Case Story: Brain Injury Caused by Drunk Driving

This video features Claude Wyle, a Personal Injury attorney based in California.

When an employee becomes intoxicated while in the scope of their employment and go on to cause a drunk driving accident, the company could be held liable. This is what happened in the case described by attorney Claude Wyle of Choulos Choulos and Wyle. His client sustained a brain injury caused by drunk driving and was in a coma for several months after the accident. Attorney Wyle helped him obtain a favorable settlement. Claude Wyle is an injury attorney based in San Francisco. He can be reached at 888-981-0826 or by filling out the contact information on the side of the page.

When an Employer is Liable for an Employee's Drunk Driving Accident

As Claude Wyle explains in this video, his client's first attorney obtained a settlement that was never officially finalized by the client. A settlement may be a viable option in some cases, but Wyle could tell that this young man needed an attorney willing to go the extra mile. In his investigation of the case, he obtained information about the drunk driver's criminal trial. It turned out that the driver had been drinking at a work event before the accident. Since the employer provided the alcohol under the scope of the worker's employment, this means that the employer was liable for the accident. This greatly strengthened the case for the man, and he was able to achieve a much greater amount of compensation than the initial settlement.

After a Traumatic Brain Injury, It Matters Which Attorney You Choose

Brain injuries are life-altering events, both for the victim and their loved ones. Going forward, their day-to-day lives might look completely different. They might require multiple surgeries, ongoing medication, physical therapy, and modifications to their home. These are not minor expenses. The right attorney will give your case the time and attention it deserves, instead of settling for an early (and insufficient) offer. Brain injury attorneys know when they need to go above and beyond to make sure they're obtaining the maximum amount of compensation their client deserves. Their lives will never be the same, but with the help of a qualified attorney, they can make sure that they're starting the next stage of their life on a solid foundation.

Video Transcript:

I get a message from this young man and he says he's been hit by a drunk driver and he needs help. So I get up from the pool and leave my family and go and call him, and he says "Hi, this is Nathan," and I said, "Hi Nathan, how can I help you?" "Well, I got hit by a drunk driver and I have a brain injury and I don't know what to do." I said, "Well OK. Well I had a lot of brain injury cases and I'd be happy to help you. How did you happen to come to me?" Said, "Well the case is settled and I I have a lawyer and they settled my case, but my boss said, 'Don't sign anything until you call Claude.'" Nathan's got a lawyer. The lawyer has already accepted $100,000 dollars. I can tell just by looking at his face that he has an injury, this that would... with the jury just be far far more just be much bigger than that. And I want to help him. So I start to help him. And it turns out that although the lawyer had met his mom when Nathan was in a coma in the hospital, Nathan had never actually met the lawyer and he'd been out of that coma for about eight months. And the lawyer had never come to visit him. He never had any face-to-face meeting with Nathan when Nathan was awake and so of course Nathan had no confidence in him. It's very important to to meet your lawyer and not just sign him up over a DocuSign on the computer but get a feeling for how that person is with you as a person. And it's the same thing for me as a lawyer. I really want to meet my clients in person because I'm going to go on a journey with them for many years. So I got a hold of the drunk drivers criminal lawyer and told him the facts that I needed to know. And he said "Well, he'd been to the Sharks game with his employer and they were having a party at the company skybox and his employer had bought all the alcohol and they were entertaining company clients on the company dime. And he was driving home from that event when he hit your client.". Well in California if somebody is drinking and it's for the benefit of their employer, and then they get behind the wheel of a car, that means the employer is responsible for any damage they cause while that employee is on the road. So we put our facts together and we were able to obtain a settlement that was one hundred and fifty times greater than the original lawyer.

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