Brandon Corday, left, and Douglas Petkoff deliver openings at trial over a 2018 crash that a California woman claims injured her neck and back. Watch the trial now.
Los Angeles, CA— Attorneys debated who was at fault for a crash that a California woman says injured her neck and back, as trial opened in the case Wednesday. Udeh v. Karapetyan, 20STCV28478.
Pamela Udeh, then 56, was traveling through a Los Angeles intersection in September 2018 when her van collided with a car driven by Ani Karapetyan, as Karapetyan was in the intersection attempting to make a left-hand turn. Udeh claims Karapetyan was negligent in entering Udeh’s path of travel, and that the crash left her with neck and back injuries and ongoing pain.
Subscribers to CVN's video archive can watch this trial
LIVE & ON DEMAND
Subscribe Now.
As trial opened, accident reconstruction evidence and Udeh’s medical history looked to be central to the case.
Udeh’s attorney, Corday Law’s Brandon Corday, told jurors Wednesday that evidence would show Karapetyan attempted to make the turn despite the fact that traffic obscured her view of the oncoming lane in which Udeh was traveling.
And he said the collision left Udeh with injuries that have required surgery and ongoing pain medication. He added that she has incurred more than $180,000 in past medical expenses alone.
“Every day she wakes up thinking, ‘Today is the day I’m not going to be in pain from the car crash.’” Corday said. “And every day she’s wrong.”
But, in his opening, Karapetyan’s attorney, Douglas Petkoff, of Straus Meyers, told jurors Udeh’s injuries are unrelated to the collision, which he noted was not severe enough to deploy either vehicle’s airbags.
And he said evidence would show Udeh should have seen Karapetyan in her lane of travel and had sufficient time to stop and avoid the crash.
“[Udeh] knows there’s heavy traffic. She knows Ms. Karapetyan is there,” Petkoff said. “So she really has the best opportunity to do something.”
Trial is expected to run into next week.
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
Related information
Not a subscriber? Subscribers to our archive can watch the trial live and on demand, and access an unrivaled video library featuring the nation’s top trial attorneys.