Due to the severity and extent of the impact of the vehicle with the victim, several church parishioners stood over her and began praying until the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Department arrived to stabilize and transport her to the emergency room at Bethesda Memorial Hospital. The victim complained of severe pain in her right ankle and left shoulder. As a result, she underwent x-rays which revealed a fractured left clavicle as well as a transverse fracture involving the medial malleolus of the distal tibia of her right ankle. Unfortunately, after the x-rays were reviewed by an orthopedic surgeon, he gave the victim the shocking news that in all reasonable medical probability, her right ankle fracture would not heal with osseus union, putting her at risk for chronic pain and possible arthritis. As a result, the victim reluctantly agreed to surgery to avoid the risk of nerve/artery/tendon injury, stiffness, chronic pain, arthritis and instability.

On the day after her admission, the orthopedic surgeon performed an open reduction with internal fixation of the medial malleolus fracture of the right ankle which was done under general anesthesia and required an anteromedial J-incision to protect the saphenous vein. Subsequently, the fracture site was reduced under direct vision using a cannulated 4.5 x 50 mm screw which was securely fixed.

The victim was discharged from the hospital once arrangements were made to provide in home care. In addition, she was required to follow up with her primary care physician as well as her orthopedic surgeon, who confirmed an assessment of closed fracture of the mid-shaft left clavicle and right medial malleolus fracture as well as cervical disc injury, thoracic spondylosis with scoliosis and lateral collateral ligament strain/spain. In addition, she was prescribed physical therapy, which, as you might imagine, was quite extensive and painful.

Fortunately, her fractures eventually healed to the orthopedic surgeon’s satisfaction. However, her cervical spine pain and complaints remained persistent. As a result, an MRI of the cervical spine was performed and revealed that the victim was suffering from degenerative changes noted with reversal of the normal cervical lordosis which was obviously aggravated by the accident.

Sadly, that was the case of the victim in this Florida automobile accident. The victim was only 19 years old at the time and was asleep in the front passenger seat of the vehicle, when the driver apparently fell asleep, causing a “heavy foot” on the gas pedal, resulting in the pickup truck accelerating, crossing the center line and slamming head on into an oncoming semi-truck. The impact virtually obliterated the front half of the pickup truck.

The victim was forcibly extracted from the front passenger compartment of the demolished pickup truck and rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital via trauma hawk/helicopter, where he was placed in the intensive care unit. He had sustained multiple lacerations and fractures to his face, head and knee, (requiring stitches and staples), a complete fracture to the left side of his jaw (which required his mouth to be wired shut with hooks that were attached to his teeth), severe injuries to his left eye (that had to be reset due to bone fractures around his eye and lacerated eye lids). In addition, he had one tooth completely knocked out, another one chipped and a third tooth was cracked.

This victim was hospitalized for 16 days at Jackson Memorial Hospital and underwent a grueling seven hour operation performed by a team of surgeons that involved a complete reconstruction of his face including the use of multiple titanium plates and screws. Based upon the full extent and severity of the horrific facial lacerations, fractures and injuries, this young man will never look the same again.

He remains unable to close his left eye and it remains to be seen whether he will ever be able to completely close his left eye or see out of that eye with the same vision and clarity as before the accident because his left eye continues to remain blurry with severely reduced vision. Finally, his left eye remains droopy and will require surgery to repair in the future.

In addition, the left side of his mouth is also droopy and doctors have stated that only time will tell whether this will return to normal or remain disfigured due to permanent nerve damage. The victim continues to experience facial numbness both under his eye and in his cheek areas. He also continues to experience complete numbness of the three middle toes on his left foot.

The victim in this Florida uninsured motorists case was in the process of making a legal left turn when an uninsured/underinsured motorist failed to yield the right-of-way to a red traffic signal and plowed into the side of the victim’s vehicle, causing a massive collision in the middle of the intersection. Fortunately, the victim was wearing his seat belt when the accident occurred.

