Staten Island, New York Child Injury Lawyer Blog | Brooklyn Child Accident Attorney » staten island verdict

Sometimes Juries Do Get It Wrong!

Frank Dito — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:01:54 +0000

You will all too often hear how juries are out of control because they supposedly award undeserved verdicts to injury victims. I disagree – our legal system is the greatest legal system in the world. I do agree that sometimes they “get it wrong”, no more so than in a recent Florida medical malpractice action.

A woman who had both legs and forearms amputated is going to be allowed to retry her case after a jury ruled in favor of a Florida Hospital and two doctors in a case alleging medical malpractice. The plaintiff, Lisa Strong, accused a Miami, Florida hospital and two doctors of misdiagnosing her condition, which led to complications and massive infection, resulting in the amputation of both forearms and both lower legs. Ms. Strong went to the hospital after suffering severe back pain and a fever of 106. She told the emergency room doctor that she believed she had a kidney stone as she had a history of kidney stones. Unfortunately, the hospital or the the doctors never treated the stone. Instead, Strong suffered a life threatening infection. The infection led to the amputation of both legs below the knees and her forearms. At the trial, the doctors blamed each other for the misdiagnosis. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the hospital and against the plaintiff. The trial judge felt that the verdict was so against the evidence that was introduced at trial that he took the extremely rare step of replacing his judgment for that of the jury.

In Staten Island, such a step is rarely taken by a judge. The jury’s verdict should be given due deference as they are the ultimate finder of fact according to the law. The judge should not intrude on their domain. Only in the rarest occasions should a jury’s verdict disturbed by the trial judge. That is why we have appellate courts.

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Estate of paralyzed Staten Island man awarded $1.2M

Frank Dito — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:13:07 +0000

Silive is reporting the settlement of a lawsuit with the estate of a pedestrian that was hit by a car in 2002. The victim, Lawrence Sinsheimer, was paralyzed after he was struck by a Mercedes-Benz in August of 2002 on Midland Avenue. The driver of the car, Ajay Angras, hit Mr. Sinsheimer with such force that he was knocked out of his shoes and thrown 40 feet into the air. He was paralyzed from the waist down and spent his remaining days in a nursing home, where he died from causes unrelated to the accident, said his lawyer, Bruce G. Behrins. The case settled at a conference before Justice John A. Fusco prior to jury selection. The defendant was represented by the law firm of Connors and Connors.

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Staten Island man awarded $22.5 million

Frank Dito — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:00:52 +0000

A Staten Island Jury awarded a 61 year old man stricken with polio $22.5 million dollars. The jury reached the verdict in favor of Dominick Tenuto, a former Wall Street executive who contracted polio 30 years ago after his then infant daughter received the polio vaccination produced by Lederle Laboratories. The vaccination given to his daughter contained the live polio virus and passed through his infant daughter and infected Tenuto while he was changing her diaper. The verdict, which Lederle Laboratories plans to appeal, is believed to be one of the largest verdicts ever in Staten Island.

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