John Sullivan · Igor Hernandez
Motor Vehicle Accident Case (Negligence)—$1,300,000.00 Verdict
August 6, 2024 5:30 PM||TLU n Demand
On December 12, 2021, Meir Moskowitz, 27 years old, was driving home from work northbound on N.W. 3rd Avenue in the City of Miami, Florida.While approaching the intersection of N.W. 6th Street, Meir initially began to slow his vehicle down to stop at the red light, at which time the light turned green.As such, Meir continued traveling through the intersection.Meir—very familiar with the area as he worked nearby—knew that oncoming traffic could only be coming from his righthand side since N.W. 6th Street is a one-way street (going from East to West).Because of this, Meir did not make it a point to look to his left as he traveled through the intersection.Unbeknownst to Meir, however, the Defendant Sein Lwin had just taken an illegal left-hand turn from N.W. 3rd Court on N.W. 6th Street, and was driving in the wrong direction.
As Meir entered the intersection, he was struck violently by the Defendant’s vehicle on his driver’s side wheel-well and driver’s side door.Both the Defendant’s vehicle and Meir’s were totaled and had to be towed away from the scene.While Meir was initially shaken up and sore, he was hopeful he was not injured and would not need any medical attention.He was evaluated on the scene by Fire Rescue, but declined further medical treatment or transport to a hospital.The next morning, however, Meir was felt significant pain in his lower back and went to Urgent Care to seek treatment.
Injury Diagnosis:
- Disc Herniation at L5-S1
Client’s Course of Treatment:
- Physical Therapy (Several Months);
- Injections (Epidural Steroid Injections / PRP Injections);
- Surgery 1 (Microdiscectomy); and
- Surgery 2 (Disc Replacement).
Future Treatment:
- Client’s surgeon opined that Client would likely need to undergo a spinal fusion at some point in the future if Client’s pain persisted.
Medical Bills:
- $396,000
History of Negotiations:
For nearly three years prior to trial, the defense made no settlement offers.Shortly before trial, the first settlement offer extended was $90,000.This offer was rejected, and the Parties appeared for calendar call.After the Court held the matter for trial, the defense offered $500,000 to settle the case.We countered with $1.25 million, after which we reached an impasse.The case proceeded to trial in July, 2024, after which the jury returned a verdict of $1,300,000.00.
The case dealt with the following issues:
- Client had gaps in his treatment history
- Client had flown to Israel multiple times since the crash happened
- Soft-Tissue Injury (Herniations only)
- Client could still do everything he had always done, he just did it with pain; Challenge was explaining this to the jury so they understood;
- Judge was stickler with time/scheduling, and while he was advised that our expert could only testify on Wednesday (the first day the case was called for trial), the Judge concluded for the day promptly at 5 pm (even though our doctor was present).We were forced to present the jury with an outdated video deposition for trial which did not give them the Client’s entire treatment picture.
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