Representative Car Accident Cases

Drunk Driver Injures Mother and Young Child in T-Bone Hit and Run

The Zinn Law Firm represented a young single mother and her three year old daughter who were injured when a drunk motorist crashed into them late at night, nearly killing the child. The drunk motorist was the son of a political candidate. He had empty beer cans and recently used marijuana paraphernalia in his car. Immediately after running into our clients, he and three others in his car ran from the scene, leaving his severely damaged Cadillac automobile behind.

The local police were unable to track down the suspect, taking no action to track him down or determine his whereabouts after that evening. It looked like the drunk driver might evade responsibility for his actions. In addition to assisting the family with their personal injury lawsuit, The Zinn Law Firm contacted local law enforcement and encouraged them to prioritize the criminal case and locate the drunk driver after they had let the case go cold. Due to these efforts, the county’s sheriff located and arrested the drunk driver. He had to account for what he did in the criminal justice system.

The Zinn Law Firm then settled the civil case for a confidential amount that maximized the available insurance carried by the young man. The Zinn Law firm next pursued further recovery for the child’s future by filing an underinsured motorist claim against our client’s own automobile insurance company. We were able to obtain a confidential settlement for the maximum limits of our clients underinsured motorist coverage.

Motorist Put Into Coma by Intoxicated Driver on Highway 101

Our clients were a married couple driving their two children home along Highway 101. One of the young children suddenly had to go to the bathroom. The father elected to pull over on to the shoulder to help the child. A woman intoxicated on prescription pain medicine was driving behind the family a few minutes back at highway speed. When she saw the family’s car pulled well onto the shoulder, the intoxicated driver got confused and thought the family’s car was driving off an exit ramp. As the father was standing outside his car loading his boy back into his car seat, the intoxicated driver hit the family’s stationary car at 60 miles per hour, her vehicle careening into the father.

The father was thrown approximately 30 feet in the air, landing in the right lane of the freeway. He was unconscious and bleeding profusely from a head injury. A medivac helicopter was called, landing on the freeway to evacuate the father to the hospital given the severity of his injuries. After spending nine weeks in a coma, our client made a heroic recovery and has returned to work in his profession despite suffering severe injuries in the collision. The Zinn Law Firm obtained a substantial, confidential policy limits settlements for the father from the intoxicated driver’s insurance and from his own, ample underinsured motorist policy. We also obtained a significant six-figure settlement for the wife who we proved suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from witnessing the tragic accident.

Motorcyclist Injures Shoulder by Left-Turning Car

Our client was a young man riding a motorcycle along a well-traveled street in San Francisco at night. A pickup truck turned left in front of him on a green light, causing our client to have to lay down his motorcycle on the pavement to avoid colliding with the pick-up truck. The pickup driver immediately jumped out of his truck and instead of assisting our client, began to yell at him, blaming him for what happened. Our client suffered a comminuted fracture of his right clavicle which required two surgeries, fractures to two ribs, contusions and neurological injury to his knees, and a mild concussion. He missed time at work as a zookeeper, and when he returned, his job duties were modified to accommodate his lifting restrictions. The Zinn Law Firm obtained a policy limit settlement of $250,000 for our client despite the fact that he was able to return to work shortly after the accident and his recoverable medical bills were around $50,000.