Our client was doing nothing at all. She was sitting in her parked car at a truck stop, her vehicle stationary, when a truck driver suddenly turned and slammed into her. The force dragged her car roughly ten feet.
There is no version of this crash in which she did anything wrong. A stationary, lawfully parked vehicle cannot contribute to a collision. That fact made liability about as clear as it gets, and it let the case focus entirely on the harm the driver caused.
That harm was significant: multiple spinal disc injuries, a torn shoulder labrum, and jaw pain, along with emotional distress and depression. Her shoulder required surgery, and her doctors have recommended cervical spine fusion. The injuries have seriously affected her daily life and her ability to work. The Townsley Law Firm recovered a settlement of over $575,000.
When the Victim Is Parked, Fault Is Not the Fight
Most collision cases involve some dispute over what each driver did. When the injured person was parked and motionless, that dispute disappears. A car that is not moving cannot fail to yield, cannot be speeding, and cannot have done anything to cause a truck to turn into it.
That does not mean the insurer simply pays. When fault is undeniable, the defense shifts its energy to the injuries instead, arguing they are less serious than claimed, pre-existing, or unrelated to the crash. So even in a case with clear liability, the real contest becomes proving the full extent of the harm and its connection to the collision. That is where the medical record and the documentation of how the injuries changed the client’s life become the center of the case.
Disc Protrusions, Extrusions, and a Recommended Fusion
Our client’s spinal injuries were not minor. A disc protrusion and a disc extrusion are both forms of disc displacement more significant than a simple bulge. In an extrusion in particular, disc material pushes out beyond the disc space, where it can press on spinal nerves and cause radiating pain, numbness, and weakness.
When disc injuries are severe and do not resolve with conservative treatment, surgery enters the picture. Her doctors recommended cervical spine fusion, a major operation in which a damaged disc is removed and the adjacent vertebrae are permanently joined together with hardware and a bone graft. Fusion relieves nerve compression but permanently reduces motion at that level and places added stress on the neighboring segments over time. A person who undergoes it does not return to a pre-injury spine.
This surgery was recommended but not yet performed, so its full cost and consequences were part of the claim. Louisiana law allows recovery for reasonably certain future medical care, so a recommended fusion counts even before the operation takes place.
The Injuries That Get Overlooked: Shoulder and Jaw
Two of her injuries deserve specific attention, because they are commonly underestimated.
The shoulder labrum tear:
The labrum is the ring of cartilage that deepens and stabilizes the shoulder socket. A tear causes pain, weakness, catching, and a sense of instability, and it often does not heal without surgical repair. Our client’s torn labrum required surgery.
The jaw injury:
Jaw pain after a crash is frequently dismissed, but it is a recognized consequence of the sudden forces involved in a collision, particularly a violent one that drags a vehicle. Crash-related jaw injuries can involve the temporomandibular joint, the hinge connecting the jaw to the skull, and can cause pain with chewing and speaking, clicking, headaches, and limited jaw movement. TMJ problems can be persistent and genuinely disruptive to daily life, and they are a legitimate part of an injury claim when connected to the crash.
Alongside the physical injuries, our client experienced emotional distress and depression, which are compensable and are a common and serious consequence of a traumatic collision and a difficult recovery.
