General Liability / Negligence / Auto

Plaintiff bought painting materials from Defendant’s retail store, including paint, solvents, etc. and received advice from the store clerk concerning the work she was to reform in her house. She claimed that while following the advice, the flammable solution caught fire resulting in third degree burns over a significant portion of her body. Injuries included burns, scarring, lifetime care, limitations in movement, and disfigurement caused by allegedly negligent advice. The plaintiff also claimed reduction in past and future earnings.

Plaintiff motorcyclist was following defendant’s vehicle while riding with several motorcyclists. While passing defendant’s on the right, defendant swerved to the right hitting plaintiff and knocking him into garbage cans. Coincidentally, one of the following motorcyclists captured the entire accident on his GoPro. Plaintiff sustained fractures and various soft-tissue injuries as a result of defendant’s claimed negligence.

While at defendant gym, plaintiff was working with weights on a bench which collapsed resulting in a fractured hip and various soft-tissue injuries. Plaintiff claimed negligent maintenance of the equipment caused the bench to fail.

Plaintiff claimed that defendant public entity failed to properly maintain a public sidewalk. As a result, the sidewalk buckled causing the plaintiff to trip and fall and to sustain fractures to the shoulder and wrist along with soft-tissue injuries.

Plaintiffs were driving on a public highway when defendant driver crossed over the center line and hit plaintiffs head-on. The area had been the scene of other similar accidents or near accidents. Plaintiffs alleged negligence of the teenage defendant and negligent supervision by his father. As a result of defendants’ negligence, plaintiff driver suffered permanent, significant brain damage with quadriparesis. Claimed lifetime care exceeded $10,000,000.

Teenage Plaintiff claimed that Defendant’s car rear-ended the car in which she was a passenger causing her car to burst into flame. Plaintiff suffered various injuries including blindness in one eye. Special damages included medical bills, life care needs, including psychological care, and extensive reduction of future income.

Plaintiff was a customer in defendant store. She stepped on a portion of shelf that had been misplaced in the aisle by an employee of defendant. She suffered a concussion and shoulder injury with a torn rotator cuff that required surgery.

Plaintiff alleged that she had to pull over to the side of the freeway when his car overheated. Defendant’s 18 wheeler hit the rear of plaintiff’s car, which defendant claimed was sticking partially into the driving lane. As a result of the impact, and after conservative treatment, plaintiff ultimately required cervical spinal surgery. Plaintiff claimed significant past and future loss of earnings and a lifetime healthcare plan of $1,000,000.

Plaintiff bicyclist was hit by defendant driver because of an allegedly negligent lane change. He suffered a closed head injury and a fractured arm requiring two surgeries for placement and removal of hardware. Medical bills allegedly exceeded $250,000.

Plaintiff jogger tripped over a 2” raised concrete slab on a sidewalk that had been uplifted by a root from a tree on a co-defendant’s adjacent property. A public entity, another defendant, allegedly had a duty to maintain the sidewalk. The plaintiff suffered a fractured elbow requiring two surgeries. She also suffered various other injuries and was left with pain and neurological symptoms in her arm.

Claimant filed an Underinsured Motorist claim for cervical and lumbar disc bulges and herniations with an annular tear neck and low back pain from an auto accident. This resulted in alleged permanent, severe pain and loss of earnings opportunities.

Plaintiff, a facilities manager, worked in a theater where large, heavy-duty batteries used as back-up for stage productions if electricity failed, were stored in his office. The batteries contained sulfuric acid and allegedly emitted gases which affected plaintiff’s breathing and caused pulmonary fibrosis, aspergillosis, and interstitial pneumonitis. The batteries were not supposed to have been stored in a high temperature location, which the office was. As a result of the pulmonary problems, Plaintiff claims he is unable to ever work again. As a result, he sued defendants engineering company and architect. A defense MSJ had been granted on the “completed and accepted doctrine”, but was reversed on appeal. Plaintiff’s wife pursued a loss of consortium claim.

Plaintiff claimed southbound defendant unsafely entered intersection with a through street, colliding with eastbound plaintiff. She suffered a fractured, right metacarpal along with various soft-tissue injuries of her neck, headaches, etc. She also suffered a complete tear of a tendon in her hand requiring future surgical reconstruction. She was a graphic designer whose major hand was injured causing significant past and future lost income.

Plaintiff parked cement truck under defendants’ high voltage lines. When he started the mixer, he felt a light shock. As he was folding his metal ladder, he felt a strong shock which knocked him back. Plaintiff lost feeling in his left hand and leg. He claimed that defendants negligently failed to have a proper right of way, and negligently designed, constructed and maintained the lines and right of way. His expert opined that the high voltage lines should never have been placed over areas for parked cars and that the electrostatic field energized vehicles to the point that the shock could potentially kill. Defendant contended that the lines complied with all regulations. Plaintiff claimed left sided paresthesias, anxiety, unstable gait, pain, and memory disturbance. Defense IME said problems due to anxiety and to pre-existing carpal tunnel syndrome. Experts disagreed on EMG findings.

Plaintiffs’ vehicle, while slowing in freeway traffic was rearended by defendants Mack truck carrying a heavy load. Plaintiff driver suffered neck and back injuries including L4-5 injury, neuroforaminal stenosis, and herniated nucleus pulposis, initially treated by a chiropractor, but then an orthopedist. Epidurals and nerve blocks were unsuccessful, so plaintiff underwent L5-S1 discectomy , and L4-5 artificial disc replacement. He also had traumatic orbital resulting in excision of the left lacrimal gland. Meds were $266,000 and future $175,000. Past and future LOE were $90,000 – 300,000. The passenger claimed soft tissue injuries with medical bills of #40,000. Her LOE was $10,000 - $70,000.

Plaintiff claimed that defendants retail store and security falsely detained him, accused him of shoplifting, and had him arrested. Plaintiff denied the accusation and was eventually “exonerated” in the criminal case by a corroborating surveillance video. Plaintiff alleged false arrest, battery, and negligence. Plaintiff also claimed a violation of the Bane Act (Civil Code 52.1).

In this wrongful death action, the widow sued the defendant water diving company for negligently taking her husband into rough diving conditions. Allegedly defendant’s instructors failed to properly instruct and supervise the decedent, knowing that the conditions in the ocean were dangerous. The decedent was found unconscious. CPR efforts were unsuccessful.

Plaintiff, a 77 year old woman fell when getting up from an elevated bench in a crowded restaurant waiting room. The elevation violated the local building code. She fell hard on her side causing the need for hip surgery, lengthy rehab, and the need for a cane to get around.

When the Plaintiff’s car started overheating on the freeway, he pulled off to the right shoulder, but because of a wall, part of the car was still in the number 4 lane. Defendant tractor-trailer driver did not see plaintiff’s car even though it was daytime and there were no obstructions. Plaintiff alleges the defendant was negligent, and that this led to the plaintiff’s eventually undergoing cervical spine surgery at C6-7. Medical specials were more than $175,000 and LOE $165,ooo, Life care plan: $1,000,000.

Plaintiff motorcyclist was following Defendant limousine driver on a narrow, windy road. While plaintiff attempted to pass the vehicle in the lane, on the right, defendant swerved to the right knocking the motorcycle and plaintiff to the ground. Plaintiff was riding with a group of other motorcyclists and had a video camera on his helmet, so in a rare moment, the parties and mediator were able to actually see the accident as it happened. Plaintiff suffered multiple leg fractures requiring 4 surgeries.