WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.,
Feb. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/
-- Clark, Fountain, La Vista, Prather & Littky-Rubin, a
West Palm Beach personal injury
law firm, represented the surviving 14-year-old son of a
41-year-old man who died in a rollover commercial truck accident
due to a defective tire and a defectively redesigned and modified
commercial truck. After a three-week trial in May 2018, a Palm Beach
County jury awarded $15.5
million to the man's teenage son, who lost his father - his
only parent - in the accident. The verdict was the
13th highest in the state of Florida in 2018 and ranked in the "Top 20
Verdict" list.
Years before trial, the firm offered to settle the case for the
$1 million policy limits and filed a
formal proposal for settlement – both were ignored. After trial,
the defendant argued the plaintiff's proposal for settlement for
their $1 million policy limit was not
made in good faith (even though the jury awarded the plaintiff over
15 times that amount), refusing to agree that plaintiffs were
entitled to their fees, and further refusing to agree to a
reasonable amount of fees. The defendants' continued intractability
forced the firm to participate in an additional five-day
evidentiary hearing on the attorney fee claim, following which the
judge awarded an additional $3.2
million in fees.
Finding that the firm's lawyers possessed a wealth of knowledge
and extensive experience in the area of product defect litigation,
the judge quantified the value of their work by awarding hourly
rates between $625 and $900/hour - some of the highest in the state.
The defendant also refused to acknowledge responsibility for a
reasonable amount of taxable costs, resulting in an additional
two-day evidentiary hearing where Partners Donald R. Fountain and Julie H. Littky-Rubin convinced the trial judge
to award $406,000 in such costs.
After five years of litigation, culminating in a three-week jury
trial, seven additional days of bench trials, and more than
$750,000 spent by the firm in
litigating the case, the Clark Fountain team settled the case for
$17.3 million just a week before the
Fourth District Court of Appeal was to hear oral arguments.
Although no amount of money can heal the wounds of losing your
only parent, the settlement allows some degree of closure for the
surviving son.
About Clark, Fountain, La Vista, Prather &
Littky-Rubin
The attorneys at Clark, Fountain, La Vista, Prather &
Littky-Rubin, a West Palm Beach personal injury law firm,
have been representing clients in Florida and
throughout the United States for three decades. The firm
represents clients in all matters of personal injury, including
automobile and trucking accidents, products liability, wrongful
death, and medical malpractice cases. They have secured more
than one billion dollars for their injured clients.
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SOURCE Clark, Fountain, La Vista, Prather & Littky-Rubin