Settlements & Verdicts

Truck and Car Collision Cases

We routinely represent people who have been seriously injured by commercial vehicles and tractor trailer trucks. Our representation of clients has included cases involving many of the national and regional truck companies, such as FedEx Ground, C.R. England, Central Refrigerated Services, UPS [United Parcel Service], Miller Truck Lines, Covenant Transport, Werner Enterprises, Yellow Freight, Overnight Transportation, Watkins Motor Freight, M.S. Carriers, Waste Management and Legacy Trucking, as well as smaller commercial motor carriers.

These cases have ranged from assisting those injured in single collisions, to serving as one of the lead plaintiffs' attorneys in a series of cases arising out of a chain collision involving 36 vehicles [including many tractor trailer units] occurring over a ¼ mile stretch on I-80 near Mile Marker 332 between Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Unfortunately, 7 people lost their lives, and approximately 32 persons were injured in this collision. Examples of some of our most recent cases are summarized below.

Rear End Truck Crash on I-25 Colorado. Our clients' vehicle slowed to avoid debris on the highway as traffic in front of them had done, when their car was rear-ended at high speed by a tractor trailer. Both clients suffered serious injuries. Shortly before trial, the trucking company's insurance company paid its full policy limits of $1,000,000.00.

Pickup Truck Crash Defended By Insurance Company As A Minor Impact, Soft Tissue Injuries Collision. We successfully represented a client who was injured in an automobile accident when her pickup truck was rear-ended by a commercial pickup truck. Our client suffered injuries to her neck and back as a result of the collision, and suffered persistent post-trauma headaches related to her injuries. Her injuries ended her employment after thirty years on the job. The insurance carrier defended the case on the basis that the client merely suffered "soft tissue" injuries and challenged the nature and extent of the client's injuries and losses. When the insurance company refused to make reasonable attempts to settle the claim, the case was tried. A verdict in excess of $800,000.00 was obtained.

Commercial Tractor Trailer Traveling Too Fast for Conditions on Ice and Snow. Jouard & Pickering represented the surviving members of a family involved in high speed fatal collision involving a commercial tractor pulling loaded double trailers and an SUV. The collision occurred as the SUV followed by the commercial tractor trailer, traveling too fast for conditions, approached a bridge deck of an overpass on I-80 Eastbound west of Laramie, Wyoming. The husband and father of our clients traveled over the bridge deck at 45 or 50 mph, but his vehicle lost control on the black ice which had formed on the bridge deck. The loss of control sent the SUV into a spin. The commercial tractor trailer was unable to avoid the SUV, struck it, and then veered into the median, overturned, and came to rest beyond the westbound lanes of traffic. The SUV was sent into the eastbound barrow pit. The driver of the SUV was killed in the accident. His wife and daughter were seriously injured. Jouard & Pickering used sophisticated engineering techniques in combination with the tractor-trailer's "black box" data to reconstruct the commercial tractor trailer driver's excessive speed. We then used the trucking company's own driver's safety rules, regulations and training materials mandating a lower speed under adverse conditions to make our clients' case against the company that the collision could have been avoided had the truck driver simply followed its own rules.

Cars Forced Off Road By Negligent Driving of Another. Abrupt lane changes at high speed are dangerous. We represented two families in separate cases where another driver forced their loved one's car off the road causing his death. In both cases, the families' claims against the drivers that caused the accident were resolved subject to confidentiality agreements as were other claims against various corporations and insurance companies.

Head On Collision With Drug Impairment. An outstanding young man was killed while a passenger in a car hit head on at high speed by a driver operating his car under the influence of illicit drugs. We represented the young man's family against the intoxicated driver and his family.

Rural Intersection Collision Resulting In Death. We represented a young widow and her daughter against the driver of a vehicle which failed to obey a yield sign at a rural intersection and collided with a pickup truck killing their loved one. Creative claims were successfully asserted against the driver and several insurance companies.

