THE SETTLEMENT: MALIS|LAW, hired as trial approached, working with Attorney Dean Brunel,  has obtained a $285,000 settlement from a mental hospital on behalf of a cleaning contractor with a significant knee injury.  The cleaning contractor’s knee was significantly injured when he was assaulted by a psychotic patient who was allowed to walk freely in the corridors of a mental hospital while being admitted.

THE HOSPITAL’S NEGLIGENCE: The patient was being transferred from the open unit of the institution to the ‘closed’ unit on an involuntary admission, with a known history of violence, especially towards people of color.  The institution had few formalized guidelines for such transfers, developing them after the patient attempted to strangle my client as he cleaned the hallway.  As a result of the assault, my client suffered a stretched and torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) of his left knee, which an orthopedic surgeon addressed by reattaching and treating the fibers with heat.

CREATING A WINNER: Attorney Brunel approached me to try the case about one month before trial.  The client had not treated with a physician for several years, although he had complaints of knee pain.  Given the imminent trial, we mounted a ‘full court press’ to make the case trial ready.  I approached his original surgeon, who ordered a newMRI of his knee and found that the surgical repair, which had been performed with an experimental technique that has since been abandoned, had again failed, requiring additional procedures.  Within that month, I also developed expert psychiatric testimony of the hospital’s failure to follow proper procedures for communication of information about a committed patient between outpatient and inpatient wings of the hospital, which accounted for the lack of proper security and the patient’s being allowed in the vicinity of other persons at the hospital.  Literally on the eve of trial, I was contacted by the institution’s insurer, which agreed to settle.  The settlement was paid by the insurers for the institution; the admitting psychiatrist, who was sued for negligence; and the facility’s security company for negligent security.