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Mild Traumatic Brain Injury/Rear End Auto Accident
2006-12-06

On August 29, 2002, plaintiff George Leuenberger, then aged 35, was driving to work on Highway 50 in Sacramento, California. He was stopped in traffic. Behind him, defendant John Yandell, on duty for American Tower, looked away from traffic to answer his cell phone, and rear-ended plaintiff at an estimated 55 -- 65 mph. Mr. Leuenberger's vehicle sustained significant damage to the rear, including trunk collapse.

Plaintiff's complaint alleged that defendant's Yandell/American Tower were negligent in the operation of their Ford F-250 pickup truck, and that such negligence caused plaintiff to sustain permanent and debilitating injury and other damages.

Defendants contested liability, and further alleged that plaintiff did not sustain significant injuries as a result of the accident. Defendants contended that plaintiff did not sustain any brain injury whatsoever, and that any cognitive deficits were as a result of pre-existing psychiatric conditions. Specifically, defendants experts contended that at most, plaintiff sustained a transient concussion which entirely resolved shortly after the accident. Defendants experts contended that plaintiff was entirely capable of returning to the competitive workplace, and that his "imagined" injuries resulted and were motivated by plaintiffs malingering and desire to obtain secondary gain through the litigation.

Significantly, plaintiff had been represented by another law firm located in Sacramento, California. This Sacramento law firm had tentatively accepted a settlement on behalf of plaintiff of approximately $1 million. On November 4, 2005, plaintiff George Leuenberger discharged his Sacramento Council and retained Randall H. Scarlett of the San Francisco, California, Scarlett Law Group. In the 10 months which followed, settlement was achieved in the amount of $3,000,000.00.

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