A Fulton County jury awarded $850,000 to a man who suffered head and neck injuries that required surgery nearly a month after his pickup truck was rear-ended at a stop light.
Attorney Jonathan Pope said the length of time between the wreck and his client's complaints of lower back pain led to complications as the defense raised causation issues. Another wild card was the defendant driver's refusal to participate in much of the case, culminating in his absence from trial.
The plaintiff driver's uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance carrier, a party to the litigation that filed a cross-claim against the defendant, took over the defense in his name just before trial.
"One interesting thing was that the defendant failed to participate in the case after being served with a lawsuit. He also did not appear for a deposition and the trial of the case," said Pope, who tried the case with Dustin Davies, a colleague at Gainesville's Hasty Pope.
The attorney who represented Amica Mutual Insurance and defended the case, John Zwald of Buford's Beck, Zwald & Associates, declined to comment.
The defendant, Jerry Lisk, represented by Nikolai Makarenko of Suwanee's Groth & Makarenko, also declined to comment.
According to Pope and court filings, the January 2014 accident occurred when plaintiff Mark Cobb was stopped at a red light on Haynes Bridge Road. His 1991 Ford Ranger was hit by Lisk's 2014 Jeep Wrangler.
"[The impact] was so severe that he hit the headrest and his head broke out the back window," said Pope. Cobb suffered a concussion, neck pain and loss of balance, and 39 days later he went to the doctor complaining of lower back pain shooting down his legs.
Cobb underwent lumbar microdiscectomy surgery and accrued $64,000 in medical bills, Pope said. Lisk was charged with failure to exercise due care. He admitted negligence, and his insurer, State Farm, tendered his $25,000 policy limit in return for a limited liability release.
In 2015, Pope and John Dickerson of Toccoa's McClure, Ramsay, Dickerson & Escoe sued Lisk in Fulton County State Court and named Amica as a co-defendant.
"After we filed the lawsuit, we thought we weren't getting appropriate responses to discovery from the defendant, like 'who's your cellphone provider?' Vehicle damages estimates, etc.," Pope said. "We had to file a motion to compel, which was granted. Then we scheduled a deposition and he didn't appear, and we kind of learned that he'd moved to Florida and stopped communicating with his lawyer."