New York Premises Accident – Fall on slippery condition inside department store – $575,000 Recovery

Robert J. Bellinson, Esq. recently secured a $575,000.00 recovery for our client just three days before Jury Selection was scheduled to commence in Federal Court.

Our client, a 59 year old retired computer programmer, was injured when he slipped on granulated rock salt and fell down a flight of stairs inside a Target superstore in the Bronx during December, 2005. As part of our trial presentation, Rob was going to have a former employee testify about the salt residue; specifically that she saw the residue on the stairs after the accident and had previously noticed accumulations of salt residue inside the store after Target employees applied salt to melt the snow in the parking lot. Because of defendant’s failure to maintain the steps in a reasonably safe condition, our client sustained severe spinal injuries for which he underwent two surgical procedures in March, 2007.

During a mediation session before a well respected, retired New York Judge, Hon. Milton Mollen, Rob laid out for the defendant’s attorney and insurance adjuster the scope of our case, including demonstrative evidence – the DVD of the surgical procedures that were performed on our client. The surgical procedures as captured on DVD would have enabled the Jury to understand the nature and extent of the spinal injuries, and the spinal surgeon who performed the surgery was prepared to testify that the injuries were sever, permanent and causally related to the trauma of this accident. At the end of the mediation session, settlement was reached in the sum of $575,000.00. This sum was solely for pain and suffering, since the plaintiff did not sustain any loss of earnings.

This case was referred to us by another attorney approximately 6 weeks prior to trial. At that time no settlement offer had been made. When the case was referred to us we were faced with a discovery deadline that required experts’ depositions, considerable documentary discovery, expert exchanges and a pre-trial Order to be completed within three weeks.

We were able to mobilize all of our resources and complete all of this work within the required timeframe. Additionally, through our efforts we were able to convince the defendant to offer a substantial amount of money to settle the case prior to trial.

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