Dallas County Jury Awards $79,895 to Motor Vehicle Passenger Lorene Arbuckle

Lorene Kay Arbuckle was a passenger in a vehicle traveling on Iowa Highway 141 in Perry, Dallas County, when the collision at the heart of this case happened. Around 11:50 a.m. on October 14, 2017, Jocelyn Anne Kirchner, heading north on 8th Street, failed to yield at the highway intersection and was struck by the vehicle carrying Arbuckle. Arbuckle later sued Kirchner in the Iowa District Court for Dallas County, and the case went to a jury trial before Judge Gregory Hulse.

Kirchner accepted responsibility for the accident but disputed the extent of Arbuckle's injuries, so the trial centered on damages rather than liability. On the verdict form, the jury answered that Kirchner's fault was a proximate cause of Arbuckle's damages, then set the amounts for each category of loss.

Richard Schmidt and Dustin Mueller tried the case for Arbuckle. Defense attorneys Michael Carmoney, Jack Leverenz, and Bryant Hickie appeared for Kirchner.

The jury returned its verdict for the plaintiff on December 18, 2019. It awarded $6,895.55 for past medical bills, $35,500 for past loss of full mind and body, and $37,500 for past physical and mental pain and suffering, and it assigned nothing for future losses. The total came to $79,895.55, as reflected on the signed jury verdict form filed with the Dallas County Clerk of District Court.

Richard Schmidt and Dustin Mueller are trial attorneys at Mueller Schmidt Mulholland and Cooling, PLLC, based in Des Moines, Iowa, where the firm focuses on personal injury and civil trial work.