Paramedics transported the victim from the accident scene via ambulance to the emergency room with initial complaints of pain to his right shoulder and hip. After undergoing a thorough examination and diagnostic workup, he was eventually released with instructions to follow up with a physician. Subsequently, he followed up with a local chiropractic group with continued complaints of pain to the left shoulder and hip. In addition, he developed severe pain in the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. As a result, he was diagnosed with severe traumatic cervical hyperflexion/hyperextension injury with radiculopathy to the left upper extremity, left shoulder arthralgia, severe traumatic thoracic myositis and severe traumatic lumbar myositis with sciatica to the left lower extremity.

Due to his complaints and the physical examination, the victim was immediately placed on a conservative chiropractic/therapeutic rehabilitation program consisting of ultrasound, electrical muscle stimulation, moist heat, cryotherapy, mechanical traction, massage therapy, active range of motion exercises and adjustment manipulations. In addition, he was immediately referred to an orthopedic surgeon. The orthopedic surgeon found that he was suffering from a shoulder separation, as well as what he believed to be a lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy.

The orthopedic surgeon performed surgery on the victim’s lumbar spine at a local surgery center which included provocative discography at L2-L3, L3-L4, L4-L5 and L5-S1. The post-operative diagnosis included confirmed herniated discs at the L3-L4, L4-L5 and the L5-S1 levels. Based upon the discography findings, he was immediately scheduled for surgery on the lower back.

Due to the severity and extent of the impact of the vehicle with the victim, several church parishioners stood over her and began praying until the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Department arrived to stabilize and transport her to the emergency room at Bethesda Memorial Hospital. The victim complained of severe pain in her right ankle and left shoulder. As a result, she underwent x-rays which revealed a fractured left clavicle as well as a transverse fracture involving the medial malleolus of the distal tibia of her right ankle. Unfortunately, after the x-rays were reviewed by an orthopedic surgeon, he gave the victim the shocking news that in all reasonable medical probability, her right ankle fracture would not heal with osseus union, putting her at risk for chronic pain and possible arthritis. As a result, the victim reluctantly agreed to surgery to avoid the risk of nerve/artery/tendon injury, stiffness, chronic pain, arthritis and instability.

On the day after her admission, the orthopedic surgeon performed an open reduction with internal fixation of the medial malleolus fracture of the right ankle which was done under general anesthesia and required an anteromedial J-incision to protect the saphenous vein. Subsequently, the fracture site was reduced under direct vision using a cannulated 4.5 x 50 mm screw which was securely fixed.

The victim was discharged from the hospital once arrangements were made to provide in home care. In addition, she was required to follow up with her primary care physician as well as her orthopedic surgeon, who confirmed an assessment of closed fracture of the mid-shaft left clavicle and right medial malleolus fracture as well as cervical disc injury, thoracic spondylosis with scoliosis and lateral collateral ligament strain/spain. In addition, she was prescribed physical therapy, which, as you might imagine, was quite extensive and painful.

Fortunately, her fractures eventually healed to the orthopedic surgeon’s satisfaction. However, her cervical spine pain and complaints remained persistent. As a result, an MRI of the cervical spine was performed and revealed that the victim was suffering from degenerative changes noted with reversal of the normal cervical lordosis which was obviously aggravated by the accident.

The evidence in this case clearly shows that the establishment, by and through its bartender, knowingly served a person habitually addicted to alcohol in that it:

1) Knew that he was patronizing the establishment on virtually a daily basis;
2) Knew that he consumed multiple drinks or excessive amounts of alcohol;
3) Knew that he regularly became intoxicated while patronizing the establishment;
4) Knowledge was expressed by employees of the establishment regarding the Plaintiff being a drunk.