Road Bike Cycling Accidents

We represented the husband of a cyclist killed by the driver of vehicle who fell asleep. Drugs and alcohol were involved. The case was resolved confidentially against the at fault driver.

We have also able to recover amounts well in excess of $1,000,000.00 for several other cyclists who suffered catastrophic injuries when hit by negligent drivers.

Medical, Hospital, Laboratory and Pharmaceutical Malpractice Cases

Emergency Room Negligence. Misdiagnosis of pneumonia as an upper respiratory infection and sore throat. The patient was discharged to home and died shortly thereafter. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be an anaerobic sepsis due to peptostreptococcus asaccharolyticus. Our expert physicians opined that the patient had acute anaerobic pneumonia with secondary sepsis.

Emergency Room Negligence. Misdiagnosis of penetrating eye injury as simple corneal abrasion with subconjunctival hemorrhage. Due to the misdiagnosis, the client's injury progressed to permanent blindness.

Pain Management Physician Negligence. An intrathecal drug delivery system and catheter was implanted in our client. After implantation, he began a course of progressive neurologic dysfunction consistent with a developing spinal cord injury. Several weeks later, he suffered complete paraplegia caused by a spinal cord infarction or stroke. Plaintiff's medical experts testified that the defendant doctors failed to properly examine Plaintiff, failed to order appropriate diagnostic testing, and therefore failed to recognize a course of progressive, worsening neurological deficits indicative of developing spinal cord myelopathy.

Delayed Cancer Diagnosis. We have significant experience with medical negligence cases against physicians involving allegations of failure to diagnose patients suffering from cancer, and failing to refer them for necessary treatment at a time when the cancer was still curable.

Surgical Infection Cases. We have represented several patients and their families in cases against physicians and hospitals who failed to timely recognize and treat post-surgical infections, leading to additional surgeries, amputation, and death.

Surgical Perforation Cases. We represented as co-counsel a patient against his doctor who failed to timely diagnose and treat a surgical perforation of the duodenum. When the perforation was finally recognized, a surgeon was called into to repair the damage, but elected a surgical technique which caused additional injury. The case against the two doctors was tried to a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming resulting in a verdict of nearly $2,000,000.00.

Ophthalmology Cases. We have specialized experience in opthalmology malpractice and loss of sight cases.

Therapist Abuse Cases. When therapists and others use a patient's vulnerability to exploit the patient for their own personal gratification, such as for sex, to obtain drugs to feed an addiction, or in other unethical ways, the counselor is liable to the patient. We have handled several cases for patients who have been abused by their counselors or therapists. All of these cases presented unique issues in terms of liability, damages, and insurance coverage. We understand the difficult issues faced by patients in these cases, and work with them to overcome these issues by calling the therapist to account for their misdeeds.

Laboratory Errors. A nationally recognized laboratory mixed up the tissue samples of two male patients causing the reading pathologist to err in diagnosis of the correct patient. We defeated the laboratory's attempt to apply Colorado's malpractice non-economic damage cap. We persuaded a Federal Court to apply the law of another state where the error actually occurred, and which has no damage caps for malpractice.

Nursing Malpractice / Drug Error. We represented the family of a patient against a hospital and its registered nurse in a drug administration error case that lead to her death. The patient, to be discharged after a short-stay treatment for pneumonia, was administered the opiate Oxycontin meant for a chronic pain patient in the hospital room adjacent to hers. She died only hours later.

Pharmacy Malpractice / Drug Error. We represented a patient against a pharmacist which filled an obviously wrong prescription. The prescription was called into the pharmacists who filled it without calling the prescribing physician despite the fact that the prescription, as it was written, provided a dosage that was seven times the usual dosage. The client took the medication as prescribed, suffered an overdose of the medication required immediate hospitalization and permanent problems.

Construction and Industrial Accidents

Gas Explosion / Burn Injury. We represented a truck driver who suffered horrifying third degree burns over approximately 50% of his body when he was filling his tanker truck. This occurred when a piece of equipment known by gas plant personnel to have malfunctioned on several prior occasions, did so again, this time engulfing our client in flames.

