Birmingham Personal Injury News: Former Alabama Exotic Dancer Wins $100K Injury Suit following DUI Accident
As a personal injury attorney serving clients in Birmingham, Auburn, Gadsden, Bessemer and throughout Alabama, I have the skills and experience to help individuals injured as a result of another person’s negligence. Whether it’s a slip-and-fall accident, products liability case or injury resulting from a drunk driver, you’re best course of action is to retain the services of a qualified legal professional.
Not surprisingly, an experienced auto accident lawyer and personal injury attorney can make all the difference in the world to someone hurt in a traffic or on-premises accident. A recent article brought to mind the potential benefit of bringing legal knowledge to bear in an injury case. According to news articles, it has never happened in the history of Alabama’s legal system, but a former nightclub stripper sued her employer after she drove drunk and became injured in a drunk driving-related car crash.
Amazingly, the former exotic dancer was awarded $100,000 after blaming the club for her accident. According to court records, Patsy Hamaker of Bessemer, AL, claimed she left the strip club in an intoxicated state and eas subsequently injured in a 2007 traffic accident. She argued that the nightclub went against its own written policies, although lawyers for the club said that no policies where in existence at the time.
Hamaker had filed the suit against The Furnace in Jefferson County for a total of $1.2 million in damages after she left the club and drove home drunk. According to reports, the woman had a 0.198 blood-alcohol content following the accident on October 17, 2007.
Although the plaintiff was legally drunk, she claimed the club was at fault for allowing her to leave before she sobered up. Defense attorney’s for the club argued that Hamaker was also high on other substances, which the club apparently did not know about. Still, a jury sided with the former exotic dancer, who said she can no longer dance because of the injuries sustained in that traffic accident. A Jefferson County jury awarded her $100,000 for compensatory damages to cover her unpaid medical bills. No punitive damages were awarded.
The defense said it would consider an appeal from a public policy stand point since there has never been a case like this in the state of Alabama.
Jury awards ex-Stripper $100K for DUI wreck, WashingtonPost.com, February 3, 2010
Former Exotic Dancer Wins Lawsuit Update, CBS42.com, February 2, 2010
