An extremely talented young doctor had just started her first year of residency at U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. One day, while jogging along Freeport Boulevard in Sacramento, she was struck by a vehicle while she was in a crosswalk.

She was badly injured, including serious head trauma, potentially ending her career as a doctor. We showed that the cause of this tragedy could be traced to the fact that the cross walk was in the second half of an “s” curve—creating dangerously poor visibility for both drivers and pedestrians.

The city recognized the danger and planned to install a pedestrian signal light. But the city of Sacramento did nothing.

The jury found that the circumstances created a serious danger, and that the city could have avoided it by simply closing the crosswalk until the signal was installed.

The jury awarded our client just over $18 million, the largest ever for a case of this kind in California.

Anytime two or more people are working together there is the possibility of confusion if there are not adequate rules, training, and procedures. For example, we had a case where two mechanics didn’t communicate and one did something unexpected—he started a vehicle engine while it was in gear. The result caused terrible injury to the other mechanic.

In another case, management and the crew at a lumber mill each had a different idea on how to safely unload a log truck. As a result a log fell from the truck causing serious injuries to our client, the truck driver. We showed the jury that confusion about procedures is what caused the accident and the jury awarded our client a substantial sum.

We’ve had so many cases where drivers ignore traffic signs and signals causing serious injury. One case involved a car hit broadside by a delivery truck that ran a stop sign.

The driver of the truck argued that the police report was wrong, that he had stopped and that our client, the driver of the car, was partially to blame for not anticipating the trucks’ entry onto the highway. Not a very convincing argument. Our client received a settlement of over $500,000.

We got a call from a man who encountered a cow on a rural highway. He wanted to know who had the right-of-way, the driver or the cow.

In fact some parts of California are Open Range because of the amount of grazing land in California. If you are in an accident involving livestock the jury cannot presume negligence on the part of the rancher—or the cow.

We encounter these kinds of cases regularly, including this one. The driver, our client, was travelling at 55 miles an hour when he hit a black cow on a rural road on a moonless night. An investigation showed this was not open range, the cow should not have been on the road, and our client received a settlement of $1,000,000 dollars.

Product liability occurs when any product causes injury or death as the result of a design or manufacturing flaw. It might be a product that unexpectedly breaks, cuts, or explodes. For example, when fluorocarbons were banned for use in aerosol cans, many manufacturers started using propane as propellant. Propane is an explosive gas and made all sorts of products dangerous, including hair spray, flat tire repair products, and spray lubricants.

We represented a number of injured victims. In one case our client sprayed a lubricant to stop a squeak in an electrical appliance. The spray hit an electrical connection and an explosion occurred, causing injury. Our client received $550,000 in damages.

Distractions are a major cause of automobile accidents. We represented the family of a pedestrian who had been walking along a two-lane road. The driver of an approaching vehicle looked down to change the radio, drifted onto the shoulder and hit the walker. A significant settlement was negotiated for the family.

In another case the driver of an agricultural vehicle was driving—legally—on the shoulder of the road when he was hit by a distracted driver reaching for a cup of coffee. The victim’s family received a settlement of one million dollars.

In car crashes there are sometimes multiple causes that contribute to serious injuries. Those causes may include driver error, the safety of the vehicles (think recalls), and the safety of the roadway. In order to discover all the possible causes, a prompt and thorough investigation should be done, over and above the police reports.

The vehicle manufacturers, the highway department and the insurance companies typically do not volunteer that an injury was their fault so it’s important to get competent help from a law firm right away.

In one case we helped a seriously injured passenger where both the driver of the car and car safety were factors in causing the injuries. Our client received a settlement of over $1,000,000.

The injury you receive in a motorcycle accident can be much more severe than if you were in a car simply because you have less protection. And, by the way, some drivers are so prejudiced against motorcyclists that they may say, “You had it coming.”

An unfortunate but typical case we handled involved a motorcyclist legally in an intersection when a car slammed into the bike. The driver of the car argued that the motorcycle could not be seen. Not a good argument but it resonates well with juries.

We were able to show that our client was obeying the rules of the road and he received a substantial settlement.

California personal injury lawyers Dugan Barr and Doug Mudford are among the most well-known and highly regarded accident and personal injury attorneys in California. Representing victims of serious injury throughout the West since 1967, the firm of Barr and Mudford, LLP is headquartered in Redding, California.

One important way to choose a law firm that will provide aggressive, high-quality representation is to look at the <a href=”case-studies”>kinds of cases</a> the firm has handled in the past. It is also helpful to learn the results of those cases.

This web site contains a sampling of 18 cases handled by Barr and Mudford. They range from victims of unnecessary heart surgery as documented in the national best-selling book “Coronary,” to victims of design defects in freeway surfacing, automobiles and boats, and to victims of negligence on the part corporations, individuals, and governmental agencies.

Take a moment to examine some case studies, and then tell us about your case. You can simply hit the “Your Case” button above and send us confidential information by private email, or you can call us at 800-528-2020, or 530-243-8008.

Choose a law firm with a history of caring about victims of serious injury, a law firm with a documented history of success.