Attorney Bill Hepner obtained a $400,000 recovery at a mediation for a woman who slipped on mayonnaise in a Manhattan Supermarket. Despite the fact that a witness to the slippery mayonnaise condition died during the course of the litigation, Bill convinced the defendant's attorney and the mediator that there was sufficient evidence of defendant's negligence without the witness. Plaintiff fell due to a negligent method of stacking boxes in the aisle of the supermarket, which resulted in mayonnaise bottles falling and breaking.
Plaintiff sustained an injury to her knee, which eventually forced her to undergo a total knee replacement. The defense argued that the pre-existing degeneration in her knee, and the fact that she had been on disability for the past 15 years, would have required her to have the operation regardless of her fall.
A common defense tactic is to minimize the plaintiff's injury by arguing that the body part at issue was already damaged prior to the accident. A thorough understanding of the anatomy involved in a particular case allows our attorneys, like Bill Hepner, to point out the fallacies in defendants' medical arguments. This allows our clients to receive the maximum recovery to which they are entitled. It also permits us to make a well-reasoned recommendation to a client about settlement, when we believe his/her case might not do as well at trial.