We reached our decision today. It's back to work tomorrow. Okay, now I can talk about it. It was a personal injury case involving a car accident where a young woman in a Ford SUV was hit by an 18 wheeler. She broke six ribs and her collar bone and fractured six teeth in the accident. She had a collapsed lung, a ruptured diaphragm, lacerations on several internal organs, head trauma. They had to remove her spleen. She's had a lot of emotional problems since the accident. Her medical bills at this point are over $101,000. Her dental expenses for the rest of her life are estimated at $120,000. It was three and a half days of testimony that I'm not going to recount here. (I have 27 pages of notes - and a half a sock!) The judgement we awarded was $750,000. After we returned our judgement, the lawyers told us the defense had offered to settle for $500,000; they declined it and said they would take $1,000,000. We split it right down the middle and we didn't even have those figures going in. I feel good about it - especially after he told us that.
I was surprised they picked me because in the jury selection they asked if anyone had ever been in an accident with a 18-wheeler. I have. They asked if anyone had ever been in a wreck and been injured. I have - different wreck. They asked if anyone had ever been in a wreck and sued the person who hit them. I did. Yet, they selected me. I was seriously surprised. Seriously.
Next time I'll tell you about my 18-wheeler wreck of Thanksgiving 2006. Don't be scared when you see the picture of the car. It's all better now.
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