Jury Verdict: $330,000 verdict against State Farm Insurance
Matt Schad and co-counsel Rob McCrae won a $330,000 jury verdict in Bloomington on November 10th.
It was a difficult case and State Farm had refused to make ANY offers to settle. Our client was a wonderful older gentleman who was rear ended with very little property damage. Like many of our older clients, he degenerative disk disease in his spine before the collision, and had some prior problems in his back as well.
State Farm argued that all of his conditions were pre-existing, and that the impact of the crash was so minor it could not have hurt him. The company hired a neurosurgeon from Louisville and a biomechanics engineer from Atlanta to support their theory. We called our client’s treating doctor and his wife as witnesses.
After a hard two days right after a bitterly contested election, the Monroe County jury found in our favor and returned a verdict of $330,000.
We were thrilled to have been asked to participate in the case by McCrae and McCrae, an outstanding Bloomington law firm. Matt frequently gets asked to partner up with other attorneys as part of their trial team.
“I think that one of the keys to victory was creativity in the preparation. We developed our themes and arguments in several practice jury focus groups until we understood exactly what we though would work.”