Lindsay's Negligence No Longer a Nuisance

Lohan reaches undisclosed settlement in lawsuit stemming from '05 crash

By Gina Serpe Feb 22, 2008 9:52 PMTags

Lindsay Lohan's car troubles are finally over.

The actress has settled a negligence lawsuit brought by a busboy over a highly publicized traffic collision nearly two-and-a-half years ago.

The attorney for plaintiff Raymundo Ortega confirmed that an out-of-court deal had been reached but refused to disclose any terms of the deal. Robert G. Klein did say, however, that his client was happy with the legal outcome.

Ortega had been seeking $200,000 in damages.

Lohan's camp has yet to comment on the settlement.

The resolution comes after months of motion-filing one-upmanship between Ortega and Lohan's attorneys. Most recently, the two sides sparred over whether the actress' long-delayed deposition would be sealed or unsealed, videotaped or not.

Last month, the court ruled that Lohan's words would be kept under seal, but that she would still be videotaped at a sit-down next month. All that is now moot.

Prior to their accord, the dueling parties had kept busy with several rounds of the blame-game, with each accusing the other of having caused the Oct. 4, 2005 collision in West Hollywood.

Ortega fired off the first shot, filing his negligence lawsuit in June 2007. He alleged in court documents that a then 19-year-old Lohan had been drinking alcohol at the Ivy just prior to plowing into his vehicle, and it was a combination of her purported inebriation and distraction due to aggressively pursuing paparazzi (some things never change) that caused the crash.

Lohan's camp blasted back, denying the accusations against the twice-rehabbed star. Her legal crew specifically cited a California Highway Patrol incident report, which blamed the collision on Ortega, who was making an illegal U-turn at the time of impact.

The actress, now 21, filed a four-page countersuit against Ortega on Oct. 11, seeking $75,000 in damages to her Mercedes from the busboy, whom she accused of being "negligent in the ownership, operation, repairs and maintenance" of his van.