We are ready to help you recover what you deserve. Meet the MALIS|LAW team!
Daniel Malis
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “LAWYER’S LAWYER”?
Lawyers receive cases in many ways, including advertising (which we don’t do), word of mouth (which we’re grateful for), and referral from other lawyers. So why do lawyers send perfectly good cases to other lawyers?
After all, they went to law school, just like we did … First of all, lawyers specialize, and personal injury and civil litigation is what we specialize in – in Dan’s case, for over 35 years.
Second is the nature of our practice. We specialize in complex civil cases – the kind of cases that involve complex facts and even more complex law, and which a first look would tell you would not work. The other lawyers COULD handle the case; but they knew that we not only WOULD handle it, but we would get a maximum recovery for the referred client.
Here’s a few examples of the problems we solve for other lawyers. Each of these cases was referred to MALIS|LAW by other attorneys, who believed that they could not bring about a settlement. Each of these cases was resolved for 6- or 7-figure settlements.
- A construction worker suffered a burst lumbar fracture when a staircase collapsed. The general contractor, which had insufficient insurance coverage, ordered subcontractors to remove securing screws in order to install drywall behind the staircase. The worker had a past history of drug addiction which he had rehabilitated from well before the accident but relapsed when forced to take significant opiate-related pain medidation beause of chronic pain. We proved during litigation that other contractors, architects and engineers could have intervened and prevented the accident, and helped the client present sympathetically at his deposition to discourage the lawyers from bringing in his illegal drug use. The result – a 7 figure settlement.
- A woman suffering from schizophrenia and severe heart and respiratory disease who required daily medication but often forgot or avoided to take it died of systemic failure Our review of remaining medication after the client’s death and cross examination of a treating nurse proved that a visiting nurse had stopped ordering the pill which would have prevented her death, and our medical expert proved that the medication would have saved her. The case settled at mediation for $650,000.
- A worker was riding in with a fellow employee struck a bridge abutment trying to avoid an ongoing high speed police chase and suffered a heart attack immediately following the accident. We not only proved that the fellow employee actually worked for a separate company and could be sued, but also that the State Police had failed to follow their own regulations during the chase. The case settled in two parts: the driver’s policy paid $480,000, and the State Police tendered $70,000 after a settlement agreement assigned rights of contribution from the settling defendant to the injured worker, for a total of $550,000. A construction worker mangled his own hand when the movable construction platform he was operating struck an overhang. We proved that the company which mounted the operating controls mounted them in a location that exposed the worker’s hand and failed to provide a guard to prevent contact with building obstructions, and that a general contractor’s site inspection failed to disclose the improper installation. The case settled at mediation for $225,000.
- A woman who broke her wrist at a supermarket when video showed her slipping in an area where the store employees were actually performing clean-up. We proved through deposition that a store employee left the spill unsupervised and that the store’s security cameras failed to depict that she had removed the “wet floor” sign before the area was completely clear. The case settled at mediation for $245,000. A worker who cleared a jammed shredder lost an arm replacing the access cover on the shredder while it was still spinning. The manufacturer had successfully defended dozens of cases nationwide involving injury from the device. We proved that the company had falsely claimed that it provided safety “interlock” switch provided with the machine which would have prevented the machine from spinning with the hatch open, which they only incorporated as an “option”. We also proved that they stole their design from another manufacturer which had redesigned the machine with such an interlock as a standard feature. We also obtained settlement contribution from the air conveyor designer that the shredder was connected to because inadequate airflow caused the machine to frequently jam, as well as proved that the air conveyor’s finance company was involved in design and installation, and obtained additional settlement funds from them as well. The case settled with all defendants for $1,7 million. A product manufacturer claimed that a federal law which required warnings on their packaging legally blocked a state lawsuit when it badly injured a 13 year old child. Our investigation disclosed that the company knew that the product was only safe in small quantities two years before the accident, but continued to sell it in gallon containers with poorly designed dispensers which encouraged the injury, avoiding the federal law, and also proved that the company unlawfully withheld documents which disclosed the risks of product use the company was aware of after being ordered to produce them. The case settled without need to interview a single manufacturer’s company employee. (The settlement amount is confidential)