As on many prior days, when the victim in this case arrived at the bar located in a local hotel, he had consumed 12 to 15 beers before he got there. On this particular date, he arrived on a waverunner with his friend sitting on the back. The testimony from witnesses is that on that day, the victim was drinking Bloody Marys and consumed a minimum of five drinks in a very short time span (no more than one and one half hours). The witnesses testified that he was intoxicated as he was very loud, boisterous, argumentative, and that he and his friend were coming out of the bar very slowly and “almost leaning on one another”.

In spite of this, the bartender at the establishment not only continued to serve this gentleman, but rather offered him a drink “to go” in a plastic cup as he was leaving. This was witnessed by numerous patrons in the bar. The victim left the bar with his “to go” drink and after having consumed that as well as numerous other alcoholic beverages in the course of the short time period he was there, and coming under the influence of alcohol and being intoxicated, got on to his waverunner with a passenger on the back, and proceeded to drive through the canal paralleling Southern Boulevard near the airport and crashed his waverunner into an anchored pontoon boat located in the canal. He sustained a very serious head injury and the passenger on his waverunner was also injured.

As a result of this accident, the victim sustained a severe and significant brain injury. He was unconscious following this incident and was rushed to St. Mary’s Hospital by Trauma Hawk. He was assessed in the trauma unit and emergency surgery was performed by a local neurosurgeon. The operative procedures performed were a left frontotemporal parietal occipital craniotomy, elevation and debridement of opened depressed skull fractures, and complex reconstruction of depressed skull fractures with titanium plating system. Seven plates and twenty-eight screws were used in the reconstruction of the depressed skull fracture.

On this particular day, the victim had picked up one passenger to deliver to the hospital entrance, had made it to the valet entrance area and stopped, when a visitor in a large Ram pickup truck made an illegal u-turn because she apparently passed an open parking spot and was in a hurry to turn around and park there. Unfortunately, in the process she struck the golf cart with great force.

Both the driver and the passenger in the golf cart were ejected out of the golf cart and were thrown approximately 3-4 feet from the cart onto the pavement. Although the passenger in the golf cart sustained cuts and bruises, she refused medical treatment at the scene and has not had the necessity to obtain any medical treatment since the accident. However, the driver and victim in this case sustained multiple traumatic injuries and hit his head which was bleeding profusely. The paramedics arriving at the scene determined that, due to previous heart surgery, the victim needed to be taken directly to the trauma unit at another hospital, so he was placed in an ambulance and immediately transported to Delray Medical Center.

This victim remained in the hospital for a few weeks and then was transferred to a rehabilitation facility for continued care and rehabilitation. Unfortunately, after being at this facility for a short time, the victim’s health deteriorated rapidly and he passed away from complications brought on by his injuries previously sustained during the golf cart/motor vehicle accident.

The victim’s widow and children contacted Attorney Jason D. Weisser to assist them in bringing a lawsuit against the driver of the pickup truck that struck the golf cart the victim was driving and also against the uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage the victim carried on his own insurance policy. After extensive investigation and negotiations, Mr. Weisser was successful in settling with all defendants for an amount that was 25 times the available policy limits in this matter.

The victim in this Florida food poisoning case was planning a large get together for her family (15 people in all). She traveled to a neighborhood fast food restaurant and purchased enough fried chicken, potato salad and cole slaw to feed all of her relatives. Unfortunately, the victim and most of her relatives became ill and suffered from various symptoms to varying degrees. The victim became violently ill with severe abdominal pain, cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach swelling, excruciating head and neck pain, and high fever. She felt so ill in fact, that she literally thought that it was her time to die.

The victim quickly made an appointment with her primary care physician, who immediately had her admitted to JFK Medical Center. From the date of her hospital discharge which was in April, through the end of the year, the victim continued to experience problems with abdominal pain, cramps and diarrhea. In December, her primary physician performed an endoscopic cholangiopancreatogram and subsequently diagnosed acalculus cholecystitis and referred her to a surgeon.

