Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg

Published on: February 1, 2022

Don’t Be a Low-hanging Fruit Lawyer! How to Multiply Your Client’s Settlement with Defendant’s Personal Money?

To gather facts and to determine early on whether insurance coverage is available is the first priority for every personal injury attorney presented with a new potential case. On the issue of coverage, if the answer is “none”, or “minimal”, almost all lawyers will abruptly end the conversation and turndown the case.

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Had Ira Leesfield and attorneys with the firm followed the wrong-way herd, one of our pedestrian clients would have collected zero dollars. Experience, dedication and legal tenacity allowed for a $1.4 million recovery instead (more on that case below). Bottom line is, if insurance coverage is seemingly lacking, all personal injury attorneys must ban the practice of summarily turning down a potential case without conducting a proper investigation of the facts and of all defendants’ assets.

Leverage Acquired = Ten Times the Combined Coverage

Published on: December 23, 2021

Punitive Damages Secured In “Utter Medical Neglect” Case In Polk County

By Leesfield & Partners

“There has never been a case more fit for a resounding punitive damages award. Nothing will prevent the jury from considering every sickening detail of Corizon’s neglect and every profit-driven decision that resulted in Evan Kennard’s agonizing death now that we have secured punitive damages on behalf of Evan’s wife and 9-year-old daughter.”

– Justin Shapiro and Leesfield & Partners

Evan Kennard (age 29) was admitted to Polk County Jail with a life-threatening heart infection and symptoms so alarming that any competent healthcare professional would have immediately rushed him to an emergency room. Instead, the jail’s private healthcare contractor, Corizon, ignored Evan’s worsening symptoms and deprived him of life-saving treatment for seven days as he deteriorated into a corpse. Corizon neglected Evan at every turn and only sent him to the emergency room after he became unresponsive, brain-dead, severely septic, 40 pounds lighter, with pressure ulcers, soaked in his urine, with no chance of survival. Corizon’s own Medical Director, Margie Gomez, MD, admitted in deposition that her medical staff committed “egregious violations of protocols” in Evan’s care and treatment throughout his limited time in the jail. In fact, every single Corizon doctor and nurse deposed in this matter admitted to numerous protocol violations, and they blamed each other for Corizon’s grossly indifferent lack of humanity to this dying husband and father.

Published on: November 16, 2021

Back to back $25 Million Negligent Security Lawsuits filed for murder in gated community and for hotel rape victim

By Leesfield & Partners

Over the last 45 years, especially in the last 1000 days, Leesfield & Partners’ negligent security practice has seen first hand the dire consequences of the escalation of violent crime and the increasing number of innocent victims needlessly killed, battered, or raped.

The last two years have brought on much anxiety to all of us. The ripple effect of world economies shutting down has caused local economies and its people to suffer the most. The atmosphere of uncertainty has been a significant contributing factor to the resurgence of crime in our communities, especially the most violent crimes.

According to Statista, violent crimes are the worst they have been in the last 10 years. The number of aggravated assaults is the highest we have seen in the last 23 years, and the number of murders & non-negligent manslaughters has been this high since 1995.

Published on: September 27, 2021

Scooter operator fatally injured in collision with UPS truck in Miami Beach

By Leesfield & Partners

Last week, the driver of a scooter was fatally injured in an incident with a UPS driver in Miami Beach. The reports at the time have collectively made a point to say that the operator of the scooter was not wearing a helmet, almost impuning them. Florida drivers know full-well that helmets are not required to operate a motorcycle or a scooter/moped. Whether in the court of public opinion or court of law, not wearing a helmet is not a reason to accuse an innocent driver of wrongdoing, without knowing all facts surrounding an incident, including this latest fatal collision.

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Read Ira Leesfield and Justin Shapiro’s article published in Trial on ways to approach litigation involving e-scooters and sharing services.

Let us be very clear. In general, when a scooter operator -not wearing a helmet- is thrashed by another vehicle, the focus is not and never should be on the helmet. The one and only cause for the incident in that scenario is the negligent, often reckless driver of the at-fault vehicle, who expressed utter disregard for other motorists on the road. Defense attorneys attempt to take the focus away from the main thing, which is their client’s negligence. The strategy is to appeal to the general population’s biases against motorcycles, scooters and mopeds in general, which makes us look for a reason to blame the victim. For the past 45 years, Leesfield & Partners has litigated countless cases while representing families whose spouse, child or parent was killed by another vehicle, including commercial trucks.

Published on: September 17, 2021

$1.5 million recovered in dog bite cases with no or disputed insurance coverage

By Leesfield & Partners

Everyday 1,000 people go to emergency rooms across the country to treat for dog bite injuries, and approximately 15,000 people need to be hospitalized with life-threatening injuries every year. Florida has a 40% dog ownership rate, and many owners have more than one dog. Consequently, it is not uncommon for guests, bystanders, neighbors and relatives to be bitten while visiting the home of a dog owner. When injured, where can the victim turn to? What about insurance exclusions?

