$485,000 Awarded to Woman Injured in Motor Vehicle Accident In 2003, Oceanside personal injury lawyer Russell Kohn helped a 39-year-old wife and mother obtain a $485,000 settlement for injuries sustained in a head-on motor vehicle collision. Though liability was not an issue, the severity of the injuries were contested; the woman had collided with a tree only eight months earlier and suffered injuries to the same leg as in the second collision. She eventually required a total knee replacement. The defense argued that she would have required a total knee replacement within five years even if the second accident had not happened. The plaintiff's own expert orthopedist agreed that she probably would have required such procedure absent the second collision, but not until much later in life. The claim was ultimately settled in private mediation.