A recent verdict of 11.5 Million Dollars in DeKalb State Court in Georgia illustrates the difficulty and complexity of trucking cases and how defendants attempt to evade responsibility when a catastrophic accident occurs. The case is Zegel v. PN Express. The Zegel family was on I-75 in South Georgia traveling to Florida to visit a family member. When their car slowed due to traffic congestion, a tractor-trailer driven by an immigrant from Croatia plowed into the slowing traffic and inflicting serious injuries on the mother and her young child. PN Express, an Illinois trucking company, tried to claim that the truck did not belong to them even though the driver had been given PN Express logos and identification to display on the truck. Instead, they tried to claim that the driver was carrying freight on behalf of another trucking company, Patterson Freight, out of Florida. Patterson Freight was not even a party to the lawsuit.
After listening to the testimony and evidence for five days, the jury found for the plaintiffs and awarded approximately 8 Million Dollars to the mother, 1.5 Million to her husband, and 2 Million to their daughter.