Below are five different scenarios – five cases handled by Leesfield & Partners – which resulted in the victims receiving compensation despite low odds of recovery.

Florida Law

Published on: September 13, 2021

Gas tank explosion at Seminole Classic Casino

By Leesfield & Partners

casino-594157_640-300x200 Earlier today, an explosion happened at the Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood, FL. The floor of the casino was open to patrons and workers were performing maintenance checks of the casino’s fire suppression systems. The early reports describe that the workers were checking an area of the casino with quite a lot of equipment. Once the check was over for one of the gas tanks used to suppress fire ruptured. An explosion followed, sending debris to the main casino floor where patrons were located. In all, 26 people were injured in the event, 6 of which were transported to the hospital with significant injuries.

Partner Justin Shapiro and other attorneys at the firm recently represented a client involved in a similar case where an explosion at a home caused significant burn and orthopedic injuries to the resident resulting in a 6-figure settlement. In another matter, Ira Leesfield and other attorneys at the firm represented an employee who was injured while performing maintenance at a large international outlet store. The store’s negligence caused the worker to fall 10 feet without notice and sustain catastrophic injuries.

In the Seminole Classic Casino explosion, several claims will have to be brought forward not only to compensate the victims, and to make certain that such event never occurs again. The question of tribal immunity will be discussed in the coming weeks and months, especially if one or more of the hospitalized victims sustained catastrophic injuries.

Published on: September 7, 2021

School bus driver – The non-obvious defendant

By Leesfield & Partners

Partner Justin Shapiro has recently represented a family whose minor son (JD) was ran over by a distracted motorist as he was about to board a school bus. After a arduous legal battle, the family ultimately prevailed and settled against the at-fault driver and the school district for the school bus driver’s negligence.

Like every weekday, JD reported to the designated gathering area on the corner of the intersection just before 6:00 a.m. At approximately 6:10 a.m., the school bus arrived on the opposite corner of the intersection and stopped in the middle of the road. It was pitch dark outside as there were no street lights in the area. Despite the long line of buses situated “bumper-to-bumper” ahead of the bus, the driver initiated the flashing lights and signaled the children to cross the street and board the bus. There was no designated crosswalk from the gathering area to the corner where the bus stopped. Relying on the driver’s direction, JD and the other children began to cross the street.

At that time, a motorist traveling southbound in the direction of the group of children could not see the mobile traffic devices on the school bus due to the heavy traffic and numerous school buses in the northbound lane with their headlights on. Tragically and inevitably, the vehicle crashed into the child at a high rate of speed. JD was left unconscious, laying motionless on the ground. He was airlifted to the hospital, diagnosed with severe traumatic brain injuries from which he and his family will never recover.

Published on: July 12, 2021

Leesfield & Partners, leads the nation in shipboard medical negligence cases

By Leesfield & Partners

Once again, the team at Leesfield & Partners has achieved important success for passengers who become ill or otherwise require evacuation from cruise ships for medical needs.

In the matter of the Estate of Jeffrey Eisenman v. Carnival Cruise Lines, former Chief Judge James Lawrence King has denied the defendant’s Motion to Dismiss and further denied defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment against plaintiffs’ claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Jeffrey Eisenman was seriously ill while ship was docked at port. The family purchased evacuation insurance and pleaded with the Captain and medical crew to transport Mr. Eisenman to a location with adequate medical facilities. The cruise line refused to evacuate and set sail for Puerto Rico, 21 hours away. Mr. Eisenman died 14 hours later during the voyage. His family was grief-stricken. To make matters worse, the cruise line refused to have Mr. Eiseman’s body removed from the ship, forcing family members to stay onboard with their deceased father for the entire cruise. The Eiseman case joins five other seven figure recent results obtained by the firm for failures to provide adequate medical care or otherwise make proper arrangements to obtain appropriate medical attention. These failures resulted in passenger deaths, and life altering conditions, which were avoidable and unnecessary.

Additional cases include:

Published on: June 18, 2021

Negligent Security and Client Safety

By Leesfield & Partners

Your clients (and family) must be protected, safe and secure, at shopping centers, apartments, gas stations, office buildings and hotels, including parking lots/garages and any commercial property where they may be vulnerable to crime. Leesfield & Partners represents victims who have been attacked, abused, injured or killed because security was inadequate. We are on the legislative and civil justice forefront of public safety.

MOST COMMON CRIME SCENES:

Shopping malls/strip malls

Published on: June 3, 2021

Sunscreens and after-sun products found to contain benzene, a carcinogen banned by the FDA for its unacceptable toxicity

By Leesfield & Partners

Valisure, the online pharmacy that batch-tests chemical composition of medications and consumer products, has just sounded the alarm on several sunscreens and after-sun products that contain dangerous levels of benzene. Whether in Europe (since 1967) or in the USA (since 1978), benzene was withdrawn from consumer products due to the very high toxicity of the chemical.

What is benzene?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), benzene is an odorless and colorless chemical. It evaporates into the air very quickly and it float on top of water, only slightly dissolving.