A 21-year-old was sitting on the curb at a bus stop at a busy intersection in Venice when the defendant driver attempted an evasive maneuver to avoid traffic that was stopped at a red light. The defendant was driving a large commercial tree trimming truck with a wood chipper attached via trailer. Due to his failure to use due care and begin braking at a safe distance, he had to swerve across several lanes of traffic eventually ending up in the right-hand turn lane, driving up onto the curb and over our client. Our client was left with crush injuries to the lower half of his body and had to undergo over 14 surgical procedures in a two-month time period.
Additionally, he had severe injuries to his bladder which needed multiple surgeries and lead to long-term usage of a catheter, bladder and UTI infections, and ongoing urinary issues. He spent a little over a month in the hospital and then another month in an extensive rehabilitation facility. He has recovered well but will require extensive future care for all of the hardware that is in his body as well as extensive pain management due to the injuries. Our office was brought in within days of the accident to help our client’s mother negotiate the difficult process of managing his treatment needs as well as making sure that those needs are paid for by the responsible party.
The defendant tree trimming company hired an attorney within days of the accident in order to minimize their damages. They began investigating the possibility that there was a brake failure. Our office sent a demand to the insurance company and when they didn’t respond to the demand within the allotted time, we filed suit on behalf of our client.
After over a year of litigating the claim, the defendant tree trimming company decided to accept our settlement offer of $4,200,000 which allowed our client to pay for his past medical care as well as have the necessary funds for his future care needs. Injuries: Numerous and extensive orthopedic injuries consisting of fractures of both superior and both inferior pubic rami, pelvic ring fractures, right subtrochanteric femur fracture, left intertrochanteric femur fracture, and bilateral pelvic fracture. Numerous surgical procedures to repair the fractures with hardware both internal fixation and external fixation, debridements and irrigations of right and left thigh and buttocks wounds, closure of right and left thigh and buttock wounds, skin grafts, extensive bladder surgeries including bladder and urethra reconstruction. Chronic pain syndrome and placement of a pain pump.
Damages: Past and future medical care, future loss of earning capacity, past and future pain and suffering.