COBALT successfully defended a client in an unprecedented, high-profile case

COBALT Senior Associate Linas Kuprusevičius successfully represented the client in court and defended the accused Jurgita Jankauskienė in a tragic case which attracted great public interest. The mother who had driven the car was blamed for the death of her passenger, a ten-year-old daughter, in a car accident. After 6 years of investigation and unraveling of the case, the court came to the opposite conclusion – no incontrovertible evidence of this driver’s guilt was found. Linas Kuprusevičius provided legal services to the accused driver pro bono.

J. Jankauskienė and her family had a huge challenge as they had to defend themselves against a strict accusation of the prosecutor’s office: the driver herself made a critical mistake and is therefore also responsible for the death of her child. The prosecutor’s office proposed that the convicted driver, who had lost her daughter in the accident, be sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, postponing the execution of the sentence. However, the judge of the Varėna Chamber of the Alytus District Court issued a verdict: J. Jankauskienė complied with all the requirements of the road traffic rules, was attentive and diligent in the traffic accident situation, took all precautionary measures dependent on her and could not foresee that another road user would significantly exceed the speed in heavy traffic and perform a bending manoeuvre in violation of the road traffic rules, which caused the tragic accident. As the accusations of causing an accident against the driver were not confirmed, J. Jankauskienė was completely acquitted by a court verdict.

The judge noted that as many as 5 expert examinations had been performed in the case but the conclusions of all of them were contradictory and did not correspond to the testimony of the witnesses of the traffic accident. The reason for this was that they were all based on the first examination, although those initial findings were erroneous, as it became clear during the court proceedings, and the expert who gave them did not have the necessary qualifications to carry out such an examination.

COBALT Senior Associate Linas Kuprusevičius prepared procedural documents pro bono, provided legal advice to J. Jankauskienė, and represented J. Jankauskienė’s interests during the court proceedings.