A few days later, she was admitted to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center for abdominal pain. Her surgeon diagnosed biliary dyskinesia and he eventually performed a laproscopic exploratory laparotomy with laproscopic cholecystecomy (gallbladder removal) and operative cholangiogram. Her physician’s report summarizes his professional medical opinions that the victim continues to suffer from a chronic non-specific colitis as a result of the food poisoning incident in April. His report also confirms that she continues to experience intermittent abdominal pain, cramps and diarrhea, all of which are requiring supportive management. Finally, he has confirmed that the food poisoning incident aggravated a pre-existing underlying gallbladder problem and was in fact the catalyst to the surgery to have the gallbladder removed.

Needless to say, this victim’s life and health have been totally upended due to this unfortunate and horrible incident. She can no longer eat any potato salad or chicken and the thought of doing so causes her to get sick. She can no longer enjoy a meal out at a restaurant due to her fears that she will end up with food poisoning again.

Our victim in this Florida premises liability case was 17 years old at the time of this horrifying accident in which he was rendered a quadriplegic. The victim and several of his friends were at a party at the home of one of their classmates. At that party, which commenced around 9:00 p.m., the under-aged party goers had consumed alcoholic beverages that had been sold to a number of the teenaged boys present by several different business establishments. While under the influence of alcohol and being intoxicated, several of the young men, including the victim, began to rough house on a portion of the lawn near the driveway of this residence. The victim was thrown to the ground on a grassy berm and various boys piled on top of him. As they piled on him, the victim was at the bottom of the pile and in the process of the other boys piling on top of him and rolling around, the victim was caused to have a C-6 burst fracture to his neck which cut into his spinal cord and caused him subsequent quadriplegia.

One of the boys testified that everyone started piling on with the victim on the bottom of the pile and that sometime during the “pile up”, the victim started yelling and everyone started getting off. He stated that everyone thought the victim was joking at first, but when they all got off of him he was just lying there crying and yelling that he couldn’t move.

The paramedics were called and he was taken to Delray Community Hospital, where he was immediately transferred to the trauma unit. Upon examination by an orthopedic spine surgeon, he found the lower extremities demonstrated complete paralysis of the muscles with no voluntary movement. The light touch sensation was absent below the nipple line. He was also absent hand grip and intrinsic function. He was immediately placed on a Rota-Rest bed and placed into cranial cervical traction. The surgeon performed surgery for spinal stabilization within two days of the incident.

Following surgery, the victim was transferred to the spinal cord injury unit and was given a comprehensive rehabilitation evaluation. Shortly after that evaluation, he was transferred to Pinecrest Rehabilitation Hospital where he remained as a C-7 level complete quadriplegic. He was placed on a comprehensive rehabilitation program for spinal cord injury that included physical therapy, occupational therapy, rehabilitation nursing, case management and rehabilitation psychology. He was also placed on a bladder and bowel program and received treatment for numerous urinary tract infections.

One January evening, a mother and father were enjoying the South Florida Fair with their three sons. The youngest child, two years old at the time, was running through the fun house with his 13 year old babysitter while his mother and father watched from outside. As he was running through the fun house, he came upon an area of the fun house where there are 3 disks in the floor with poles extending upward from the center of each disk. These disks spin on motors and the object is to step on them and try to make your way across. The two year old victim in this case stepped on the disk and fell, causing his right thumb to become amputated at the knuckle as it was caught between the rotating disks.

The victim in this Florida premises liability case was rushed to Palms West Medical Center where reattachment of the thumb was attempted, but unfortunately, this reattachment failed and the thumb subsequently had to be amputated several days later. He was later seen by a specialist at Miami Children’s Hospital for a second opinion. The physicians outlined five options for the family at that point: (1) Do nothing and let him make the natural adjustments necessary for the loss of this partial thumb; (2) A toe transfer – the most complicated of all options but probably the best solution in the physicians’ eyes since he would have feeling in the end of the thumb; (3) A distraction lengthening of the thumb; (4) Wearing a prosthetic thumb; and (5) An osteo-integrated implant. Now the parents are left with a very tough decision. Of course the three surgical options would all be quite expensive.

