Dugan Barr of the Redding law firm Barr and Mudford said, “This case is of tragic proportions. One of the neuropsychologists who testified at the trial said that, of the more than 6,000 patients who survived brain injuries, he has seen only two that were worse.”

The woman, a young doctor who had just started her first year of residency at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, was jogging along Freeport Boulevard when she was struck by a vehicle in a crosswalk near a three-way intersection.

The cause of the tragedy could be traced to the fact that the crosswalk was in the second half of an “S Curve,” creating dangerously poor visibility for both drivers and pedestrians.

The City identified the crosswalk as dangerous and planned to install a pedestrian-activated walk signal but they failed to act. Moreover, the City took no other action such as directing pedestrians down the street to a safer crosswalk.

“While we were pleased with how well the jury understood the facts of the case and the horrible injuries our client received, nothing can make up for the fact, as the result of these terrible injuries, she may never achieve her dream of working as a doctor,” said Mr. Barr. “We were honored to have been asked by her family to represent her in this case.”

The NTL noted that evaluation of Mr. Barr’s qualifications demonstrated “performance as an exceptional trial lawyer in California.”

With this development, the firm of Barr and Mudford has become the only law firm in Northern California to have each of its principals so honored. Doug Mudford was also recently chosen by the National Trial Lawyers as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in California.

Both men are natives of Northern California. Mr. Barr was born and raised in Yreka and Mr. Mudford’s family moved to Arcata when he was very young and he grew up there.

Although many cases settle short of trial, that cannot be counted on in any given case. A trial lawyer must have the ability to do a first-rate job representing the client in court, in trial, in those cases that do not settle. That skill can only be judged from actual trial results in the courtroom, something that is recognized by this honor.

“My partner Doug Mudford and I are grateful for being honored by highly respected people in the legal community nationally,” said Mr. Barr.

Dugan Barr is also distinguished as a Diplomate, American Board of Trial Advocates, a Fellow, International Academy of Trial Lawyers and a Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers. He was recognized as Northern California Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2005. He has been practicing law in Redding since 1967 after attending Reed College in Portland and the University of Chicago School of Law.

For more, click the link to Dugan Barr’s Bio Page

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.

The young woman, a highly praised medical student at UC Davis, was hit by a vehicle
in a Sacramento crosswalk. She received extensive injuries that may prevent her from
pursuing her career in medicine.

“We were able to demonstrate to the jury that the crosswalk the woman entered was a
potential death trap as the result of it’s configuration, poor visibility and substandard
markings,” said Dugan Barr.

The City alleged that everything was up to code. “The problem was that at the time
of the accident there were serious problems with this unique intersection and City
employees had issued recommendations for upgrades that were not implemented until
after this awful accident,” added Mr. Barr.

The jury verdict of $16 million is among the largest single-injury awards by a jury in the
United States.

For more details you can go to SacBee.com or Redding.com

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. Eastern District Court in Sacramento by Barr and Mudford
and demands a jury trial. The law suit alleges Benson deviated significantly from a route
to jail as he was transporting the woman to Shasta County jail after she was arrested on a
traffic violation.

“No one is safe if we can’t totally trust the behavior of our law enforcement officers,”
said Dugan Barr. “Think about your wife or daughter getting stopped by the police and
having to be afraid of what might happen.”

For more information go to Redding.com and search for “Barr and Mudford.”

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.