Justice Achieved: Notable Injury Case Results

A passenger riding a SEPTA bus was injured when the driver abruptly slammed on the brakes, causing her to fall to the ground.

SEPTA routinely denies these “jerk and jolt” claims, arguing the movement was normal under the circumstances. Through aggressive litigation and strong deposition testimony from the driver, the case ultimately settled for $40,000.

A young woman slipped and fractured her foot on an icy sidewalk outside a residential property.

Although homeowners are generally protected shortly after a snowstorm, investigation revealed the dangerous ice was actually caused by a broken outdoor faucet leaking water onto the sidewalk, where it froze. By proving the property owner’s negligence — not weather conditions — caused the fall, the case resolved for the full $100,000 policy limits.

Client was a driver involved in an accident. Once his first lawyer put the at-fault driver on notice of the injury claim, that driver did nothing—didn’t report it to his insurance company and when his insurance company tried to get his cooperation, he ignored them. When an insured ignores their insurance company, that insurance company can deny the claim for “lack of cooperation.” That happened here, and the client’s first lawyer dropped the case, since there was now no insurance to go after. Client calls me, and I decided to file a lawsuit to see what happens. Once the uncooperative other driver was served the lawsuit, I wrote him a letter, directing him to finally cooperate, which he miraculously did. The insurance company reversed the original denial of coverage, and settled for the policy limits.

Amazon driver just handed a package to the customer. As he was walking back to his vehicle, a Pit Bull came from behind the house and chased the driver all the way to his car. Unfortunately, the driver could not get away from the dog, who bit him on the buttocks very badly. The dog owner had to get the dog away with a baseball bat. The wounds were so deep that the ER had to place stitches (which is very rare for a dog bite because they want it to drain so it doesn’t get infected). Several months later, the wounds had healed nicely, but there was still scarring. Good settlement for the injury–and it’s not what the injury was at the moment of the attack–it’s all about what the healed injury looks like. And usually those 2 pictures are very different.

Female neighbor went next-door to hand-over a mis-delivered package. As soon as the neighbor opened the front door, a German Shepherd lunged and bit my client in the face. She was immediately taken by her husband to the ER, but the injury was too complex for them to handle. So they had to go to another hospital with a plastic surgeon on staff, and she was taken right into surgery where they stitched the wound. This dog had had other incidents and because this was incident #3, the judge ordered the dog to be put down. The homeowner’s carrier was not making fair offers, so I filed a lawsuit. Once defense counsel got involved, he was able to convince the carrier to pay way more than they were thinking. An amount that was fair under the circumstances. Often a defense lawyer is able to get things done that an adjuster cannot. And this was one of those times. Very pleasing result.