The parents in this situation contacted Attorney Richard D. Schuler to advise them of their options in this matter and to file a lawsuit against the amusement company that owned the “kiddie rides” and the company that was in charge of setting up, maintaining and operating these rides.

After checking in, the husband had some phone calls to make and some work to catch up on so he stayed in the room while the wife went downstairs to the pool. The wife stayed by the pool for several hours relaxing and enjoying the sun. When she returned to the room, she noticed that her husband was not there but was not worried, since she assumed he had gone down to the hotel bar or was touring the hotel. She went ahead and showered and ordered some food from room service, as she was sure that he would return shortly for dinner.

After several hours went by, she became increasingly concerned that he had not returned and she began making some phone calls. However, no one had heard from him and the hotel desk clerks stated they had not seen her husband.

Later that evening, as one of the hotel employees was making rounds to ascertain that everything was as it should be in the hotel, he came upon the body of the husband in the stairwell near the couple’s room. He had been killed with a garotte, which is a wire with a handle at each end used for strangling. Because this apparatus was used, the police stated that it very possibly could have been a contract killing. The police surmised that he had been surprised in his room and then pulled into the stairwell, even though there were no signs of struggle in the motel room.

Of course, the wife was questioned at length concerning her husband’s death but was not charged. The husband was a wealthy businessman so the police were looking at all of his personal and business connections. Unfortunately, this murder was never solved.

This couple had been married a relatively short period of time and had no children together, but he had five children from his previous marriage. The widow in this case contacted Attorney Richard D. Schuler to assist her in suing the hotel for negligent security on behalf of herself and her five step-children. Mr. Schuler retained a security expert in this case and together they were able to show that the hotel had inadequate security at the time of this incident, and that there had been criminal activity in this area in the past.

The victim in this Florida nursing home case was 72 years old at the time of his death. Two days before he had been transported via ambulance to Delray Community Hospital after he fell from his wheelchair and hit his head on the floor. As a result of this fall, he sustained a laceration to the right forehead and a right subarachnoid hemorrhage with left inferior occipital area hemorrhage consistent with contrecoup and a laceration to his forehead.

An investigation indicated that the nursing home not only consistently failed to provide adequate protective and supportive services for this gentleman, but that the facility knew and documented his cognitive losses in short and long term memory and periods of delirium with his mental function varying over the course of the day. He had also had previous falls and had tried to climb out of bed. The nursing home records reflect that from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. he had a private sitter with him. The family had hired a private sitter as they were told by the staff that they couldn’t watch him continuously. His wife, who was 70 years old, tried to be with him the other 12 hours of the day. At one point the nurses have documented that the patient was placed in a wheelchair up by the nurse’s station as the patient had tried to get up and walk alone several times.

On the morning of the incident in question, the patient was found on the floor of his room with no apparent injuries noted.

Unfortunately, despite the facility’s knowledge of the victim’s dementia, memory loss and confused state, it did not see fit to use any type of safety device to prevent him from getting out of his wheelchair. Also, the medical records reflect that the employees of the nursing home did not keep the head of this victim’s bed elevated to 45 degrees as required of a patient getting G-Tube feedings, nor did they do the other preventative measures which were the standard.

Maybe that is why the victim in this single vehicle roll over is lucky to be alive, although she did have serious injuries. Our victim in this Florida truck accident case is a 45 year old single woman living in West Palm Beach, Florida. She had traveled to Indiana with her boyfriend to visit her son and was enroute back to her home at the time of this Florida auto accident. They had borrowed her son’s pickup truck and the boyfriend was driving on State Road 55 in Cross City, Florida early one rainy morning. The victim was asleep when the accident occurred, but feels certain that the driver fell asleep and then over-corrected when he ran off the left shoulder of the road. He then cut across the road to the right shoulder, ran off the road and the truck flipped over one or two times before landing against a tree by the road. The driver denies falling asleep and states that he believes a tire blew and caused the accident.

