A truck accident lawsuit was recently settled between a driver of commercial truck and an injured driver of a personal vehicle for $1.375 million. The truck accident lawsuit was filed by Harvey S. in Bergen County, N.J.

Harvey, a former commercial truck driver himself who is now disabled and not likely to be able to return to this type of employment, was allegedly rear-ended on June 1, 2015.

According to an article about the truck accident lawsuit published in the New Jersey Law Journal on June 29, 2018, Harvey was driving his car on Route 80 near Wayne, Ind. when the accident occurred. An employee of Landscape Works based in Hackensack, New Jersey, Joseph S., allegedly rear-ended the car in a company-owned truck.

Kenneth Elwood of Blume, Forte, Fried, Zerres & Molinari in Chatham, N.J. represented the injured Harvey S. as counsel in the truck accident lawsuit—although it didn’t go to trial. According to Mr. Elwood, Harvey suffered severe spinal and shoulder injuries as a result of the accident.

Harvey’s alleged injuries most affected his neck at the C4 to C6 vertebrae, according to the New Jersey Law Journal. Images provided by the plaintiff’s counsel revealed disc profusion and spinal stenosis—painful conditions requiring ongoing intervention and management.

Harvey S. chose to pursue chiropractic care as well as physical therapy in pursuit of his recovery from these injuries. As an adjunct but necessary part of his treatment, he says he also received injections for pain management.

In mid-August 2015, the plaintiff was getting one of these injections in his cervical spine to control the pain but had a bad reaction to it. The treatment caused him to suffer oxygen deprivation by bringing on respiratory arrest. Harvey was hospitalized for a full month afterwards.

According to the article, Harvey suffers lasting physical consequences as a result of the respiratory arrest which would’ve never happened if he hadn’t been rear-ended by Joseph S. He purportedly has ongoing issues with his sense of balance and his gait is affected as well. Counsel argued that both of these problems are prohibitive to him returning to his job as a commercial truck driver.

Harvey S., according to report, has been subjected to a rehabilitative process and several sessions of physical therapy but the residual problems remain. He is now 51-years-old and, if he is able to return to employment at all, he will need to be retrained in another field of work.

Both plaintiff and defendant opted to go to mediation overseen by a former Superior Court Judge in Wayne, Indiana. The former judge—Anthony Graziano—works for Vivino and Vivino. The mediation resulted in the $1.375 million settlement between the two parties.