Drilling Rig Death. When drilling rigs are unsafe, the consequences are usually catastrophic. We represented a family of a young man killed when equipment on the rig failed due to worn and fatigued parts which should have been discovered during inspection and replaced.

Work Related Injuries. We regularly represent clients who have been injured on the job. In a landmark case in Colorado, we represented a catastrophically injured client who fell through a roof opening that was not properly marked or guarded. The Workers' Compensation carrier sought to take a credit against the client's settlement with the person causing the injury. The case progressed to the Colorado Supreme Court where the court determined in Jorgenson v. Colorado Compensation Insurance Authority, that the Workers' Compensation carrier was not entitled to reduce the client's award for non-economic losses which were not compensated in the Workers' Compensation claim.

Occupational Disease. In a recent victory before the Colorado Division of Administrative Courts, we were able to establish that our client suffered from chronic occupational asthma as a result of being exposed to vapors and paint fumes containing polyisocyanates in an auto body shop. With the assistance of physicians from National Jewish Medical and Research Center, we were able to establish a direct causal relationship between the exposure to polyisocyanates and occupational asthma - a first in Colorado.

Defective and Faulty Equipment. Faulty farm equipment can lead to devastating injuries. We have assisted people and their families in cases involving deaths caused by tractors which failed to have rollover protection systems, with limbs lost when trapped in unguarded post hole diggers and other similar faulty equipment cases. We have also handled cases against auto manufacturers, such as Ford, in vehicle rollover cases.

Insurance Disputes / Insurance Bad Faith

We often represent clients who have claims which are not being properly handled by an insurance carrier, despite years of timely premium payments. In a recent matter handled for one of our clients, we were able to establish our client's right to payment of long term disability benefits as a result of the client's diagnosed multiple sclerosis. When the insurer balked and delayed paying promised disability benefits, we filed suit to force the insurance carrier to fulfill its promise to our client. Shortly after filing suit, the insurance carrier admitted its obligation to pay for benefits.

In another case, we helped a client who was forced to sue her health insurer when it denied payment for expensive chemotherapy treatment on the basis of an alleged pre-existing health condition. After our intervention, the health insurance company paid all of the past monies owed and continued to pay for the remaining cancer treatment.

We helped a truck driver who was injured in a tractor trailer rollover in Wyoming, when his insurance company tried to adjust his claim under Indiana law which was very favorable to the insurance company, but not at all fair to the truck driver and his family. Through our representation and assertion of bad faith claims, we established our client's right to the benefits to which he was entitled under the appropriate State's law.

We have helped many recover benefits payable to them by their own insurance companies for "underinsured motorist benefits" and "uninsured motorist benefits" when the insurance coverage and assets of negligence drivers were not sufficient to fully compensate our clients.

Commercial and Intellectual Property Cases

Recent cases in these areas have included our representation of clients in a common law trademark/Lanham Act cases, a software trade secret/misappropriation cases, natural resources fraud/breach of operating agreement cases, and in breach of contract/misrepresentation cases as well as in oil and gas development agreement disputes.

Oil, Gas and Other Mineral Litigation

We have represented clients involved in litigation establishing their rights to minerals interests, working interest payments, and royalty interests.

We have 25 years of experience in litigating interests involving federal, state and fee oil and gas interests and in cases involving operating agreements, unit agreements, farm-outs and other oil and gas ownership and exploration interests. We recently secured a judgment for our clients of $2,469,464.00 in compensatory damages and $4,000,000.00 in punitive damages arising from a fraudulent oil and gas transaction with subsequent operator fraud.

We have also represented parties involved in drilling contract disputes, surface damages, drilling trespass cases and similar claims.

Jouard & Pickering, P.C.
2038 Caribou Drive
Suite 100
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Phone: 970-482-1977
Toll-free: 888-482-1977
Fax: 970-225-6649
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