Article: Verdicts & Settlements March 23, 2009: Jury hits drunken driver with $469,000 verdict

A Jackson County jury awarded $469,000 to a motorist injured in a collision with a drunken driver. The verdict included $269,000 in punitive damages.

In closing arguments, Kansas City plaintiff's counsel Brian T. Meyers argued "it would be a shame" if the defendant was allowed to prevail. If the jury sided with a convicted drunken driver, Meyers argued, the defendant "would be toasting his buddies later that night at a country club in Mission Hills, telling them how he fooled those chumps on the jury in Jackson County."

Christopher R. Pickert, a 26-year-old computer software engineer from Olathe, Kan., was driving a 2005 BMW 530i in South Kansas City at 11 p.m. Oct. 27, 2007. He had been at ...

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