OUR RESULTS Verdicts and Settlements
Verdicts and Settlements
*Note: Defendants frequently request confidentiality for substantial settlements and it is at times in our client’s best interest to request confidentiality
Wrongful Death – Motorcycle accident – $950,000
A 29 year old married man with two young children died when an 82 year old man driving his car turned in front of the young man’s motorcycle on M-72 between Kalkaska and Traverse City. We filed a wrongful death action.
The 82 year old had a $500,000 insurance policy limit. His insurer offered the $500,000. Because we pushed the case toward trial, the driver contributed an additional $450,000 of his own money to settle.
A video story giving the defendant a preview of our trail presentation prompted the out-of-pocket payment.
[Video Story Coming Soon]
Traumatic Brain Injury – Automobile Accident – Confidential Settlement
Our client was a 16 year old boy involved in a severe automobile accident as an unbelted backseat passenger in a school minivan on the way to a golf match. This auto accident happened on M-72 between Grayling and Kalkaska.
This young man was ejected in this high speed crash, flew over 100 feet landing on his back, before the other vehicle involved in the automobile accident landed on top of him, pinning him from the shoulders down.
Our client suffered a significant traumatic brain injury, crushed pelvis, fractured vertebrae, and significant burns resulting in skin grafts and amputation. His brain injury had resolved to the point that a stranger would not have known he suffered traumatic brain injury. A video story helped convince all Defendants to offer more than their insurance limits.
[Video Story Coming Soon]
Wrongful Death – Airplane Crash – Confidential Settlement
A young pilot and a co-pilot died when a Lear 24 went into a nosedive and crashed 18 miles from the airport in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Learjet was completely destroyed on impact. The Mexican authorities never completed their investigation and did not determine a probable cause of this plane crash.
The Learjet’s maintenance records revealed significant and long term issues with the aircraft’s autopilot system. The autopilot caused this Lear 24 to go nose up and nose down uncommanded in the months before the crash. Just two weeks before this crash, another crew reported that they could not disengage or turn off the autopilot. A mechanic could not find the cause of this failure to turn off or disengage. The Learjet was returned to service and the crew that wrongfully died was not warned about problems with the auto-pilot.
Defendants contended that there was no evidence that the crash was caused by a malfunction in the autopilot system and that the crash was a result of pilot error. Discovery of electronically stored information revealed notes of an internal meeting blaming the autopilot system for the crash.
We discovered $25,000,000 of insurance. A video story helped convince Defendants to settle on the eve of trial.
The widows who lived in Texas and Colorado and their children have financial security as a result of the settlement.
[VIDEO – Pilot and his family story – coming soon]
[VIDEO – CoPilot and his family story – coming soon]
Farming Accident – $650,000 verdict
A 17 year old client volunteered to work during cherry harvest. He was placed on a cherry catcher during harvest with no training or supervision. Our client was not told that the brakes on the cherry catcher did not work.
The cherry catcher ran away downhill, crushing our client’s left knee and tearing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Our client had his ACL reconstructed, went through rehabilitation, but developed laxcicity in the ACL just before trial which was likely to require another reconstruction.
Defendants argued that our client had been properly trained and supervised and that the accident was our client’s fault.
This $650,000 jury award is the largest personal injury verdict in Leelanau County.
Negligence – Poorly Maintained Product – $2,000,000 settlement of insurance policy limits
Our client was a 42 year old woman confined to a wheelchair because she suffered from FOP. FOP is a disease affecting 300 people worldwide in which from the age of 4 or 5 the brain sends bony tissue to all tendons in the body leaving the individual with frozen joints over time. Trauma and bruising also result in bony formations at the site of the trauma. Thus, there is no treatment for FOP and surgery worsens the condition.
Our client’s left leg had frozen straight. She was able to work in accounts payable at the University of Cincinnati. Her straight and stiff left leg was the key to her life. She could be pivoted out of her wheelchair on the left leg to shower for work and could pivot on the left leg to be propped at the commode.
Our client hired a van to transport her to and from a concert in Cincinnati. The company sent an inexperienced and untrained driver to take her home. As she was using the joystick on her electric wheelchair to maneuver from the van to the platform that would lower her to the ground, the driver noticed that the lip on the platform had malfunctioned and he feared that she would run her wheelchair off the end of the platform.
The driver panicked and reached up to stop her wheelchair. He unwittingly jammed the joystick into our client’s frozen right arm. Our client’s electric wheelchair went forward falling off the platform. Our client’s stiffened left leg caused her left foot to hit the ground first.
