Our client wins $500,000 verdict in Houston work injury lawsuit!

Congratulations to our client Andy, who last night won a verdict from a jury in Houston federal court for approximately $500,000 in his job injury lawsuit. The insurance company had offered only $175,000 to settle before trial started.

Andy has been a machinist with General Electric for over 20 years. GE hired a machine manufacturing company, Coldwater Machine, to build it an industrial machine that its workers in Houston could use to make their jobs easier. After Coldwater built the machine, GE requested the company train its employees on how to use it.

Coldwater representatives came to Houston to train the GE workers on its machine. Andy was one of the workers who was being trained. During the training session, as Andy was hooking an air line to the machine, one of its compontents violently smashed him in the face, snapping his head back.

Andy suffered a neck injury which involved a herniated disc, for which he needs a neck fusion surgery.

Coldwater Machine refused to accept any responsibility for what happened to Andy. So Andy hired us to represent him. We filed Andy's work injury lawsuit in Houston, and the case ended up in federal court before Judge Keith Ellison. Andy's case is known as a "third party lawsuit."

Through the information gathering process of the lawsuit, we determined that Coldwater Machine violated at least four important safety rules: (1) it provided no written warnings or instructions with its product, (2) it conducted a training session verbally with no documents, (3) it did not "red tag" the machines when its representatives saw the machines malfunctioning during the training session, and (4) it did not check the machines for oil before telling the GE crew to connect the air lines. We hired a work safety expert who noted that Coldwater violated multiple OSHA safety rules which caused Andy's work accident.

We proved Andy's injury and damages through collecting his medical and billing records and wage loss records, and in obtaining the sworn deposition testimony of Andy's neurosurgeon, who recommended Andy have a neck fusion surgery at the C6-7 level in his neck. Here is a video demonstration of this surgery which we showed the jury: Neck Fusion Video.

We also retained an economist expert who helped us calculate all of Andy's past and future lost wages.

The trial started on Monday, October 31, 2011. Four days later, on Thursday, November 3, the jury returned its verdict at 7:00 p.m. The verdict amount is $476,303, and it will reach $500,000 after the addition of allowable costs and interest charges. Attorneys fees were $200,000 and case expenses were $75,000.

VB lawyers Vuk Stevan Vujasinovic and Sean Cichowski tried the case for Andy.