SETTLEMENT : 7-year-old hit by car while riding bicycle
When a 7-year-old darted on his bicycle from an alleyway to a thorough street, he was tragically struck by a vehicle owned and operated by a local governmental entity. The impact caused the boy significant injuries including likely brain damage with some long-term residual functional loss. Doctors reported partial memory loss and partial dysfunction.
Shortly after the incident, the boy’s parents sought out several attorneys who turned down the case as they denied any liability by the employee, who was driving the government vehicle during the course of and scope of his employment. The family then retained the expertise of Richard B. Koskoff of Booth & Koskoff who not only accepted the case but would go onto secure a very favorable settlement on their behalf.
During the course of litigation, the Defense cited a witness statement that listed the Plaintiff riding his bicycle down the alley and out onto the street at top speed. They also secured an accident reconstructionist who indicated that in the moments just prior to the accident, the Defendant driver was driving below the speed limit. The Defendant driver contended that he never saw the child until the moment just before impact and that the fault was the young child bicycling directly into the path of the oncoming vehicle.
Yet, ultimately the law team of Booth & Koskoff persevered in their arguments of putting the fault on the driver. The case settled out of court with the Plaintiff’s family receiving a partially structured settlement amounting to $1,500,000.