“The other law firm told me that I didn’t have a case saying, ‘You can’t fault them for a construction site covered with snow and ice.’ ” This is what our client was told by his prior attorney who flatly rejected this case before it came to Petrillo and Goldberg.
“We decided to take a second look,” said certified civil trial attorney Scott M. Goldberg, Esq., who eventually settled this case in pre-trial mediation for $1,525,000.
“We knew going in that this was going to be a long and expensive battle, but we thought it was cause-worthy.”
“We were able to prove in discovery that the general contractor who was responsible for the work had no snow contingency plan in effect at the time of the accident. A construction expert would
later establish that our client, who had arrived for work early, was on an established path when he fell, suffering an injury. We also hired a snow removal expert who indicated that the work site
path, although gravel, could have and should have been plowed, salted and sanded – none of which was done.
“This case was further complicated because, due to his injury, our client had amnesia of the actual event. Accordingly, we were required to hire an accident reconstruction biomechanical expert to explain to a jury just how our client’s work site slip and fall injury occurred.
“It all came together beautifully,” said Goldberg. “What looked like an impossible case to prove to a prior attorney, we were able to turn into a winner!”
“The case was also hotly contested on damages,” said firm associate Jeff Thiel, Esq., who conducted pre-trial depositions on the case. “They claimed our client was malingering, could readily return to work and was fully functioning mentally. Obviously our client’s doctors felt otherwise.”
“So pleased was the client with our efforts that, without request or prompting, the client also decided to move his workers’ compensation claim to our office from the office that told him he did not have a case,” said Scott Schulman, Esq., the Petrillo and Goldberg partner who handles workers’ compensation claims for the office. “We are now pursuing a total disability workers’
compensation claim on behalf of the client,” Schulman added.
