$1.4 million settlement for man whose foot was crushed by elevator door

Many times, our colleagues ask us to assist them with their cases, either for the entire litigation or just for trial or settlement purposes. This was the case recently when our firm acted as “co-counsel” to another law firm and were able to successfully resolve our client’s case which involved a defective elevator door that closed on him causing severe injuries.

In this case, our client was working for a moving company when he was injured by a freight elevator that suddenly and unexpectedly closed on him, trapping his right foot in the elevator doors.

As a result of the incident, our client injured various parts of his body, and underwent arthroscopic surgery to his knee to repair a torn meniscus. He also required an extensive surgery to his ankle.

The ankle surgery was called a “Brostrom lateral ligament reconstruction” which is a type of surgery where the damaged ligaments are repaired utilizing graft augmentation, and the ligaments are shortened and repaired with suture fixation.

After many years of litigation, our firm was asked by a colleague to be co-counsel on behalf of the plaintiff as the case was proceeding to trial. While the Coronavirus pandemic was in its beginning stages, the parties agreed to attempt to resolve the case with a virtual mediation.

After many hours conducting a mediation via a Zoom call, Justin Blitz, along with our co-counsel, the defense attorney, and representatives of the defendants’ insurance companies were able to come to terms and settle the case in the amount of $1,400,000.