Orlando, FL – September 9, 2019 – Greenspoon Marder secured a settlement of $6,750,000 for a 35-year-old mother, pre-med student, and Afghan War Veteran who was catastrophically and permanently disabled as a result of a motor vehicle collision in Central Florida, along with co-counsel Sobel Legal .
The collision occurred in May, 2016, in Orlando, FL, when the victim–a seat-belted front-seat passenger–was stopped at a red light with her husband and newborn daughter—and rear-ended by a van. The victim was immediately treated at a local emergency room for neck and back pain, discharged, and promptly commenced conservative physical therapy.
Approximately 3-months after the collision, and within a few days of a cervical manipulation (or adjustment) treatment at her physical therapist’s office, the victim awoke during the middle of the night with neurological deficits, including loss of ability to speak, walk, and significant motor function loss. After being rushed to the hospital, the victim was diagnosed with an acute cervical vertebral artery dissection with pontine, upper cervical and medullary embolic stroke and paralysis.
Greenspoon Marder and Sobel Legal took over representation of the victim (as well as her husband and daughter) in February, 2017, in litigation against driver of the vehicle that rear-ended the victim, as well as two companies the driver was working for at the time of the collision.
Greenspoon Marder and Sobel Legal alleged that the victim’s dissection of her cervical vertebral artery and subsequent stroke were caused by the trauma of the May 13, 2016 collision itself, or, alternatively, the cervical manipulation therapy performed by the victim’s physical therapist. Under Florida common law precedent (Stuart v. Hertz Corp., 351 So. 2d 703 (Fla. 1977)), Greenspoon Marder and Sobel Legal, working with a team of experts from Harvard, Tufts, UCLA, and Cornell University, alleged that the adverse driver and his employers were legally responsible for the victim’s injuries and damages, regardless of whether those injuries were the result of trauma of the motor vehicle collision or the trauma of the cervical physical therapy manipulation.
The Defense maintained that the victim’s injuries and damages were not related to the motor vehicle collision or the physical therapy the victim received.
The settlelment included claims for the victim’s husband and minor daughter for their loss of the support and services of the victim as a wife and mother.
“To be able to deliver this incredibly deserving client the justice and compensation she so rightfully deserved has been one of the finest moments of my career,” said senior counsel at Greenspoon Marder, Bradley A. Ross , co-lead counsel on the case. “This type of neck injury following a car accident and chiropractic or physical therapy is surprisingly more common than most people–and even some attorneys–realize. Attorneys representing injury victims must to know what to look for and have experience connecting the dots.”
Mr. Ross and partners Neal W. Hirschfeld and Marc E. Schwartz served on the Greenspoon Marder team for this matter. Kenneth J. Sobel of Sobel Legal served as Co-Counsel.
