Justice For Personal Injury Clients

A Toyota sedan driver negligently rear-ended my 52-year-old, self-employed client’s pick-up truck. The property damage to both vehicles seemed minor, suggesting that physical injuries should also be correspondingly minor. The plaintiff, my client, went to the ER complaining of shoulder pain, but x-rays came back negative and showed no fracture. However, medical reports in later months showed our client had a pre-existing problem with his shoulder that was worsened by the collision. Harrison Law Associates meticulously documented the client’s medical treatment for back pain and shoulder injury over approximately 18 months. We presented the insurance carrier for the driver at fault with three (3) different theories for how to calculate lost wages based on: (1) number of lost clients; (2) lost revenue shown on bank statements and (3) plaintiff’s hourly billing rates. Our firm successfully negotiated a settlement for the policy limit of $100,000 with the carrier for the driver at fault. We remained relentless in the pursuit of justice by settling the matter for an additional $45,000 dollars by making a claim against our client’s uninsured motorist coverage.

At approximately 11:00 am on a prominent street in downtown Providence, a university graduate student was standing on a well-known corner, waiting for a red traffic light to turn green so she could walk across the street. When the traffic light turned green, the student (our client) began to cross the street. After walking only a few steps into the street/crosswalk, she was hit by a bus on her left and rear sides. The right, front tire of the bus came to rest on top of her ankle, pinning her leg between the bus and the street. She needed four surgeries over two years to recover. Harrison Law Associates filed suit alleging the bus driver negligently breached his duty to maintain a proper lookout for pedestrians. After a five-day Superior Court trial that included the jury receiving a view of the accident scene, and after an appeal to the Rhode Island Supreme Court which ruled in our client’s favor, the case successfully settled in the high six figures.

Our client was an immigrant from a war-torn country in Africa. After being in America for 10 months, she went to a hospital 8 ½ months pregnant, complaining of stomach pain and feeling constipated. From 4:00 pm until 9:00 am she was administered eleven different laxatives but did not have a bowel movement. The morning she was discharged, she fainted on the toilet while trying to have a bowel movement. With tears in her eyes, she begged the patient care advocate to persuade the doctors not to discharge her. Despite having almost all of the high-risk conditions for pregnant women, including being Black, poor, having had multiple third-world abortions, and limited English language abilities, the plaintiff was still wheeled out of the hospital against her will and without a definitive diagnosis of what was causing her stomach pain. Alone, and in agony, she crawled on her hands and knees to her 3^rd floor apartment. Six hours later, she and her baby were both dead. She died from a ruptured uterus that should have been diagnosed at the hospital, but the hospital never administered an ultrasound. After a three-week trial, and then an appeal to the Rhode Island Supreme Court, the three adolescent children of that deceased woman received justice in the form of a settlement in the high six figures for medical malpractice.