E-mail / Flyers

$4 million final demand for bodily injury to a schoolteacher when her car was struck by a left-turning tractor-trailer prior to trial. The case settled for $400,000 after close of evidence. $2.1 million final demand for an accident involving a sugar cane truck backing across a highway in rural Louisiana. The tractor trailer had mud-encrusted reflectors. Case settled for $325,000 after close of Plaintiff’s case based upon careless operation and excessive speed of driver in foggy/dark conditions. • $1.1 million final demand for premises defect case resulting in a department store customer breaking her leg requiring nail and pins to stabilize her tibia and a year of rehabilitation. The case was settled for $290,000 after cross-examination of Plaintiff who bore substantial comparative fault. MSJ granted dismissing commercial landscaping company for grounds defect along casino sidewalk. MSJ also defeated casino’s claim for defense and indemnity under landscaper’s general liability policy. MSJ granted for rental center slip-and-fall claim based upon Louisiana Merchant Liability Act, and the failure of Plaintiff to demonstrate slippery conditions were present long enough that store management should have been aware of it. Trip & fall settlement with an ankle ORIF for $500 after establishing strong liability defenses and leveraging an MSJ.

Aggressive approach by landlord to tenant by tendering defense and demanding tenant include landlord in settlement before landlord was sued directly and getting risk transferred with minimal expense and no indemnity. Leveraged Independent Contractor Doctrine and Florida’s Proposal for Settlement Statute to get Plaintiff to dismiss a principal for the torts of the independent contractor where there was coverage for the independent contractor. By doing this, we helped cut the cost of defense in half and limited the risk to the principal/named insured.

• The Third District Court of Appeal affirmed a complete dismissal involving a premises liability lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade County. We represented the City of Sunny Isles Beach in the suit, which was filed when a minor was injured while playing on playground equipment at a city-owned park. We successfully argued the child’s conduct in misusing the playground equipment was the sole proximate cause of his injuries. The judge agreed and granted summary judgment, which the appellate court upheld.

• A complete defense verdict was secured following a five-day jury trial held in Florida’s Nineteenth Circuit Court. At trial, the Plaintiff claimed more than $600,000.00 in economic damages and asked the jury for an award in excess of $2 million. Through the efforts of our team, our client was shielded from the damages sought and from an attorney’s fees and costs that would have been incurred had Plaintiff prevailed.