Serving the Triangle and all of North Carolina

Case Review Form

For a review of your case please call us at (919) 916-6000 or fill in the case review form.

Use of the Internet or this form for communication with the firm or any individual member of the firm does not establish an attorney-client relationship. Confidential or time-sensitive information should not be sent through this form.

Testimonials

The entire process went smoother and my life got easier

Media Coverage

City, victim complete $2M accident settlement

Taibi Law Group Blog

The time for 2022 Health Insurance Open enrollment is here

5 Important things to consider before purchasing homeowners insurance

Taibi Law Group News

Anthony Taibi published in Trial Briefs Magazine

A Good Lawsuit Requires More Than a Bad Bargain by Anthony Taibi. Published June 13 in Trial Briefs Magazine, a pu ...

Anthony Taibi is keynote speaker at University of Connecticut School of Law

Anthony Taibi is keynote speaker at University of Connecticut School of Law conference entitled, “Race and the La ...

View All Media Coverage

City, victim complete $2M accident settlement

01 Jan 1970

City, victim complete $2M accident settlement

By Ray Gronberg - Durham Herald Sun

DURHAM — City officials have settled for $2 million an accident claim from a man who suffered head injuries after being hit by a Water Management Department

truck late in 2012.

Half the payment to Reyes Abreo Gonzalez is being covered by insurance. The rest is coming from the city’s tax-funded risk-management reserve, Senior Assistant City Attorney Kim Rehberg said.

Rehberg and lawyers for Gonzalez negotiated the deal out of court, prior to and heading off the filing of a lawsuit.

“As soon as that accident happened, we had our own risk folks look at it,” Rehberg said, indirectly acknowledging that the facts wouldn’t have been on the city’s side in any legal battle. “We took it very seriously. It was a pretty bad accident; an unfortunate event.”

Gonzalez, the organizer of youth soccer leagues in the local Hispanic community, was injured on Dec. 30, 2011, as he walked to work at the Guglhupf Café.

He was crossing the road in compliance with a traffic signal when he was struck by the truck, which was making a left turn.

“It was early morning; I don’t know whether there was glare involved,” Rehberg said. “But for whatever reason, our truck driver did not see Mr. Gonzalez at all.”

The impact threw Gonzalez several feet. Medics took him to Duke University Hospital, where he remained in a coma for nine days.

His lawyers said he suffered “extensive brain damage,” leg fractures and internal injuries. He is still undergoing treatment and rehabilitation.

“The emergency and acute services Reyes received were incredible, but this settlement was needed to fund his long-term rehabilitative and care services,” lawyer Anthony Taibi said in announcing the deal.

Rehberg said the essentials of the deal were reached in February and ratified in closed session by the City Council.

The formal paperwork was completed on Wednesday, after a signoff from Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson.

Read more about this case by clicking here