Visitor slips on ice in university parking lot, wins settlement.

Jim Lavoie and Grim Howland represented a 62 year old man who was visiting St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota for a conference.  As a graduate of St. John’s, he was allowed to stay in the “Alumni Apartment” and park his car in a small, paved area near the entrance to the apartment.  Several inches of snow fell overnight, covering ice that had formed when the temperature dropped below freezing after daytime melting.  While walking to his parked car the next morning, our client slipped, fell, and suffered a severe injury to his knee, requiring surgery and resulting in a lifelong limp.

When the client was unable to reach a settlement with St. John’s on his own, Jim and Grim started a lawsuit in federal court.  St. John’s denied responsibility for the injury by focusing its defense on the client’s long history of contentious lawsuits, by claiming that the client’s knee spontaneously gave out and that the icy conditions were not the cause of his fall, and by suggesting that our client was responsible for his limp and permanent injury because he did not follow his doctors’ recommendations for treatment.  Jim and Grim developed evidence to refute those defenses and were able to settle the case at a second mediation, just days before trial, for $400,000.

Hotel patron gets spinal injury from slipping on snow covered ice.

Grim Howland represented a 26 year old man who slipped on ice in a hotel parking lot and severely injured his spine.  Water runoff from the hotel’s roof was directed from a downspout, over the sidewalk near the main entrance to the hotel, and into a large stream through the parking lot.  After several days of above-freezing temperatures, a cold snap caused the stream of water to freeze and falling snow hid it from view.  Our client exited the hotel and, unknown to him, was required to walk across the snow-covered ice to reach his car.  He slipped, fell, and severely injured his spine requiring surgery and rehabilitation.  Grim was able to recover $450,000 for the client from the negligent operator of the hotel.

Fall caused by magazine binder leads to recovery.

Elderly client tripped upon entering a Walgreens store in Hennepin County, fracturing her wrist and requiring surgical repair. When store would not release security camera film of area case was put into suit in federal court. The pictures revealed a fiberglass magazine binder had been left on the floor in front of the cashier for over a half hour and when client entered it caught her foot causing her to fall. Represented by Jim Lavoie. Result – $75,000 settlement.

Strip mall’s icy sidewalk causes bad fall.

Client was running a few errands for her kids just before Christmas and stopped at a local strip mall to pick up a few things. It had not snowed in days and the parking lot was mostly dry. As she stepped up on the sidewalk under the awning, she slipped on some black ice that had accumulated on the sidewalk near a support pillar. Our client badly injured her shoulder in the fall. A lawsuit was started and the discovery process revealed that the property owner forbid the property manager from salting and sanding without prior permission. Also the property owner likely knew about a problem with the awning that caused water to build up on sidewalk and form ice. Represented by Ben Lavoie. Result – $105,000 after Mediation.

Worker successfully recovers on workers’ compensation and personal injury claims from a bad fall.

Client severely injured his shoulder when he fell on greasy stairs while he was delivering uniforms to a business as part of his job duties. Ben Lavoie represented him on both his workers’ compensation claim and a personal injury claim against the business for negligently failing to warn him about the slippery stairs. The worker’s compensation claim was settled and, by also negotiating, with the client’s authorization, to represent the employer for its claim for reimbursement against the business for workers’ compensation benefits it paid, Mr. Lavoie was able to significantly increase his client net recovery from the claims. In total, the client collected over $160,000.