Verdicts And Settlements
Our Latest: SIX FIGURE SETTLMENT FOR UNBELTED DRIVER EJECTED IN CRASH WITH DUI
Our Client, a kind and gentle man from Peru, was working the night shift operating a Miami airport shuttle bus when he was hit broadside by a drunk driver blowing a red light at high speed. The impact sent our client through the open driver’s side window onto the pavement 30 feet away. He lost consciousness, and was left with multiple traumatic injuries including orthopedic fractures and a closed head injury with post concussion syndrome.
It was clear that the crash was entirely the other driver’s fault. But was my client wearing his seat belt and shoulder harness at the time? This was a critical issue. Under law, the seat belt defense provides that one’s damages should be reduced to the extent that the injuries resulted from the failure to war an operative seat belt. In this case, my client could not definitively say whether or not he was belted. There was memory loss from the head trauma. But forensically, if he was belted, he would not and could not have been ejected.
Jury verdicts reducing damage awards because of the seat belt defense swing wildly. Sometimes an injured plaintiff’s recovery can be reduced by as little as 20%, and sometimes as much as 60% or more.
Weighing risk versus reward, my client gratefully accepted a confidential settlement in the mid-six figure range, once of the richest on record for similar cases, and today. I am glad to report, he and his family enjoy a measure of peace to compensate for his unfortunate injuries.
Please buckle up.
Our Latest: How To Win A Sidewalk Trip-And-Fall Case
Sidewalk trip-and-fall cases are very difficult to win. The local government always points out, correctly, that it’s impossible to monitor sidewalk conditions on every street in town all the time. So the challenge becomes to show not that they should have known about the defect, but that they actually did know about it.
Take the case of my client, a lovely middle-aged lady who sustained serious injuries after a fall on a sidewalk in Palm Beach County.
Through public records requests, we learned that the city manager where my client had fallen had written the Florida Department of Transportation twice complaining about hazardous conditions on the sidewalk in the area where my client later fell.
Twice, the Florida Department of Transportation replied to the City Manager by pointing out that the defective sidewalks were the responsibility of the city, not the Florida Department of Transportation.
We took the video deposition of the City Manager, and put this exchange of correspondence in front of him and on the record, with the defense attorney sitting there powerless to stop us. A six-figure settlement and the gratitude of a happy client ensued.
Confidential Settlement For Injured Foster Child
Our firm was successful in winning a confidential settlement for a girl, age 7, burned in a foster home. Under today’s system, the state has “privatized” foster care, contracting our foster care to private companies. Under Gov. Jeb Bush, those private foster-care companies helped write their own regulatory statutes, which provide that the private contractor/foster parent is liable only upon a showing of “willful disregard” – a higher standard than ordinary “negligence.” Unfortunately, as recent headlines and our own experience remind us, “willful disregard” is precisely what happens too often in some foster homes. For a lawyer, these cases are especially poignant, involving a child who has been victimized twice.
Confidential Settlement For Brain Damaged GI In Truck Vs. Car Crash
Guy walks into a lawyer’s office. A handsome U.S. Coast Guardsman, he sustained a brain injury in a night-time crash with a truck on the Turnpike that he cannot remember because of amnesia resulting from injuries sustained in the crash.
There are no other known witnesses, other than the truck driver who claims to have been rear ended. In the meantime, our client’s career in the Coast Guard is over. He’s been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and is no longer fit for duty. Can I help him?
So begins a case that went on for four years, pitting our firm against five leading Florida defense firms and four separate defendants including the truck driver, the trucking company, the construction company that the driver was hauling for and our client’s auto insurer.
Complex truck regulations were researched. Truck safety and human factors experts were brought in. Obtaining the 911 tapes, we discovered a previously unidentified witness who provided key information about the accident. The scene, the vehicles, weather and lighting conditions were analyzed. Evidence was compiled piece by piece like a mosaic.
The picture that emerged at the end told a story much different than the one given by the truck driver, who, we discovered, had lied on his job application to cover up a bad driving record. Prior to trial, the case resulted in a confidential settlement reached after a day-long mediation. After a long, arduous ordeal, and months of therapies, our client is successfully pursing a new career, and a new life.
Our Latest: When A Ceiling Collapses The Landlord’s Liable
Our client, a single working mother, was in the bathroom of her apartment one evening when suddenly a portion of the ceiling above her collapsed. She was hit on the head and shoulders with approximately 20 pounds of falling plaster drywall that had become saturated and heavy with water because of repeated leaks that she had complained about numerous times before to her landlord. Fire rescue responded, and the following day, she entered the care of a chiropractor for injuries to her head and neck. The building department also responded and found that leaking water had contaminated the drywall in the apartment with mildew, and the apartment had to be gutted. Fortunately, we were successful in obtaining a substantial settlement in favor of our client from the landlord’s insurance company, and our client has since moved to a more suitable apartment.