- A forklift repairman repeatedly walking through a loading dock without incident slipped on his way out of the facility and noticed flour on his pants, worsening an already herniated disk in his low back. The fall was completely unwitnessed. A site inspection conducted during litigation by agreement between our firm and the defense firm showed a floor scrubbed for the inspection (to no one’s surprise) . However, careful review and photography by our attorney disclosed caked flour in every floor crevice and on every horizontal surface, including at door edges where the injured worker fell. A deposition of the company’s owner extracted an admission that flour dust in the air is a continual problem in commercial bakeries, and although special safety equipment eliminating it was present in the baking areas it had not been installed in the loading dock, and even thorough cleaning of the dock floor would not eliminate all of the flour dust on its surface. We also had our client’s wife prepared to testify that she laundered his closing following the accident and had noted his pants were covered in flour, The case settled at mediation for $250,000. A trial judge entered judgment against a woman who slipped and fell in a supermarket, despite a favorable jury verdict, finding that the woman had failed to prove the supermarket had advance notice of the spill before she fell. We were able on appeal to reverse the judge’s order, pointing out that the Judge had failed to consider testimony from the injured woman that a manager said after her fall, “they were supposed to clean it up and they obviously didn’t.” We also argued that the jury could consider the store’s failure to prepare an accident report after her fall as evidence that the store was attempting to “cover up” the incident. After restoration of the jury verdict and reversal of the Judge’s order, our client was paid nearly $600,000.
- A construction worker descending from the bottom of newly constructed theater seating jumped down from the last row to floor level, twisting and injuring his knee. After knee surgery the worker was able to return to his former occupation. Reconstructed measurements from site photos proved that the stairways which would have provided normal passage to floor level were blocked with construction debris, leaving only the theater rows to obtain access to the floor level, and that the dropoff height exceeded federal and state safety regulations for minimum height of floor access. A woman entering her bank slipped and fell on a marble floor on a rainy day fracturing her kneecap. Security photographs showed no water in the area of her fall. Records obtained during discovery, including a review of thousands of pages of construction documents at the architect’s office, indicated that the type of marble chosen by the building owner for durability had been sealed, instead of left porous, leading to an excessively slippery floor. A review of the architect files established that the building’s contractor had protested this design choice and had been overruled by the owner. Although the building manager had purchased large rugs to cover the entire walkway they were not deployed on the date of the accident. We also obtained a floor coatings expert who was prepared to testify that there were several commercially available coatings present which would have provided a less slippery walking surface and still have provided floor protection. The case resolved for $190,000.
- A nursing assistant slipped on a recently cleaned patient floor while walking to assist one of her patients, severely injuring her back. The cleaning company presented a company representative who testified that a wet floor sign was posted in the room where she fell. Investigation demonstrated that the company’s designated witness, its supervisor at the nursing home site, had been fired from several prior jobs due to arguments with fellow employees, and that cleaning logs from the date of the accident had been destroyed. Testimony from other cleaning company employees showed that the supervisor had specifically instructed them to post wet floor signs in two room suites (such as the one where the assistant fell) only in the room where the company was working, and not in the shared hallway where the bathroom was located, and the CNA fell existing the bathroom before she reached the second room. The case resolved for $587,000 after mediation.
- A nursing home employee suffered multiple cervical disk herniations and total disability when she was struck by a tilt in window rotated inwards while she was opening it. The window was replaced before it could be examined by the nursing home, a State facility. Investigation and records obtained during litigation showed that the window was replaced as part of an ongoing project in the multiple buildings of the facility that ranged over several years. Review of the replaced window and casing revealed that there had been a previous malfunction of the window and the retaining screw had been replaced by a nursing home employee with a nonconforming screw which was found on the floor after the accident. Although the critical evidence had been discarded and the window replaced after the accident and before our office was retained, we chose to prove that the window was defectively designed.Our design expert opined that the manufacturer should have used locking screws on its window retaining latches, which would have prevented substitution, and should also have warned against substitution in warnings on the window frame. The case resolved for nearly $500,000.