By going to court to seek justice in any personal injury case, the intent is to receive a favorable financial settlement or jury award. These settlements are often times decided by a jury or judge and navigated by the applicable law. However, there is something else that has major influence in determining whether financial compensation is warranted; this is known as precedent. Legal precedent can be understood as influential decisions that have been made in a prior, similar situation. For example, if you are involved in a complicated incident that ended in your injury, you can look in the past to see if there have been similar incidents—and see what the outcome was to try and predict what your result could be.
Because legal precedence is such an important part of understanding the wide scope of personal injury law, it’s imperative to stay up-to-date with legal settlements in areas that might affect you. In this blog, we’ll look at a few case results and one instance of a newly filed lawsuit.
We’ll start in Missouri, where a 14-year old girl was awarded $12.5 million in the settlement of her sexual assault lawsuit. The girl’s attorneys contended that while the 14-year old was being transported by ambulance from one hospital to another, and while she was strapped to a gurney, she was raped by one of the ambulance attendants (who was also a convicted felon). The felon eventually disclosed the crime to his superior, though it came out during the lawsuit that the ambulance company knew about his felon status when they were in the process of hiring him. He acted criminally and the company acted negligently in hiring a felon to take care of the helpless.
Next, we move to California, where $6 million was awarded to a woman who unfortunately suffered a brain injury after she was struck by a car while she was walking in Sacramento. She was just 25-years old when the vehicle hit her. She filed the lawsuit against the city, claiming that the curve in the road impaired motorists’ capacity to see the crosswalk. The jury in the trial decided that the city was 51% responsible. The jury awarded the woman $18 million, though because attorneys previously agreed her injuries did not exceed $6 million, she will be getting $6 million.
For our last settlement, we fly over to Maryland, where a family was awarded $620,000 for the death of their dog. The family dog was shot by a police officer when he was at the family’s home searching for the owners’ son. The crucial evidence in the case was the police vehicle’s dash video camera that caught the shooting on tape. Evidenced by the video, the officer shot the dog as it was bounding outside to greet the officer. The officer claimed that the dog was interfering in his police activities, but the jury didn’t agree and awarded the family $620,000 in what has been branded a “civil rights” case.
Now we’re going to look at a newly filed lawsuit. In New York, a consumer fraud Class-Action lawsuit has been filed against the Dial Corporation, manufacturers of a wide variety of soap products. The lawsuit claims that although Dial’s nationwide marketing campaigns tell consumers that washing their hands with Dial products is more effective than merely washing with soap and water, there isn’t enough evidence to support the claim.
Hopefully now you’re clued into the current goings-on of the world of personal injury! If you have any questions relating to these or any other legal matter, please contact the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg at 561-266-9191 or daronberg@build.simple.biz.
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