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By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on June 23rd, 2017

A Pennsylvania woman who was paralyzed after she fell from a ladder as she tried to rescue a cat from a tree in November 2009 has reached a $7.15 million settlement with the manufacturer and seller of the ladder. …

By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on June 16th, 2017

A $7.5 million settlement has been reached in connection with the crash of an SUV and a police car during Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey in October 2012 which left one woman dead and three others severely  injured. …

A Connecticut motorcyclist who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2014 after he was struck by a car pulling out of a driveway as he rode his motorcycle down a street is receiving a $1.3 million settlement in the case.

The motorcyclist, 31-year-old Jeffrey Cipriano, was riding his Harley-Davidson on a street in Bethany, Conn., when a vehicle being driven by 74-year-old Margaret Wilson struck him, according to a May 23 story by The Connecticut Law Review. …

The family of a baby born in a naval hospital in Florida in 2012 has reached a $5 million medical malpractice settlement after three doctors allegedly chose not to order a cesarean section delivery after tests showed evidence of a lack of oxygen to the infant and fetal distress during the birth.

Jenifer and Sean Mochocki reached the $5 million settlement with the Naval Hospital Jacksonville, more than two years after filing a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital and doctors in March of 2015, according to a May 1 story by Law360.com. Sean Mochocki is a U.S. Air Force officer. …

A 52-year-old woman who broke her arm while skating on a brand-new pair of roller skates in June of 2014 has received a $287,500 product liability settlement in the case.

Gladys Jones, who was 50 at the time of the incident, had purchased a pair of “Chicago Skates” roller skates online from Fingerhut.com on June 18, 2014 and was injured eight days later when she unpacked the box and used the skates for the first time, according to a May 4, 2017 story by The Legal Intelligencer. …

By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on May 19th, 2017

A Texas jury has awarded a $39 million wrongful death verdict to the family of a 43-year-old Houston firefighter who was killed in a 2014 crash with a utility trailer while on a bicycle ride.

W. Mark Braswell, who was a captain for the Houston Fire Department, was riding along North Bridgeland Lake Parkway when he and his bicycle struck a landscaping trailer stopped in traffic on the four-lane roadway, according to a May 3 story by The Houston Chronicle. Braswell was also an assistant chief with the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department. …

By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on May 12th, 2017

A 37-year-old Chicago woman was awarded $6.65 million in damages by a Cook County, Ill., jury after she was seriously injured as a passenger in a 2014 crash of a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) commuter train.

The victim, Yolanda Montes, was one of more than 30 train passengers who were hurt when the CTA Blue Line train she was riding on at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport derailed, crashed through a barrier and landed on top of an escalator about 2:55 a.m., according to a May 9 story by The Chicago Tribune.  Montes was at the time a U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer at the airport and was about to get off the train. The driver of the train later said she had fallen asleep as her train approached the station. …

By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on May 5th, 2017

The parents of a 38-year-old Alabama nurse who was killed in the crash of a medical helicopter which was responding to an emergency call in March 2016 has reached a $5 million settlement with the operators of the aircraft.

The nurse, Stacey Cernadas, died March 26, 2016, when the Haynes LifeFlight medical helicopter she was riding in crashed about 12:18 a.m. west of Enterprise, Ala., after picking up a critically-injured victim from a motor vehicle accident on Alabama Highway 11, according to a May 2 story by Al.com. …

By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on April 28th, 2017

The wife of a U.S. Forest Service employee who died in 2010 when the chartered plane he was flying in suffered a catastrophic engine failure and crashed in Lock Haven, Pa., has been awarded a $2.75 million verdict by a federal jury.

Daniel Snider, who was 30 at the time of the incident, died on June 21, 2010, when the Cessna T210L aircraft he was a passenger in crashed on a residential street in Lock Haven, short of a nearby airport runway, due to engine problems which caused engine failure, according to a Feb. 22 story on Law360.com. …

Damages of $4 million have been awarded to a York, Pa., man after a fall in 2012 that blinded him in his left eye as he exited a store in a small shopping center.

The victim, William Waite, who was 79 at the time of the incident, had just left the store on July 3, 2012 at 2861 East Prospect Road in York when he lost his footing “due to an allegedly unseen single step” near the entrance of one of the three stores in the shopping center, according to a March 30 story by The Legal Intelligencer. …

The family of a 21-year-old New Mexico woman who was killed in 2013 when the car she was traveling in was struck by a speeding police cruiser will receive an $8.5 million settlement in the case.

Ashley Browder was killed on Feb. 10, 2013, when a police cruiser, being driven by an off-duty police officer, smashed into the car being driven by Ashley’s then 19-year-old sister, Lindsay, in an intersection in Albuquerque, N.M., according to a March 17 story in The Albuquerque Journal. …

The family of a six-month old boy who was killed in the crash of a car that was being driven by his 23-year-old nanny in 2011 in Aberdeen, N.J., has reached an additional $533,503 settlement in the case with a second automotive service station which had previously worked on the car, and with the nanny’s estate. …