Rear End Commercial Truck Crash
Our client was the driver of the middle vehicle in a three car chain accident in which he was hit in the rear by a commercial truck. The front vehicle occupants claimed our client hit them first. As soon as the case arrived at our office Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, Moses & Halperin, LLP attorney Bill Hepner added parties to the action, so the case could be removed from Federal Court, back to state court. The referring attorney had overlooked a key party, which allowed the defendants to remove the action from state court where it was initially filed, to Federal Court.
Federal court is a notoriously bad venue as the judges have a lot of control over jury selection. By analyzing the case and coming up with a strategy to correct the error of our client's previous law firm, Bill was able to add a few hundred thousand dollars of value to the case. Had this case been tried in court, a jury would have likely disliked the fact that our client, who was only 30 at the time of the accident, had spent approximately 10 years in jail.
Our client sustained neck and back injuries for which he had fusion surgery with hardware. Though this case failed to settle at mediation, the mediation laid the groundwork for continued settlement talks. Bill was able to convince the defendants that despite our client's convictions and the particularly unseemly underlying facts of those crimes, he would be able to convince a jury to award our client a substantial verdict. This was accomplished due to the reputation of both our firm and our attorneys among our peers.