Galveston Personal Injury Law Firm the Law Offices of Gene S. Hagood Gets Results
Case results matter in personal injury cases. How much money you obtain could mean the difference between being able to continue to live your life the way you want and being forced to make serious sacrifices to avoid financial ruin.
Galveston personal injury law firm the Law Offices of Gene S. Hagood is known throughout Texas for the firm's ability to obtain large, sometimes multi-million-dollar verdicts or settlements for clients. Many auto accidents and truck accidents might seem straightforward. But when it comes to obtaining compensation for victims, you need a skilled, experienced Texas personal injury attorney on your side.
We understand this at the Law Offices of Gene S. Hagood. Attorney Gene S. Hagood has the case results to back it up. His case results cover a wide range. They include:
- Truck Accident: Attorney Gene S. Hagood and two fellow attorneys obtained a $281 million verdict in Dimmit County on behalf of the family of a veteran who died in a 2012 truck accident. The verdict was one of the largest of its kind ever in Texas. The Law Offices of Gene Hagood represented the deceased man's mother, father, wife and estate. An attorney working with Mr. Hagood represented two of the children. The accident happened May 29, 2012, when the man was struck by a 20-pound drive shaft that broke off an 18-wheel truck and crashed through the victim's windshield. The victim's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Heckmann Water Resources (CVR), Inc., the owner of the 18-wheeler truck involved in work in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, and one of its employees. The lawsuit alleged that the fatal accident happened because the defendants did not properly maintain the tractor-trailer. The verdict includes $181 million in damages and $100 million in punitive damages against Heckmann. The deceased man, who was a father of seven, had returned from two deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq a couple of years earlier.
- Slip and Fall Accident: Attorney Hagood obtained a $1.7 million verdict in this slip and fall case. The jury ruled that Cinemark Movies 12 was 100 percent negligent and the unmarked hazard on the floor posed an "unreasonable risk of harm," according to court records. Such a verdict sends a clear, strong message to businesses throughout South Texas. If you fail to take steps to correct hazardous conditions, you could be held responsible for your actions if someone gets seriously hurt in a slip and fall accident.
- Bus Accident: Attorney Gene Hagood represented victims of a bus rollover accident in Houston involving more than 50 Vietnamese passengers. They were on a religious pilgrimage to Missouri when a tire blew out, causing the bus to roll over off the highway and down a ravine. A number of passengers were killed and injured. Lawsuits were filed against the bus operators and the manufacturers of the bus, seats, seat belts, and tires. Attorney Hagood and other Houston lawyers reached a confidential settlement after three years of hard work to prove the cases.
- Tractor-Trailer Accident: A case settled for a confidential amount in 2012 arising out of an 18-wheeler collision. Our client, driving a work truck on a multi-lane highway, rear-ended an 18-wheeler commercial motor vehicle that made an abrupt right turn from the center lane into the right lane in front of our client while slowing to make an additional right turn. The tractor-trailer driver claimed that he was in the right lane the entire time and he slowed to make a right turn and our client rear-ended him. Through painstaking forensic accident reconstruction efforts and forensic toxicological analyses, we were able to prove that the 18-wheeler began his right turn in the center lane and was intoxicated from cocaine ingestion at the time of the incident. The collision caused severe orthopedic injuries to our client, resulting in surgery and the need for substantial medical care.
- Tractor-Trailer Accident: Settled 18-wheeler/commercial motor vehicle collision where the defendant driver of the 18-wheeler and his employer violated numerous provisions of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations and the employer's internal safety policies. In this collision, the 18-wheeler driver decided to make an improper and illegal left turn into the vehicle driven by my client. Through exhaustive investigative work and a thorough knowledge of the Federal Regulations, we were able to determine that the defendant driver did not have a legal medical certificate to drive, had misrepresented much of his qualifications and background in operating a commercial motor vehicle and attempted to hide an illegal passenger with him at the time of the accident. In the middle of the deposition of this driver, and in the presence of the owner and safety director of the employer company, an excellent defense lawyer requested to stop the deposition to settle the case. The case was settled for confidential amounts. All three of our clients had varying degrees of orthopedic injuries necessitating surgeries, surgical recommendations and future medical care.
- Tractor-Trailer Accident: Represented a young man in one of three vehicles rear-ended by an out-of-control 18-wheeler that failed to stop after cresting an overpass on the Gulf Freeway, Interstate 45, in Houston, TX. The 18-wheeler plowed into these 3 vehicles, severely injuring each of the plaintiffs. The 18-wheeler driver and his employer company attempted to claim that the trailer brakes unexpectedly failed causing his inability to timely stop to avoid the collisions. Through in-depth expert evaluations and laboratory-related analyses, we were able to determine that any decreased efficiency of the two trailer brakes did not contribute at all to the collision or the severity of the collision. The cases settled for confidential amounts in excess of the insurance policy limits. Each of the plaintiffs suffered severe orthopedic injuries resulting in surgeries and substantial future medical care.
- Airplane Crash: Handled an airplane crash that occurred in Toluca, Mexico, involving the death of a passenger and severe injuries to the pilot. The aircraft was in-bound for landing at Toluca from Cancun when, approximately a mile from the runway, the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed. Through months of work with numerous experts in many disciplines (aircraft maintenance, metallurgist, aircraft reconstruction, aircraft design, valve and o-ring experts), we were able to determine that a faulty valve allowed fuel to leak from the aircraft while in flight, unbeknownst to the pilot. A defect in a 5-cent o-ring of that valve was the cause. Many months were spent in reconstructing how and why this could and did occur at the valve manufacturer's manufacturing facility. A tool used in the process was ultimately determined to be the cause of the microscopic cuts in the o-ring resulting in the failure of the o-ring in service. The pilot's injuries and the surviving family of the deceased settled their cases prior to trial for a confidential amount.
Such settlements are critical for covering the true cost of an accident. Too often, too many people focus simply on their short-term needs, especially emergency medical expenses. But the truth is many accidents cost people millions of dollars many years later. There's lost future income, additional operations and home modifications in addition to pain and suffering for people who sustain permanent disabilities, to name a just few examples of accident-related costs. All of these expenses add up. And the Law Offices of Gene S. Hagood takes them all into account when fighting to get you the compensation you rightfully deserve. Case results count here.
Expect more. Contact the Law Offices of Gene S. Hagood. Your case matters here
Your current case may be your only opportunity for justice. Make the most of it. Contact a Houston personal injury lawyer who understands the state's complicated legal system. Experience matters.
Expect more. Contact the Law Offices of Gene S. Hagood today. Call (800) 632-9404 and schedule a free case evaluation. Best of all, if you choose to hire us, you pay us nothing if we don't win. That's because we work on a contingency fee basis. No tricks. No games. Just straightforward, honest legal advice from an experienced Houston personal injury lawyer fighting for your rights.