and emotional lability. Prior to the trial of the case, the defendant had offered only $150,000 in settlement. The verdict included recovery for pain, suffering, past and future medical expense and lifetime lost earnings.

SOLO AUTOMOBILE CRASH – BOWEL AND SPINE INJURIES

Our automobile accident team obtained a combination cash and annuity settlement, which will ultimately pay in excess of $6,400,000 to a 19-year-old Eureka High School student who was paralyzed in an automobile accident. While riding as a rear-seat passenger in a Chevrolet sedan, the vehicle struck a retaining wall. Our client was injured when his lap belt rode up onto his abdomen, causing a rupture of his bowel and fracture of his spine at L2-L3. Our attorneys demonstrated that our client was behaving properly, that the defendant driver was negligent, and that the fault for his injuries rested both with the driver of his car and the maker of the seat belt assembly.

TRUCK CRASH INTO BRIDGE GUARDRAIL – DEATH

We obtained a settlement in the form of both cash and annuity payments, having a present cash value of $3,000,000 on behalf of the wife and two children of a 42-year-old man who was fatally injured when his truck struck a guardrail at a rural bridge crossing. On the morning of his death, driving home from work, his pickup truck drifted to the left, across the center lane of a two-lane road. After correcting back into his own lane, he struck and slid along a metal guardrail. As he approached the subject bridge, there was a gap between the guardrail and the bridge rail; at the point of the gap, the front of the truck struck the bridge rail, which impaled the vehicle and its driver. Walkup’s auto accident team demonstrated that the guardrail and bridge were not built in accordance with the original plans or specifications. By design, the two should have been one continuous structure. Our attorneys proved that appropriate construction standards should have required the barrier to be a continuous structure because of the risk of an accident precisely such as this.

AUTOMOBILE v. MOTORCYCLE COLLISION – BELOW THE KNEE AMPUTATION

Our motor vehicle team obtained a combination cash and annuity pretrial settlement having a value in excess of $2,100,000 on behalf of a 22-year-old student who sustained multiple fractures as the result of an automobile – motorcycle collision. While riding as a passenger on a motorcycle, our client was struck by an automobile driven by a sorority chapter adviser at the University of San Francisco. The automobile driver had run a red light. After the collision, our client was hospitalized and suffered vascular compromise in both lower legs. Ultimately, she required a below the knee amputation. The settlement included compensation for past and future medical bills and wage loss. Both the offending driver and hospital personnel who failed to appreciate and treat the lower leg compromise contributed to the settlement.

TAXI STRIKES PEDESTRIAN –- LEG FRACTURE

Our automobile accident lawyers obtained a settlement in the amount of $735,000 on behalf of 42-year-old woman struck by a taxicab while crossing a street in San Francisco ’s financial district. Experts hired by Walkup attorneys were able to demonstrate that the taxi was exceeding 50 miles an hour in a 25 mile an hour zone. Depositions in the case demonstrated that the cab company’s practices regarding dispatch suggested that two cabs were in a “race” to a fare when the plaintiff was struck. The cab operator claimed that a phantom car ahead of him struck the plaintiff first, knocking her into his cab. Our reconstruction experts proved otherwise. Injuries included a badly fractured leg, which required surgery and placement of a rod. The case was settled in mediation, on the eve of trial.

TRANSIT VEHICLE STRIKES BOARDING PATRON – PELVIC FRACTURES

Our trial attorneys secured a jury verdict in excess of $500,000 on behalf of a 30-year-old pedestrian who sustained pelvic fractures, urethral injury, and orthopedic injuries when he was crushed between a moving public transit vehicle and a handicap ramp. Walkup lawyers demonstrated that the operator of the public transit vehicle pulled away from the stop without verifying that the area around the ramp was clear. The result was that the rear corner of the Municipal Railway train swung out onto the client, pinning him against the concrete hedge of the ramp. They also demonstrated that as built, the boarding platform constituted a dangerous condition of public property as that term is defined by the California Government Code. Attorneys for the City & County of San Francisco claimed that the transit operator could not have seen nor heard our client because he was outside of the designated boarding area. The City also sought to insulate itself from fault by alleging it was immune under the California Government Code. Before the verdict, the City had offered only $10,000 in settlement.

Contact Walkup, Melodia, Kelly, Wecht & Schoenberger for a FREE CONSULTATION to discuss your auto or California or Nevada motorcycle accident injury claim with an experienced personal injury attorney.