Earleen Cote and Mark Gaeta, of the Ft. Lauderdale office, got a favorable verdict in a wrongful death action. The Plaintiff, a girl with cerebral palsy, was 16 years old when her father was killed in an admitted liability accident where he was hit by a motor vehicle while riding a bicycle. While the daughter lived with her mother and not her father at the time of the accident, she visited him when she could, spoke to him twice a week, and spent time with him right before the accident.
The daughter was devastated by the loss and sought counseling for suicidal ideations and cutting. Earleen had to delicately bring out the gaps in the daughter’s relationship with her father and the issues that they had during cross examination of the disabled young girl, without angering the jury.
After a short deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of almost half of what Plaintiff’s counsel requested.
