A thirty-year-old bartender and waitress had sustained severe hand injury to her right hand as a result of a failed surgical operation. She suffered from unrelenting pain and loss of feeling in her right hand, for which she took a variety of narcotic pain medications. The Social Security Administration initially took the position that the woman was not fully disabled because she could still perform a job which required the use of her left arm alone. We worked closely with the woman’s pain management physician and hand surgeon to obtain the appropriate documentation which established that the woman was unable to work at any position because of the combined effect of her hand symptoms and the adverse affects of her medications. We successfully represented the woman in a hearing before a Social Security Administrative Law Judge, who awarded her full disability benefits.

Mr. Peters Has Obtained Social Security Disability Benefits, for those suffering from

• Fibromyalgia
• Systemic Arthritis
• Bi-Polar Disorder
• Severe Agoraphobia
• Manic Depression
• Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy
• Lupus Erythematosus
• Herniated Spinal Discs

A young girl suffered from a rare genetic anomaly which caused a wide range of learning and functional deficits. Her school district insisted on placing the girl in a program which failed to address her individualized educational and emotional needs. We arranged for the child to undergo appropriate educational testing to objectively establish her need for an individualized education plan, With this evidence, we convinced the school district to provide an ideal school placement and supplementary services for the child.

A car driven by a 35 year old young woman was sideswiped by a dump truck on a busy expressway during rush hour. Although the impact was relatively minor, the woman sustained serious and disabling injuries. Her symptoms were similar in nature to those of a condition from which she had suffered in the past, but which was in remission, Before the accident, the woman had suffered from a rare neurological dysfunction known as focal dystonia which had not been related to trauma in the past. We worked closely with the woman’s neurologist to objectively establish that the motor vehicle accident with the dump truck caused an aggravation of the pre-existing neurological condition which had been in remission. As such, we were able to obtain a sizeable settlement for the young woman against the insurer of the dump truck.

A car driven by a fifty-year-old real estate sales agent was rear-ended by another car at a relatively low rate of speed. Nevertheless, the woman experienced severe lower back pain, which radiated into her lower extremities and interfered with her ability to walk. Despite surgical intervention, she continued to suffer from the same symptoms. We worked with the woman’s surgeon and rehabilitative medicine physician to establish the fact that her symptomology was indeed related to the auto accident, because the impact caused an aggravation to an underlying arthritic low back condition. We also retained a medical specialist to analyze her post-surgical ability to walk, who rendered the opinion that she was unable to return to her prior sales agent profession. As a result of our successfully working with our expert witnesses, we were able to obtain a very sizeable settlement for this client.

A thirty-five year old decorated military service man had purchased a twenty ounce glass bottle of name brand iced tea from a local convenience store. He shook the bottle and tapped the bottom of the bottle with the heal of his right hand to release the sediment which had settled at the bottom of the bottle. Suddenly, the bottom of the bottle exploded outward, sending razor sharp shards of glass into the man’s right wrist. The lacerations completely severed the man’s median nerve, leaving him with permanent right hand injuries. Mr. Peters retained the services of an engineering expert witness who correctly identified the cause of this freak accident, as the so-called “waterhammer effect.” The expert further opined that the waterhammer effect was a foreseeable occurrence, and that the glass bottle should not have exploded under the circumstances. Mr. Peters obtained a seven figure settlement from the manufacturer of the glass bottle and from the manufacturer of the iced tea.

A thirty-year-old roofing contractor, operating an all terrain vehicle, slowing turned to exit the driveway of a park. The ATV tipped over during the turn, throwing the operator to the pavement and causing him to suffer from serious injuries to his knee. We retained the services of the mechanical engineer who had designed NASA’S lunar roving module to inspect the client’s ATV; the engineer determined that the ATV was defectively designed because its transmission lacked a feature which was necessary for vehicle to safely make turns without tipping over. Mr. Peters sued the manufacturer of the ATV, and obtained a significant settlement for our client.

A thirty-year-old technician at a local oil refinery was working in a small quality control laboratory. She was making use of a machine that tests the viscosity of petroleum products. After a few hours, the technician was overcome by fumes of a toxic chemical [hexane] that were leaking from the machine. Following her exposure to the chemical, she became unable to concentrate or think clearly. We sued the company that had manufactured the machine, and proved that the machine was defectively designed, because it allowed the hexane to collect and evaporate within the area of the laboratory where the technicians worked. We also arranged for the technician to undergo extremely sophisticated diagnostic testing which objectively proved that she was exposed to a toxic agent, and that her exposure to the toxic chemical fumes caused subtle brain damage which was responsible for her medical symptoms. We obtained a multi-million dollar settlement against the laboratory machine’s manufacture.

A thirty-year-old machine operator at a local linoleum factory was in the process of changing metal rolls, which were used to emboss the decorative pattern on the linoleum. To change these rolls, he was making use of a roll changing, which malfunctioned, causing his hand to be crushed inside the printing press. After several failed surgeries on his hand, the worker became depressed because his hand was in constant pain: he then sought the care of a psychiatrist to treat his depression. The worker subsequently died because the psychiatrist failed to properly monitor the anti-depressant medications. We sued the manufacturer of the roll changing cart and proved that it had been defectively designed. We also sued the psychiatrist for medical malpractice. We obtained a total settlement of nearly one million dollars for the worker’s family.

A twenty year old young man suffering from bi-polar disorder, for the treatment of which his psychiatrist had initially prescribed the mood stabilizing medication Lithium. For no medically sound reason, the same psychiatrist changed the man’s medication to a different Lithium preparation. In addition, the pharmacy which had filled his Lithium medications for the past two years, failed to properly fill the prescription. Consequently, the young man was without his mood stabilizing medication for such a long period of time, that he became severely depressed. He attempted to commit suicide by placing a shotgun under his chin and pulled the trigger; he failed to kill himself, but succeeded in blowing off the front of his face, sustaining horrific facial injuries. We retained three expert witnesses: a psychiatrist who rendered the opinion that the treating physician and her employer were negligent; a forensic toxicologist who determined the precise adverse effect on the body of a bi-polar patient of an abrupt discontinuation of his Lithium medication; and a pharmacist who opined that the pharmacy was negligent for not properly following up with the patient’s treating psychiatrist. We were able to obtain a large settlement from the young man’s psychiatrist, his psychiatric clinic, and the pharmacy.

A woman in her mid-twenties was admitted to a local hospital for the delivery of her second child whom she had been carrying for the past 39 weeks. Hospital personnel hooked the woman up to a fetal monitor machine. However, the personnel failed to watch the fetal monitor readings, and left the woman and her husband alone for the next 45 minutes. The oxygen supply to the fetus was being slowly cut off because the umbilical cord was compressed inside the woman’s birth canal. The full developed fetus died. We sued the hospital for medical malpractice. We retained experts in obstetrics and neonatal pathology to prove that the medical staff failed to provide mother and child with appropriate medical care, and to prove that the fetus died as a sole result of the medical staff’s negligence. We settled the case in the middle of the jury trial for nearly one million dollars.