Maegan Bridwell with assistance of Sean Xenakis, of the Tampa office, obtained a very favorable verdict after a four day jury trial.
Due to an expired Proposal For Settlement, and two very experienced Plaintiffs’ attorneys, there was a significant risk of exposure to attorney fees and noneconomic damages due to the permanent injuries suffered. The two Plaintiff attorneys attended everything in light of a Proposal For Settlement served two years ago that was just slightly more than the past medicals at that time as they were armed with injuries involving objective fractures that caused an extended hospital stay following intake at the ER on the night of the incident. Given the nature of the objective fractures, permanency had to be conceded.
The case had many factual disputes and claims of what happened, essentially becoming a trial within a trial. Maegan was forced to juggle and simplify for the various factual disputes to the jury, as well as new matters that arose during trial due to the strategy of Opposing Counsel, such as Opposing Counsel raising an issue of criminal prosecution for perjury against the client in light of his trial testimony.
Notwithstanding these many issues, Maegan walked the jury through her well organized opening so they had a more clear picture of the issues requiring their attention and the inconsistency of the alleged facts/evidence. From there, she did her best to rehabilitate our client to clean up the credibility issues he created by his direct testimony. Then, she followed up with a three-hour cross-examination of the Plaintiff over two days, which was a monumental task due to the “street smarts” of the Plaintiff; her constantly changing testimony; and her volunteering of random, non-related information into her testimony to distract the jury Maegan remained polite, respectful, and professional during the extended impeachment process so as to not offend our jury. Through closing, Maegan took the jury on a journey of the actual relevant issues to be determined in the case and the disputed testimony/evidence allegedly supporting same.
After four days, the jury had what they needed to find the Plaintiff 49% comparatively negligent and return a verdict that was a fraction of the more than $300,000.00 requested by Plaintiff’s counsel in his closing. Maegan’s hard work will result in a recovery to the Plaintiff amounting to half of her past medicals.