Judge awards county man $1 1M damages for 2003 accident
Released on = August 21, 2007, 7:20 am
Press Release Author = Lala C. Ballatan
Industry = Law
Press Release Summary = On Monday, August 13, 2007, a federal judge awarded a man from Aroostook County the amount of $1.1M in damages as compensation for the injuries he had suffered in an accident that happened four years or more before. The accident involved a patrol agent for the U.S. Border.
Press Release Body = On Monday, August 13, 2007, a federal judge awarded a man from Aroostook County the amount of $1.1M in damages as compensation for the injuries he had suffered in an accident that happened four years or more before. The accident involved a patrol agent for the U.S. Border.
Los Angeles, California, August 17, 2007 - U. S. District Judge John Woodcock gave the said amount of money to Richard Bouchard, 39 years old from Caribou. The money was to compensate for the injuries suffered by Bouchard during an accident in 2003 at Caribou while a snowstorm was ongoing.
On January 19, 2003 Bouchard and his son, then 15 years old suffered injuries when the car they were riding was hit by another car, a sport utility vehicle being driven by Border Patrol Agent Dennis Harmon, then 37 years old. The accident happened on Route 1 of Caribou in the thick of a snowstorm.
When the accident occurred, the boy was visiting Bouchard.
By early 2004, the mother of Bouchard\'s son, Lora Levesque from Winslow sued the U.S. government on her son\'s behalf, together with Harmon\'s employer. The lawsuit she filed with the U.S. District Court in Bangor, Maine.
On the other hand, it was December 2005 when Bouchard filed the same lawsuit.
Levesque was awarded the amount of $95,000 in damages on behalf of her son by February 2005. The U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk found that the Harmon had been negligent for driving too fast even with the road conditions.
Bouchard\'s case pushed through more slowly since the government filed a countercharge. It argued that Bouchard, with pre-existing medical situation, criminal record and substance abuse troubles, must only be allowed limited damages.
The amount for damages was determined in April after Woodcock presided over a trial that had ran two days and been waived by the jury.
In the course of the trial, the judge found that due to the knee replacement surgery undergone by Bouchard and other injuries sustained by him after the accident, he could no longer work as a welder. Bouchard\'s future income would be drastically limited because of this.
As compensation for his past medical bills, future medical concerns, lost earnings, future income, and other fringe benefits, Woodcock granted more than $703,000 for Bouchard. Aside from these, Bouchard was also awarded with around $397,000 by Woodstock for the pain and suffering he had incurred.
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