Plaintiff Receives $1.7M Settlement in Bystander Case

NEWS ARTICLE EXCERPT

By: Fred Horlbeck, South Carolina Lawyers Weekly, March 2, 2009

A Richland County plaintiff has settled for $1.7 million in a bystander liability claim against a trucking company after a tractor-trailer fatally struck his mother on Interstate 20 in December.

The sum is apparently the largest ever reported in South Carolina for a claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress based on bystander liability, said Columbia lawyer Richard A. "Dick" Harpootlian, who represented the plaintiff.

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"We just basically covered all our bases and approached the defense and indicated we thought this was a clear liability case. I think they conceded it was a question of damages, and we mediated it early enough to where we didn't have a lot of expenses in it, and neither did they," he said.

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Contact South Carolina Lawyers Weekly http://www.sclawyersweekly.com/ for the full article.