Personal Injury Attorneys in Sacramento County

$17.65 million recovered for family who lost their 13-year-old daughter in a motor vehicle collision. Defendant driver, who was in the course and scope of his employment and driving a company-owned vehicle, negligently crossed the double-yellow line separating northbound and southbound lanes of traffic on Highway 49 in Calaveras County. As a result, Clients' vehicle was struck hard on the rear drivers' side and forced off the roadway and down an embankment. Clients' 13-year-old daughter, who was restrained in the rear, driver-side seat, suffered significant blunt force trauma to the left side of her face and head and died at the scene. Her mother witnessed the traumatic death and was forced to remain in the front passenger seat - with her daughter visibly lifeless in the back seat - until she could be extricated by responding emergency personnel. The father, who suffered his own severe physical injuries, particularly to his head and left arm, was in and out of a semi-conscious state. His left arm, barely attached to his body, was bleeding profusely. There was little his wife could do to help but hold his arm in place and try to keep him awake. Both the mother and father were life-flighted from the scene and taken to separate hospitals.

Defendant driver plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter. The case was litigated for over two years and resolved in 2020 for defendants' combined insurance policy limit of $17.65 million.

Client was rendered quadriplegic when he fell from a trellis while installing a gutter on defendant's personal residence. Client's employer was hired to install new gutters. Unbeknownst to Client, the trellis on which he was standing had significant dry rot. The trellis collapsed and Client fell approximately 11 feet to the ground below and fractured his spinal cord. Ordinarily, a homeowner has no liability for injuries to an independent contractor's employees when they are performing work for which they were hired. An exception to this rule is when the property owner fails to warn about a latent or concealed danger on the property. We argued that the dry rot fell into this exception. The case eventually resolved in 2019 for just under $4 million.

Elk Grove-based personal injury lawyer John M. O'Brien obtained a $2 million policy limit settlement for a man who was severely injured at a worksite in Modesto.