PCVA is pleased to announce that one of its case, Garza v. National Railroad Passenger, was named to the Top 25 Verdicts & Settlements of the West 2020 by The Recorder, a leading legal publication. The matter was a personal injury case that arose from the fatal 2017 Amtrak derailment that occurred near DuPont, Washington, leading to three deaths and many injured. The case went to trial, which resulted in a $4.5-million verdict for the plaintiff, who suffered a fractured spine and broken pelvis in the derailment. PCVA partners Darrell Cochran and Tom Vertetis, along with associate Christopher Love, represented the plaintiff.
In Garza, an Amtrak train was on its first paid passenger run on a route from Tacoma to Portland, Oregon, when it fell onto Interstate 5. A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation blamed the accident on inadequate training by Amtrak. Specifically, the NTSB said the engineer lost track of where he was and failed to slow down before a curve. The agency placed blame on Amtrak and state and federal regulators who it says set the engineer up to fail.
The Top 25 Verdicts & Settlements of the West recognizes the biggest verdicts and settlements among the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.