$875K Final pretrial demand | jury awarded $27K. New England trial team convinced a jury to see things their way and deny a Plaintiff a highly inflated claim for damages.

On November 4, 2024, Boston Managing Partner Paul Michienzie and Rhode Island Partner David Maglio obtained a favorable verdict in a trucking liability matter styled Plaintiff v. v. TST Trucking, Inc., et al.

In 2017, the Plaintiff suffered a disc herniation while participating in a CrossFit workout and underwent a surgery (L 4/5 discectomy and laminectomy) to repair the injury. Subsequently, in 2018, she was rear ended by a fully loaded tractor trailer driven by the insured driver/Defendant. Despite being diagnosed with a lumbar strain as a result of the accident, Plaintiff claimed the accident caused further, permanent injury to her back. Adding further complexity to the matter, Plaintiff injured her back two more times after the accident: once in 2019 and once in 2020, ultimately undergoing a second surgery in 2020 to repair a further disc herniation. 

Plaintiff claimed medical bills of $92,000 for the second alleged surgery and related care, and projected future medical costs of over $310,000 for treatment and for a spinal fusion. Her claims also included requests for compensation due to pain and suffering, leading to a final pretrial demand of $875,000. The Defendant conceded liability for the motor vehicle accident, but denied that it caused the extent of injury that the Plaintiff claimed. To the contrary, our attorneys and medical expert successfully demonstrated to the jury that the Plaintiff’s own timeline proved her reherniation was caused by the additional injuries that happened after the motor vehicle accident. Any additional costs therefore were not the responsibility of the Defendant.

Through careful analysis of Plaintiff’s injury history combined with compelling testimony of the Defense medical expert, our team successfully limited the damage award to compensate Plaintiff only for the actual cost of treatment related to the motor vehicle accident. Significantly, the jury did not award damages for any further treatment or surgery.

 Importantly, as a result of pre-trial Motions in Limine, the Court excluded all evidence of liability related to the cause of the accident and limited Plaintiff’s introduction of medical bills. In the end, the jury award totaled $27,000 or less than 5% of the amount sought by Plaintiff in the trial.