School District Settles Brain Injury Lawsuit. Kern County School District reaches $10.5 million settlement Wednesday with student who suffered a traumatic brain injury at a football rally. During the second day of a damages trial jurors found the school district 100 percent liable for the student’s injuries.
Plaintiff Mitch Carter sued KCSD after being assaulted in 2010 by Bakersfield High School students while wearing a chicken suit meant to mock the mascot of rival Clovis West High School. Carter accused school officials of encouraging the stunt and failing to break up the brawl quickly enough. School District Settles Brain Injury Lawsuit following the events of the game. The settlement was reached shortly after witness testimony began in the second part of a bifurcated trial after the liability phase wrapped up on Monday, according to Carter’s attorney Nick Rowley of Carpenter Zuckerman & Rowley LLP. Rowley told Courtroom View Network that KCSD’s insurer Everest National Insurance Company opted to settle the case for the school district’s full policy limit. Rowley had asked for $45 million in his opening statement, telling jurors that Carter has suffered with migraine headaches, psychological problems and a hormone deficiency as a result of the injury. He said the attack transformed Carter, who was student body president at the time, from a successful student to having near-failing grades in college “That same boy who left for school that morning never came home,” Rowley said, according to a Courtroom View Network webcast of the trial. According to Rowley KCSD made a $50,000 settlement offer before the trial began and later increased that to $1 million once the trial was underway. During jury deliberations in the liability phase Rowley said the district’s insurer upped that amount to $1.5 million. Continue Reading Originally Posted by David Siegel of CVN School District Settles Brain Injury Lawsuit – Ball & Evans & Ball & Evans Trial Attorney – Los Angeles
