Gainesville, Florida Personal Injury Law Firm

RECENT VICTORIES

Personal Injury

Truck Crash: $5.1 MILLION

In this catastrophic injury case, a negligent truck driver failed to yield when he pulled into the highway and crashed into our client.   

The insurance company attorney for the negligent truck driver vigorously defended the truck driver in a variety of ways.  First, the insurance company lawyer tried to blame our client by falsely alleging, among other things, that our client was exceeding the speed limit and that our client took the wrong kind of evasive action to avoid the crash.  Second, the insurance company lawyer paid an insurance company doctor to testify that our client was somehow exaggerating his catastrophic injuries.  Finally, and perhaps even most egregious, the insurance company lawyer argued that a technical exclusion in the insurance policy prevented any recovery by our client.

The Uman Law Firm spared no expense and retained leading experts in every scientific and medical field at issue and under contention. Working with its experts, the Uman Law Firm was able to systematically refute every defense asserted by the insurance company.   The Uman Law Firm was then able to prove that the insurance company and their lawyers acted in bad faith by failing to settle for a reasonable amount when they had numerous opportunities to do so and should have done so.   The case was ultimately settled for $5,100,000 on the eve of trial.

Motorcycle Crash: $1.1 MILLION (confidential settlement)

Corporate Negligence: $250,000.00   

In this personal injury case, a negligent RentaCenter employee was attempting to deliver a large screen television when he allowed it to fall from the truck and strike our client. 

The insurance company lawyer vigorously defended RentaCenter by arguing that our client was somehow at fault by standing too close to the delivery truck.  The insurance company lawyer also argued that our client was faking or exaggerating his injuries and that any injuries he suffered were the result of a prior accident.  

During litigation, the insurance company lawyers refused to comply with the rules of procedure and refused to provide responses to requests for documentation of the repairs to the truck and documentation of employees who would be witnesses to the truck repairs or to the accident.   The Uman Law Firm undertook an intense and large scale investigation and were ultimately able to prove that 1) the hydraulic lift on the Rentacenter truck was broken causing it to stick when lowering; 2) The Tommy Lift company required that all repairs be performed with Tommy Lift parts and in accordance with Tommy Lift specifications; 3) RentaCenter management attempted to rig the lift rather than repair it properly; 4)  RentaCenter management refused to fix the hydraulic lift until it met certain sales quotas; 5) In order to save money, RentaCenter would often send only one delivery person to deliver large items that required two or more people; 6) RentaCenter employees were worried that the broken hydraulic lift and under-staffing created a dangerous condition and complained to management; 7) RentaCenter employees who complained were demoted or fired; and 8) When our client suffered the injury, RentaCenter management went to the hospital and attempted to convince him to leave the hospital.

Once RentaCenter learned that Uman Law Firm had the evidence and ability to recover not only compensatory, but punitive damages, RentaCenter chose to pay $250,000 rather than proceed to trial. 

Automobile Crash: $175,000.00               

In this automobile negligence case, our client was rear-ended by an Alamo Rental vehicle driven by a Saudi Arabian national. After the crash, our client was involved in a roll over accident in which he was at fault.  Several months later, our client underwent surgery to repair a herniated disc in his neck.  With the help of medical experts, the Uman Law Firm was able to prove that it was the Alamo crash, not the intervening crash, that caused the neck injuries and our client ultimately received $175,000 from Alamo.

Automobile Crash: $100,000.00               

In this automobile negligence case, the negligent driver was traveling at between 5 and 10 miles per hour, slowing for traffic ahead, when she struck our client.  Uman Law Firm was able to relate the injuries to the low impact and recover the policy limits of $100,000 for our client.

