Mark D. Tinker just completed the second successful appeal in a wrongful death action involving a pedestrian who was struck by a car.
The case was originally tried by outside counsel and resulted in a multi-million dollar verdict. On appeal, Mr. Tinker had that verdict reversed for a new trial. On retrial, the jury returned a defense verdict, likely due to the fact that it saw statements from the investigating officer’s accident report where eyewitnesses said that the plaintiff was texting on his cellular phone, never looked up, and simply walked out into traffic. This time the plaintiff appealed, claiming that statements in the accident report should be privileged. Mr. Tinker had that verdict affirmed, however, because the accident report privilege only applies to involved parties, not eyewitnesses.
