This is a continuation of a series. View part one here.
Doug is a man who shot himself in the eye with a beebee gun and suffered permanent and serious injuries to his vision. Doug was left legally blind in one eye, retaining only “light perception,” that is, the ability to discern the source of light through that eye. Everything else was just a blur.
I was told by an attorney whose opinion I value very highly not to touch Doug’s case, and with good reason. The liability was too tough. But I went ahead and worked up the case on damages and, lo and behold a large settlement resulted. I am not permitted to tell you how large the settlement was because of a confidentiality agreement. Amazingly, I didn’t even have to file suit.
Now if Doug’s case had absolutely no hope on liability, there would have been no settlement offers. For example, if Doug had rear ended another motorist, it would not have mattered how badly he was hurt or how effectively I could present his damages. The case would have no settlement value.
But there were liability issues that I could use given the severity of the damages.
The gun was owned by Doug’s roommate. It was the roommate’s responsibility to clean and maintain the gun. His failure to take proper care of the gun was possibly one reason it discharged prematurely. I say possibly because I didn’t even get to the point of hiring an expert because of the large offer we received early in the litigation. So to this day I don’t really know what caused the weapon to discharge. It didn’t really matter since Doug was overjoyed to settle the case.
For more on how I was able to achieve such a substantial settlement in a case with such difficult liability, click here.
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