Personal Injury

Personal Injury

A 14-year-old girl was driving a go-cart at an amusement park in North Carolina when she sustained a serious compound fracture of her lower leg after another go-cart, which was being operated recklessly struck her go-cart. After being retained by her parents, we filed a civil action in Federal court against the owner of the go-cart track for negligence by reason of failure to properly supervise the operation of the go-carts. The defendant refused to accept any liability and the case proceeded through initial pre-trial discovery. We then scheduled depositions of the individuals working at the time of the incident, as well as the owner of the go-cart track. After aggressive questioning of the owner, we were able to establish a significant inconsistency in the owner’s testimony which supported our negligence claim. Shorty after the deposition, the owner’s attorney reached out to us with an initial settlement offer. Extensive settlement negotiations followed, eventually culminating in a significant structured settlement that the parties agreed to keep confidential.

Our client traveled to Virginia Beach for a concert at the amphitheater, securing the services of a limousine to take her to the concert. On the way to the concert, the limo ran a stop light, resulting in being t-boned by another vehicle. Our client was thrown around in the back of the limousine, sustaining assorted injuries.  We estimated the settlement value of the case to be about $ 75,000. Our efforts to resolve this case with an agreed upon settlement proved fruitless, so we filed a complaint with a demand of $ 500,000.00.   As the 21st days after service of the complaint was approaching, we contacted the adjuster for the insurance company in another effort to settle the case, but again our effort was fruitless. No responsive pleadings were filed by the limo company before expiration of the 21 days, which put the defendant limo company into a default status. We again contacted the adjuster, discussing the default status and the adjuster asserted they were not in default. After a period of time we were contacted by an attorney for the limo company, requesting that we agree that he could file a late responsive pleading. We refused to sign an order agreeing to the filing of a late responsive pleading and informed the attorney we were filing for entry of a default judgment. A hearing was set on our motion for entry of the default judgment during which the defense moved for entry of an order for filing late responsive pleadings. Upon our objection to the defense motion, the court granted our motion for default judgment. We then scheduled a jury trial for determination of damages over the defense attorney’s objection. At the jury trial for damages we requested a verdict in the amount of $ 500,000.00. After a very short period of deliberations, the jury awarded our client damages of $ 500,000.00. The defendant limo company filed an immediate appeal requesting that the default judgment be set aside to which we objected. Upon litigation of the appeal, the default judgment was upheld, and the appeal was denied. Our client was entitled to interest from the date of the default judgment, which resulted in receipt of approximately $ 584,000.00 when the limo company remitted payment to our firm. 

The son of a submariner was able to join his father for a short Tiger Cruise on a submarine. During the cruise, the son sustained a serious injury to his face when he fell to the grated deck during a dive operation of the sub. Upon being retained, we filed a notice of claim against the US Navy under the provisions of the Federal Tort Claims Act. After extensive negotiations we were able to secure a significant structured settlement for the benefit of our client.

Our client was at a local bar with some friends when a man at another table started making comments about the girl he our client was with. After a verbal altercation started, our client and the girl got up to walk out of the bar. As they were leaving, the guy sucker punched our client with a fist to his face, causing a serious injury. Without having to initiate legal action, the case was negotiated to a favorable resolution for our client.

Our firm was retained by a father to represent the estate of his son who was killed in a traffic accident. Witnesses to the accident provided conflicting stories as to the cause of the accident, with some referring to a version of events that indicated our client’s son caused the accident.   In addition, a police search resulted in the recovery of some marijuana from the vehicle.   A subsequent search of the decedent’s cell phone resulted in discovery of text messages between our client’s son and his brother who was passenger at the time of accident, that referenced them smoking marijuana before or during the trip.  Blood drawn from the decedent revealed the presence of THC in his body. After initial discovery and pre-trial depositions we were able to settle the case for the limits of insurance coverage in the amount of $ 300,000.00.

Our client, a registered nurse at a local hospital, was in a patient’s room with a doctor. As the doctor left the room, he smacked our client on her backside. After criminal proceedings against the doctor were concluded, we informed him that we intended to initiate a civil case against him on behalf of our client for personal injury. Shortly after the doctor retained an attorney, we received an initial settlement offer for $ 50,000.00. After we provided a copy of our complaint and negotiations, we settled the case for $ 100,000.00 without filing the complaint.