Mississippi Litigation Review & Commentary : Mississippi Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Phillip W. Thomas Law Firm : MS Litigation Review & Commentary

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There was a $2.8 million verdict last week in Forrest County. This is believed to be the largest verdict in the history of Forrest County by a wide margin.

The plaintiff was paralyzed in a collision with a driver who ran a stop sign. The plaintiff had a huge amount of past and future medical expenses.

William Jones and Michael Ratliff of Hattiesburg represented the plaintiff. Plaintiff's expert witnesses included Nat Fentress (life care planner) and George Carter (economist).

Vick Smith of Hattiesburg represented the defendant.

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The Supreme Court did not issue many opinions today, but did affirm a defense verdict in Solanki v. Ervin. The case was a car wreck case involving an accident on I-220 in Jackson that resulted in a death. A Hinds County jury returned a defense verdict in 2008 and the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed in a lengthy opinion authored by Justice Graves. Don Evans represented the plaintiffs and Roy Lidell the defendant.

The most notable aspect of the case to me was how fast it flew through the court system. The accident was on March 29, 2007. Plaintiffs filed the complaint on April 10, 2007. The trial was on April 8, 2008 with the verdict returned on April 11. Post trial motion were filed and were denied on May 2, 2008. Plaintiffs filed their notice of appeal on May 30, 2008. The case was fully briefed on April 8, 2009 and submitted to the court without oral argument on July 8, 2009. The Supreme Court ruled on August 27, 2009. The whole case went from accident to having the appeal decided in a little over two years. That is fast.