Our Latest: Going The Extra Distance To Find Coverage
Our client sustained multiple fractures in a serious crash. The insurance coverage identified by the at-fault driver turned out to have lapsed before the accident. No coverage usually means no recovery.
Many attorneys would stop there. We did not. Not generally well known is the fact the state’s Bureau of Financial Responsibility maintains a data base showing the insurance coverage on all registered vehicles. A written request to the Bureau requesting insurance coverage on the at-fault car in effect on the date of accident yielded the name and policy number of an undisclosed insurance company. We promptly placed the insurance carrier on notice, and within days, the company tendered its entire policy limits to our client.
Fast Food Franchise Pays Settlement For Food Poisoning
We’re proud that many law firms and attorneys in the area turn to us for help with their personal injury cases and clients. One example: A lovely working-mother of three, visiting Fort Lauderdale for a short vacation, became violently ill several hours after eating a late-night supper at a local fried chicken franchise.
Rushed to the emergency room, where she was heavily medicated, she cut her trip short and suffered for weeks afterwards as the illness ran its course. At first, the restaurant chain’s insurance company denied the claim, saying there was no proof that the illness came from its food. That’s when we came in.
We were ultimately able to successfully resolve the case in consideration of a substantial settlement in favor of the client, who was pleased with the result as was our referring attorney.
Long term benefits for teenage girl injured in golf car accident
Our client was a pretty 19-year old who sustained a severe skull fracture in a freak accident while stepping off a golf cart. Following the accident, she discovered that she had lost her sense of smell, and physicians diagnosed “anosmia”—the complete and total loss of smell, which is permanent in most cases. She was also diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury with cognitive impairments, chronic migraines, personality change and depression.
Investigating aggressively, and working closely with our client, her family and doctors, we were able to convincingly demonstrate a strong case of liability and damages prior even to filing a lawsuit. The result was a confidential settlement that will pay substantial benefits to our client for decades to come, along with a substantial cash payment.
High blood pressure in the dental office
A confidential settlement was achieved for the estate of an elderly woman with high blood pressure who was stricken with cardiac arrest in the dentist’s chair after receiving anesthesia containing epinephrine (synthetic adrenaline) which is known to cause dangerous reactions in patients with high blood pressure.
The dental treatment of patients with high blood pressure requires special care. We are one of the few firms which practice in this often difficult area of law. We created a Power Point presentation that presented our clients case forcefully and convincingly. The result was a settlement negotiated in mediation in favor of our client who was spared the burden of extensive litigation and trial.
When Denial Is Part Of The Injury
Proving an injury usually involves getting an evaluation from the client’s doctors. But what if your client refuses to go to the doctor? Or even admit that she’s hurt? And doesn’t even remember the car accident that put her in the hospital for three weeks with a serious brain injury?
This was the predicament after a Sunny Isles Beach grandmother was knocked to the ground when a careless driver ran into the grocery cart which she was pushing as she crossed the street in Aventura. Bleeding profusely, and rushed to the intensive care unit at the nearest trauma center, tests revealed bleeding in several areas of the brain. After being transferred to a rehabilitation hospital, she discharged herself against doctor’s orders.
Suffering with memory problems, personality changes and cognitive deficits, our client stubbornly refused to seek medical attention. Fortunately, thanks to deep relationships forged over years of experience, we were able to actually bring top physicians and experts to her, including a board certified neurologist, who went to her apartment and interviewed and examined her there with great kindness and gentility. The client’s family, who lives in another state, was more than grateful.
A confidential six figure settlement was reached consisting of the entire policy limits of the opposing driver’s insurance coverage. The recovery will go far towards helping our client pay for attendant care and other specialized needs to provide her comfort in the remaining years of her life.
A dental file broken off and left in the tooth?
A confidential settlement was achieved in favor of a New York woman who learned from her New York dentist that a metal piece had broken off and was left in her mouth after a root canal procedure in Miami one month before.
Florida law presumes liability against a health care provider in the event of objects such as medical equipment left inside the human body. But the presumption can be rebutted, and there must be proof that substantial damages resulted.
Dental malpractice is a practice area we have developed over the years, and we selectively accept such cases in our practice. While files can broke during a procedure even in the hands of a skilled dentist, it is malpractice for the dentist not to advise the patient, and not to take reasonable steps to remove the broken hardware from the patient’s tooth after such an occurrence.