Within a month, the trauma to the bottom of her left foot caused a bony, golf ball sized, prominence on her left foot. She could no longer shower. She could no longer stand on the left leg to transfer out of her wheelchair. She could not be propped at the commode on her left leg. She could not work.
We were able to demonstrate that negligence caused debilitating injury to a woman who had been unable to move any of her joints and who had been wheelchair bound since age 5.
Auto Accident – Settlement – $2,250,000.00
Our clients were the estates of three 11 year old girls. They died on the way to a concert at Interlochen when the driver turned onto Crescent Shores Drive (thinking it was West Long Lake Road) and drove the car directly into Long Lake. The girls could not get out of the vehicle as it sank into the lake.
Defective and Poorly Maintained Product – Confidential Settlement
Our 31 year old client was working construction and suffered significant, permanent and progressive physical injuries when the scissor lift he was using tipped over from a height of 27 feet.
One of the outriggers was not in contact with the ground causing the machine to tip. The scissor lift platform should not have been able to elevate unless all 4 outriggers were in contact with the ground.
We established that a defective design of placing a limit switch in a position in which weather and dirt could cause malfunction. The limit switch was designed to prevent the platform from elevating unless all outriggers were in contact with the ground.
In addition to the defective design, the owner of the scissor lift failed to replace or repair the limit switch. Both the manufacturer and owner’s insurer settled the case on the eve of trial. A video story helped the Defendants and their insurance carriers decide to pay substantial settlement
[Video Story Coming Soon]
Auto Accident – Settlement – $95,000
Our client, recently retired, fractured her wrist as a passenger in an automobile accident. Our client had surgery to place screws and a plate. After healing, our client had surgery to remove the hardware.
Our client’s wrist healed well. The client did not want to file a lawsuit or have a trial. We honored her wishes and settled her case. She started a business with her settlement.
Motorcycle Accident – Settlement – $837,500
Our client was forced to turn sharply when a van pulled out in front of him in Leelanau County. His motorcycle slid underneath the van.
Our client suffered serious, permanent, and progressive physical injury and nerve damage. Doctors amputated multiple toes during surgery to repair his mangled foot. While the soft tissue healed, the nerve damage which created pain persisted. Our client’s treating physicians were prepared to testify at trial. The case settled as the scheduled trial began.
Negligent Home Construction – Settlement – $500,025.00
Auto Accident – Settlement – an additional $100,000.00
Total Settlement – $600,025.00
Our clients, a retired married couple, had defendant design and build their dream home on Elk Lake. The builder violated the building code failing to place a firewall or barrier between the attached garage and the crawl space.
Our clients died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their new home when one of our clients left a car running in the garage. They succumbed in a bedroom that was in a room remote from the garage. We asserted that this deadly gas would not have filled the crawl space and reached the far bedroom if a firewall or barrier had been placed in the opening between the attached garage and the crawl space.
The builder’s insurance company paid a settlement of policy limits of $500,000. The builder personally paid $25,000 to create a foundation. Our clients, together with the builder, used the foundation to change Michigan law to require hard wired carbon monoxide detectors in all homes with an attached garage.
In addition, we asserted that the innocent spouse’s death arose out of the use of an automobile. The automobile insurers paid a policy limits settlement of $100,000.
Auto Accident – Settlement – $896,500 (underinsured)
Our clients were three recently retired educators driving for a hike on Old Mission Peninsula when an F-250 crossed the centerline and crashed into their Audi A-4. The accident happened on Center Road near Montague.
Each client suffered serious, permanent, and progressive physical injuries. The driver suffered leg fractures and a significant knee injury. The front seat passenger broke her pelvis in the sacral joint. The rear seat passenger fractured her cervical spine and had surgical fusion and had a bowel resection.
The driver of the F-250 had the minimum insurance policy limits under Michigan law. The policy limit of $40,000 was all of the insurance to be divided among three women who suffered permanent, progressive, and painful physical injuries.
Our investigation confirmed that each of our clients had purchased underinsured coverage on their automobile insurance policy. We filed suit on behalf of our clients against their own auto insurance companies for compensation for pain and suffering. Shortly before trial, the insurance companies paid $896,500.
Auto Accident – Wrongful Death – Settlement – $375,000
Our client was a 77 year old woman who was a passenger in a car that lost control on US 131 in Yuba on ice and snow. The driver of her vehicle had cruise control set, causing a loss of control on ice, causing the car to cross the centerline and crash into an oncoming vehicle.
Our client was returning home from her doctor’s office where she had been told she had mesothelioma. We created a video story that prompted the insurance company to settle.