Franklin Jury Awards $111,502 After Rear-End Crash Leads to Herniated Disc Surgery

The collision itself was not disputed. The defendant rear-ended the plaintiff and admitted fault, leaving the jury to decide one question: how much was the plaintiff owed?

After the crash, the plaintiff reported neck pain and began chiropractic care. She then went roughly six months without treatment. When she returned to a doctor, imaging showed a herniated disc. She underwent surgical repair. Total medical bills came to $71,502.

The defense, represented by Daniel Gagliano of Nashville, argued that the gap in treatment undercut the plaintiff's story and that imaging findings reflected degenerative disc disease already present before the crash, not a new traumatic injury. Erie Insurance appeared as a silent underinsured motorist carrier, represented by Angelica Santiago.

Jonathan Griffith and Jonathan Lawrence of GriffithLaw, based in Franklin, presented the plaintiff's case on damages only, since liability had already been conceded. They needed to persuade the jury that a relatively minor-looking rear-end impact caused a disc injury serious enough to require surgery, and that the gap in care did not break the causal chain between the crash and the eventual diagnosis.

The jury in Judge Deanna Johnson's courtroom sided with the plaintiff in full. It awarded the $71,502 in medical expenses exactly as claimed, then added $40,000 for pain and suffering, reaching a total verdict of $111,502.

The result was published in the August 2023 issue of the Tennessee Jury Verdict Reporter (22 TJVR 8), a staffed editorial publication covering civil verdicts across Tennessee courts.