Most of our cases come from client referrals or referrals from other attorneys who don’t
specialize in personal injury litigation. But this case already had been rejected by another
personal injury law firm before Petrillo and Goldberg took it on.
“They had our client on videotape, and this really spooked the prior attorney… It looked so improbable that another reputable firm tossed her out. We just looked at this as adding to the challenge.”
The video showed that the client merely stumbled, but never fell, said trial attorney Scott Goldberg, Esquire. It also revealed that the client was laughing and joking, at first, after the incident occurred.
“But two surgeries later, the client was no longer joking,” said Goldberg. “We hired a biomedical/biomechanical expert who opined that, even though she never fell, the forces of the incident were enough to cause the injury and surgeries the client eventually underwent.”
The case was vigorously defended and contested by Wawa. It settled after Goldberg effectively cross-examined the defense’s medical expert who initially testified that the incident did not cause the injuries that the plaintiff suffered. “The defense doctor claimed that her condition was a natural progression of her preexisting condition,” said Goldberg. “But when I confronted him with the starkly contrasting medical records before versus after the incident, he all but buckled,” Goldberg said.
Wawa had all but admitted, through employee testimony, that they had violated their own company policy by causing the tripping hazard in their aisle.
Accordingly, when their defense medical expert “stumbled,” Wawa settled the case.
Although the case successfully concluded in the end, Goldberg was careful to remind that, “This was a team effort. Everyone on our team — from the early investigation, through aggressive pretrial discovery, the trial preparation — worked hard to achieve a successful resolution. We really believed in this client in this case. It looked so improbable that another reputable firm tossed her out. We just looked at this as adding to the challenge,” said Goldberg. “The client was very pleased with the result. So were we.”