Wrongful Death

Log Truck Crash: $300,000.00               

In this terribly sad case, our client's son was killed when he failed to yield, ran a stop light,  entered the highway, and was struck by a log truck.  Although our client's son was clearly at fault in the accident, our investigation led to some interesting evidence: First, it was very foggy at the time of the crash and visibility was poor.  Second, the log truck was slightly overloaded. Third, despite knowing for some time that the brakes on two of the wheels of the log truck were defective, the company that owned the log truck had not taken any steps to repair those brakes. From both the physical evidence at the scene and testimony from the driver of the log truck, Uman Law Firm's accident reconstruction expert was able to determine that the log truck driver was exceeding the speed limit in the fog.  Our expert further concluded that both the negligence of the truck driver (speeding in the fog) and the negligence of the owner of the truck (failing to maintain the brakes) contributed to the severity of the crash.  In other words, our accident reconstruction expert was prepared to testify at trial that the log truck driver should have been able to mitigate the impact and may have been able to avoid the crash altogether, had he been driving prudently and with proper equipment.  

Confronted with this theory of prosecution, the insurance company for the log truck paid their entire $300,000 policy limits.

Medical Malpractice

Failure to administer antibiotics: $680,000.00   

In this medical malpractice case, our client was clamming in the Indian River Lagoon, a somewhat polluted body of water, containing various forms of bacteria, when his lower Achilles heel was punctured by an unknown object, most likely a sting-ray. 

Because anaerobic bacteria thrive in oxygen depleted environments, the appropriate standard of care under the circumstances in this case would have required the emergency room doctor to thoroughly clean and irrigate the wound, then leave the wound open to prevent the growth of any possible bacteria.  Unfortunately, the emergency room doctor chose to suture the wound closed. To make matters even worse, and despite our client's repeated requests, the emergency room doctor refused to prescribe prophylactic antibiotics.  By failing to leave the tiny wound open and by failing or otherwise refusing to administer antibiotics, the emergency room doctor created an environment in which the bacteria could flourish.   Within 8 hours of this clear medical malpractice, necrotizing fasciitis, or flesh eating bacteria,  had consumed a large part of the soft tissue in our client's foot and calf. 

As a result, our client was forced to undergo painful hyper-baric chamber treatments and several reparative surgeries.   Although he recovered quite well, he suffered some permanent damage to his foot that made running impossible and walking somewhat tedious. difficult. Working with a variety of experts, Uman Law Firm was able to obtain $680,000 in compensatory damages for our client. 

Failure to remove foreign object: $170,000        

This case is a clear example of an insurance company's refusal to acknowledge fault and do the right thing.  Our client, a day-worker,   presented to the emergency room after receiving a stab wound in his chest and a resulting pneumothorax.  The cardio-thoracic surgeon on call cleaned and closed the stab wound and inserted a chest tube.  Unfortunately, during this procedure, a 4x2 surgical sponge was left inside our client's chest.  X-rays taken during our client's two day hospital stay revealed a Asuspicious@ radio-opaque object.  The treating cardio-thoracic surgeon did not review the radiology report. 

In a follow-up visit several weeks later, our client complained that he felt something strange in his chest.  The doctor dismissed his complaints but never reviewed the old x-rays or ordered new x-rays.  Our client returned two more times over the next year with complaints of discomfort in his chest and the doctor again dismissed his complaints without further investigation.

Our client returned to the emergency room nearly a year later when his chest swelled up to the size of a grapefruit and began to break open.  Emergency room physicians located and removed the sponge, together with copious amounts of infectious tissue and purulent drainage. 

Although he was clearly upset about what he had endured, our client did not want to sue the doctor.   Instead, he thought it would be fair to try and settle out of court for a modest amount.  The Uman Law Firm agreed to offer to settle for $5,000 and take no attorney fee or costs. When the insurance company refused to make any offer, we were left with no choice but to file suit.  Thereafter, the insurance company played hardball and hired numerous Aexperts@ to surmise all of the different ways that a sponge could have gotten into our client's chest, even suggesting at one point that our client might have re-opened his own wound and shoved the sponge in himself to generate a lawsuit.   The insurance company's surreal theory of defense failed to take into consideration, however, the x-ray that showed a foreign body shortly after surgery.  Instead, the insurance company attempted to deter continued prosecution of the suit by driving litigation expenses ridiculously high.  The Uman Law Firm was not deterred and kept pace with the insurance company, dollar for dollar.  

At trial two years later, the Uman Law Firm asked the jury for a fair and reasonable verdict as compensation. Angry at the insurance company antics, the jury awarded five times the amount requested. 

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