(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this car accident/personal injury case and its proceedings.)
The following blog entry is written from a defendant’s position as trial approaches. Reviewing this kind of briefing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in a personal injury case present such issues to the court.
Defendant’s Trial Brief
Type of Action
This is a two-party bodily injury action arising from a traffic accident involving a bicycle and an automobile.Factual Summary
Description of Accident
The defense contends that plaintiff is solely to blame for causing the subject accident (hereafter “the accident” ) and defendant is not liable for any injuries or damages that plaintiff sustained.
This is a contested liability, contested injuries/damages action arising from a bicycle versus auto collision that occurred on Halloween night, October 31, 2006, at approximately 9:20 p.m. Defendant Tina Lu, then age 23, was making a right turn from northbound River Drive onto Ridge Road, driving her 2004 Toyota Camry. Plaintiff Paul Nathan, then age 22, was riding a bicycle without a helmet, down the hill on River toward Ridge. Prior to defendant’s right turn, the parties were traveling parallel to each other (northbound), though not on the same street, as explained below. It is contested whether plaintiff was riding on the sidewalk as contended by defendant, or whether plaintiff was riding on the Frontage Road (defined below) as contended by plaintiff. In either event, plaintiff was attempting to cross Ridge and continue northward at the same time that defendant was attempting to turn right and head eastbound on Ridge. The parties were at right angles to one other at the moment of impact.
Plaintiff’s bicycle struck defendant’s Camry on its right side. There is a paint scratch on the lip of the right-front wheel well, at the 1:00 o’clock position; there is also a dent near the right-front headlight- these marks were made in the accident. Plaintiff separated from the bicycle and went over the hood of the Camry, landing somewhere in the middle of Ridge. Plaintiff took himself the rest of the way across Ridge and defendant encountered him, ambulatory, on the sidewalk of the northeast corner of Ridge and River A passerby called 911 and plaintiff was transported by SFD paramedics to Sacramento General Hospital’s emergency room, where plaintiff was examined, his wounds were cleaned and he was discharged home after midnight (i.e., on November 1, 2006). (See Part 2 of 7.)
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.