Fort Myers personal injury

Settlement Release Not Necessarily the End of Injury Lawsuit

January 21, 2018 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

It’s generally advisable for car accident victims to avoid accepting an early settlement offer from the at-fault plaintiff’s insurer, particularly before it is reviewed by an experienced injury attorney. The reason is by so doing, you may be required to sign a release through which you agree not to pursue any further claim of damages – no matter how much greater your damages are compared to what you agreed to accept initially.

Recently, the South Dakota Supreme Court reversed a summary judgment in favor of a defendant who sought enforcement of a release of liability from all claims with a settlement of $3,000. Problem was, plaintiff’s actual medical bills along amounted to $400,000. Although the trial court granted summary judgment on the basis of that early settlement release form, the state supreme court found there were genuine issues of material fact as to whether consent was obtained with undue influence and also whether the release actually precluded plaintiff’s claim. Plaintiff hasn’t exactly won the case, but she will get a shot at taking the matter to trial.

According to court records, the 55-year-old plaintiff was a passenger in her boyfriend’s vehicle when the vehicle was rear-ended by defendant motorist. Law enforcement cited plaintiff’s boyfriend, indicating he committed unsafe lane use for using a through-traffic lane rather than the left turn lane to turn left. However, they also cited defendant for careless driving (driving too closely). Defendant later pleaded guilty in traffic court to that charge. Continue reading ›

Moreno v. TLSL – Trucking Accident Lawsuit

April 13, 2016 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

Eyewitness testimony – whether in a criminal or civil trial – must be weighed carefully by all involved. On one hand, the word of someone who witnesses an event firsthand is powerful in a courtroom. On the other hand, it can be notoriously inaccurate.

Last year, researchers published an article in the journal Memory that analyzed the capability of adult and child witnesses to accurately recollect events from the past and provide reliable testimony. They concluded there were gaps in what the science of memory says about reliability and how such testimony is used in trial. It’s not that firsthand accounts aren’t valuable, but they need to be properly weighed and, if necessary, challenged.

It was the fallibility of an eyewitness account that resulted in summary judgment in favor of the defense in a trucking accident case before the Mississippi Supreme Court recently. In Moreno v. TLSL, Inc., the only one independent witness who saw the trucking accident that killed two people and seriously injured a third. Unfortunately, key elements of her recollection proved unreliable, and ultimately sunk the case. Continue reading ›

Slora v. Sun ‘N Fun Fly-In, Inc. – Third-Party Liability Lawsuit May Proceed

September 27, 2015 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

When a tornado struck at an air show in Polk County four years ago, a worker took shelter inside a security guard shack. But that shack did not provide the protection she’d hoped. It was instead lifted off the ground, overturned and tossed into a nearby ditch by the powerful storm.

The injuries she sustained were clearly compensable under workers’ compensation laws. After all, there was no dispute she had been working (as a security guard) at the time of the incident. She made a claim for – and received – workers’ compensation benefits from her employer, a security firm.

However, the question that would later arise in Slora v. Sun ‘N Fly-In, Inc. was whether the organizer of the airshow was also considered an employer. Of course, it was not her direct employer. But when the injured security guard filed a third-party liability lawsuit against the air show organizer, the company asserted it was a contractual employer. Continue reading ›