Page 30 - CLT060721

30 ■ JUNE 7, 2021 VERDICTS & SETTLEMENTS

Doctor’s Note Helps Clinch

$80,000 Injury Settlement

By Robert Storace

Big Y Foods in Guilford. Photo: Google
ne sentence in 30 pages of notes clinched an plaintiff Marie Walston had degenerative arthritis of
$80,000 settlement for a woman who slipped her right hip.
Oand fell in a local supermarket. This “had nothing to do with the fall, and could
Plaintiffs counsel said most of what the woman’s have been viewed negatively for us,” the attorney
treating physician wrote in his notes could be seen said.
as not helpful in litigation. So Prueher said he ran with the line that forced
But a key line made the case, and cemented the the defense, which at first had offered nothing, to
settlement, according to attorney Jason Prueher. proffer an offer.
“That one sentence by the doctor indicating that “I think they might have been worried about go-
her fall aggravated her arthritic condition, causing ing to trial and maybe thought a jury could award
her hip surgery to occur sooner than expected, did more money,” the attorney said. “I think that one
it for us,” said Prueher, an associate at Gould Injury sentence in the doctor’s report scared the supermar-
Law in New Haven. “Without those notes, we prob- ket and their attorney into thinking I might have
ably would not have had much of a case.” some chance with a jury.”
Prueher said much of the physician’s reports— According to a March 2020 complaint filed in
covering nine doctor visits—stated that 67-year-old New Haven Superior Court, Walston fell on a liquid

CONNECTICUT
CONNECTICUT

T
L Law Tribune e
n
u
a
w
r
b
i