CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Sevy Fisher delivering his opening statement
San Bernardino, CA - A California state court jury heard opening statements Thursday in a lawsuit filed by a man claiming he suffered serious back and neck injuries after being rear-ended by a sheriff’s deputy who fell asleep at the wheel, and the full trial is being webcast gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Plaintiff Salvador Calderas blames San Bernardino County for injuries he claims he sustained in the 2021 incident. While the county admits liability for the underlying accident the parties disagree over the extent of Calderas’ underlying injuries and whether or not the treatment he received after the accident was necessary.
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Plaintiff attorney Sevy Fisher of The Simon Law Group described to jurors how deputy Andrew Collins “plowed into” the back of Calderas’ car at over 40 miles per hour while Calderas was stopped at traffic light. He acknowledged the county accepted liability for the accident, but he suggested they were still trying to avoid paying for directly related medical treatment.
“There’s a difference between liability and responsibility,” he stated.
Fisher told jurors that Calderas, who was 39 at the time of the accident, never sought treatment for back and neck problems before the crash. He said the impact injured a disc in Calderas’ thoracic spinal region, and that after an initial surgery didn’t relieve his ongoing pain he needed a spinal chord stimulator and a second surgical procedure to replace discs in his neck.
Fisher maintained Calderas will require significant future medical care, noting that the spinal chord stimulator in particular needs invasive maintenance procedures, and that even in a best-case scenario he would only likely see a partial-reduction of his chronic pain.
He didn’t provide an overall amount of damages he would ask for, but told jurors that while it would be “a lot” the amount would be supported by the evidence.
“No discounts for the suffering they caused him,” Fisher insisted.
Defense attorney Christopher Wesierski of Wesierski & Zurek LLP also did not provide a total amount of appropriate damages but suggested to jurors the parties are at least a million dollars apart in terms of what they consider reasonable.
CVN screenshot of defense attorney Christopher Wesierski delivering his opening statement
Wesierski repeatedly stressed that Calderas’ current symptoms were the result of disc degeneration that he argued pre-dated the accident and on his follow-up medical care, specifically the neck disc replacement operation and use of the spinal cord stimulator.
Wesierski argued Calderas only sustained a soft tissue injury to his neck, and that the only surgery he required was the initial decompression operation for the ruptured disc in his thoracic area.
He suggested that operation was a success, and that treatment of ongoing pain supposedly didn’t require such invasive steps.
“There are only certain times when you put in a spinal cord stimulator,” Wesierski said. “This was not one of those times.”
The trial is taking place before Judge Joseph Widman, and CVN’s gavel-to-gavel coverage will continue for the duration of the proceedings.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