Whatever happened, the victim through no fault of her own, sustained very serious injuries in this crash, including but not limited to injuries to her neck, right shoulder, head, mid and low back. In fact, her medical expenses eventually amounted to almost $200,000.00. As a result of this accident, she received a huge knot on the right side of her head and sustained severe memory loss and had constant migraines. Her neck had a ruptured disc and a bulging disc and required surgery for disc replacement. Her right shoulder was separated. Her lumbar spine had a ruptured disc and a bulging disc. She is told by her physicians that she may need future surgery.

The victim in this case requested assistance from Attorney Richard D. Schuler because she was concerned about her mounting out-of-pocket expenses, and was fearful that she might require more invasive treatment in the near future. Mr. Schuler pursued settlement with the insurance companies representing the defendants and the uninsured motorists carrier in this matter, and was successful in obtaining a total settlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars for this victim. She will now be able to obtain medical treatment and any surgery she made need in the future

The victim in this Florida boating accident was a 28 year old married man who was a karate instructor and owned his own karate studio. He and his wife had very active lives and enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. They were members of an exclusive boating club located in North Palm Beach, Florida where by paying a membership fee, they were allowed the use of a boat whenever they wished.

On this particular fall day, they had secured the use of a 24 foot power boat for the afternoon with a friend of theirs and anchored just off the beach on the north end of Palm Beach Island. The trio had gone ashore to have lunch just before this incident occurred. When the victim was attempting to climb up the dive ladder to get back onto the boat, his fingers got caught at the hinge of the ladder, partially amputating the third and fourth digit of his right hand.

As they were heading back to the marina, luckily the Marine Patrol was nearby and rushed him to Blue Heron Park where he was picked up by Fire Rescue and taken to the emergency room at St. Mary’s Medical Center. Once there, he was taken into surgery immediately. Unfortunately, this victim would require two more surgeries to his fingers and possibly will require more in the future.

Of course, this victim incurred thousands of dollars in medical expenses and worst of all, he lost a large amount of income from his karate studio since he is no longer able to act as an instructor and, in fact, was unable to work at all for quite some time due to the pain he had to contend with on a daily basis.

This victim contacted Attorney Richard D. Schuler for assistance in obtaining some compensation for the expenses and pain and suffering he endured due to the negligence of the marina and the fact that the ladder on this boat was faultily constructed. This fact was confirmed by a safety expert retained by Mr. Schuler in this case. After extensive investigation Mr. Schuler was successful in settling this case without the necessity of a trial for several hundred thousand dollars

The two victims in this commission entitlement case are real estate brokers who have been involved in the real estate business in Palm Beach County since the early and mid-70’s, initially as salespersons and then subsequently as brokers. One of the principals involved is a very wealthy landowner who owned five sections of land (approximately 4,000 acres) free and clear between the Florida Turnpike and Okeechobee Boulevard. One of these real estate brokers had been working on selling this gentleman’s properties for years. He had an open listing to do so and had brought many offers to the owner on various sections over the years, including the property involved in this case.

This broker spoke with a second broker about the availability of these properties. This second broker felt that a large corporation she dealt with might be interested in some or all of the properties and sent correspondence that introduced the corporation to these properties.

Multiple meetings were held between the corporation and the second broker with the knowledge and permission of the landowner. These meetings took place over a three month period and it soon evolved that the corporation became interested in portions of the property.

During the next month, there were many discussions between this second broker, the large corporation and the landowner, culminating in the corporation issuing a letter to the broker instructing her to make an initial proposal regarding portions this property. As instructed, the broker brought this initial proposal to the landowner from the corporation.

As discussion continued between the broker, the corporation and the landowner, the landowner could determine that the deal was starting to heat up because the corporation had committed itself in writing on it’s stationery making this preliminary offer. At this point, he demanded, as owner, that he carry on the negotiations directly with the corporation and that the brokers take a passive role. The brokers were “frozen out”.