Car Accident $1,196,858.68

Ali and Rana are an American immigration success story. Born in Lebanon and Palestine, both were raised in Kuwait until war was imminent. As Iraq prepared to invade Kuwait, their families immigrated to the United States through New York City. There, they fell in love, married and moved to Tampa to begin raising what would soon be a family of four children.

Ali worked hard running his own wholesale delivery business, supplying convenience stores with goods for sale. His morning began very early, and the work was never easy. However, he was dedicated and hardworking, earning money to support his family and wife while she earned her nursing degree. Ali was happy and saw his hard work come to fruition when his oldest son left for college, and his wife began working as a nurse. Then tragedy struck.

While returning home from his regular morning deliver route, Ali’s van was struck from behind. Although he did not believe he was injured at the scene of the accident and was still able to stop for lunch, later that evening and into the night, his neck began to ache and his back tightened. A visit to the emergency room the next morning was the beginning of a long, four year series of fits and starts with therapy, injections and ultimately neck surgery to remove a herniated disk and fuse one of the vertebral segments of his spine.

BTG was asked to partner with Ali and Rana’s attorney to litigate and try their case 31 days after mid six figure PFS’s were strategically served as suggested by Mr. Barnes. Mr. Barnes saw the potential in using their immigrant story of hard work and perseverance as an asset and theme for the trial against one of the largest defense firms in Florida.

During Ali’s medical odessy, his oldest son was forced to take a semester off from college to help his father keep his business running. Rana took an overseas nursing assignment for nine months to earn nearly double her salary to help replace the income lost during Ali’s recovery. Because of the hard work and support of the entire family, qualities instilled in them by Ali, proving a significant wage loss at trial would be difficult. Thus, strategy decisions were made to forgo a wage loss claim, retain a life care planner, and advance a theme that Ali would need life long care and therapy to help him remain a productive, hard working member of society.

After a week long trial, the jury rewarded Ali, Rana and their trial team with a $1,196,858.68 verdict, including a substantial future medical damages award. For Mr. Barnes, it was incredibly gratifying to witness an attentive and thoughtful Hillsborough County jury justly compensate a wonderful immigrant family. Thanks to the jury’s wisdom, Ali has access to the medical care he needs as he and Rana continue to work and watch their children graduate high school and attend college.