Confidential six-figure settlement for slip-and-fall
The scene was luxury condominium, where residents pay premium prices for premium accommodations. Only one thing:
Maintenance crews would use high gloss sealants in certain areas on walkways outside, so in some places it would be slippery when it rained, and in other spots less so.
We brought in an expert to test the coefficient of friction. X-rays taken immediately after the accident showing a displaced knee cap. X-rays taken months later showed orthopedic hardware permanently installed in our client’s leg.
Although in her eighth decade of life, the client was an athlete, skilled in tennis and golf, still leading a vigorous, outgoing and social life. Good clients make for good results, and after a thorough work-up, we were able to precisely that by means of a six figure settlement accomplished without putting the client through the stress of jury trial.
MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR DAMAGE VERDICT FOR SECURITY GUARD, 64, IN SLIP AND FALL
Our client, a 64-year old security guard, tripped and fell because of a defective walking surface where construction work in the bank building had been left uncompleted. The fall injured a previously undiscovered condition in his spine known as an arteriovenous malformation, which resulted in paraplegia. The jury returned a $1.8-million damage award.
SEVEN FIGURE SETTLEMENT FOR SERIOUSLY INJURED BURN VICTIM FOLLOWING GAS EXPLOSION
A local gas company did sloppy work disconnecting and capping off a stove, causing a slow gas leak. Our client in the apartment next door went to light the pilot light on his stove, igniting a huge explosion that left him with 3rd degree burns over 70% of his body. After hard fought litigation, a seven-figure settlement in favor of our client resulted.
SEVEN FIGURE SETTLEMENT FROM JAPANESE AUTOMAKER FOR SPINAL CHORD INJURIES FROM UNSAFE ATV
An all-terrain vehicle (ATV) flipped and came down on the back of our client, 21, leaving him paralyzed. The seven figure-settlement from the Japanese manufacturer came after we developed proof that the manufacturer knew of the vehicle’s propensity to cause such injuries but failed to warn about them.
CONFIDENTIAL SEVEN-FIGURE SETTLEMENT FOR BEREAVED CHILDREN AND HUSBAND
After a psychiatrist and hospital failed to implement and follow appropriate suicide precautions, our client’s wife took her own life while admitted to hospital as a suicide risk. A confidential settlement in a seven-figure amount was reached shortly after our expert witnesses explained how and why appropriate precautions would have prevented this tragic loss.
PRECEDENT SETTING $424,000.00 DAMAGE AWARD FOR DOG BITE VICTIM
Our client, age 9, was attacked in the park next door to her apartment complex by two pit-bulls. The jury returned the damage award against both the dog owners and the apartment complex’s landlord–the first time ever in Florida that a landlord was held liable for off premises dog bites by a tenant’s dog.
SIX-FIGURE SETTLEMENT FOR DENTAL MALPRACTICE VICTIM
Our client needed open heart surgery after developing an infection when her dentist failed to follow special protocols for extracting a tooth from a patient with a history of rheumatic fever. A six-figure settlement was successfully negotiated with the dentist’s insurance company.
CONFIDENTIAL SIX-FIGURE SETTLEMENT FOR 92 YEAR OLD WOMAN WITH BILATERAL KNEE FRACTURES
Our client, age 92, suffered bilateral prosthetic knee fractures in a motor vehicle accident, resulting in two surgeries, after which one leg remained anatomically misaligned. Thanks to careful and aggressive investigation, a confidential six-figure settlement was reached with the other driver’s insurance company without even filing suit.
CONFIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT FOR TEACHER FOLLOWING EMERGENCY ROOM NEGLECT
Mistaken for being drunk, our client was ignored for hours in the emergency room, and as a result, sustained brain damage resulting from the delay in discovering bleeding in his brain as a result of trauma. A confidential settlement was reached with the hospital after we helped demonstrate that the hospital had mistaken a patient with a serious brain injury as just being drunk.
CONFIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT FOR YOUNG WOMAN INJURED IN BRAWL
A student, age 22, was assaulted when a fight broke out at a bowling alley, and her two front teeth were knocked out. Thanks to careful investigation and preparation, the insurance company for the bowling alley agreed to a substantial settlement after we showed them the bowling alley had failed to beef up security on the night of a big promotion, and video surveillance cameras were not being monitored.
CONFIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT FOR PHARMACY MIS-FILL
Our client developed a serious adverse reaction to medication intended for another customer that was mistakenly dispensed to her by her neighborhood pharmacy in a bottle with her name and address on it. The error resulted in the aggravation of pre-existing respiratory condition that would permanently compromise the quality of her life. After hard-fought litigation, a confidential settlement resulted.
DISCLAIMER
The amounts stated above are before deductions for fees and costs of attorneys and 3rd parties such as medical providers. Prospective clients may not obtain the same or similar results.
