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SKETCHES OF COURT: Jury awards $425,000 in car accident

March 23, 2017 By Alba Acevedo Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Court sketch by Alba Acevedo
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In this courtroom sketch Hon. Pamela Fisher listens as plaintiff’s attorney Y. David Taller (standing), trial attorney for the law office of Alan Levin, addresses the jury. Taller explains the information in a stack of evidentiary packets on the counsel’s table to be distributed to the jury, in the motor vehicle accident summary jury trial Platt v. Alfaro

Venassa Platt was granted summary judgment on liability prior to the trial. The February 2014 accident involved a delivery truck that rear-ended her vehicle. At issue was the determination of damages. 

The 24 year-old home health attendant claims that the impact from the collision caused her serious injury to her shoulder, and that she still has neck, back and shoulder pain that affects her daily life and her ability to do her job. She complained of pain radiating along her arms, numbness in her hands and an inability to raise her right arm past her shoulder. She eventually underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery to help relieve impingement at the acromioclavicular joint. 

Jeremy Seeman (at left), of the law firm Harris, King, Fodera & Correia, alleged that the injuries were pre-existing and degenerative, likely a result of Platt’s duties inclusive of maneuvering elderly patients into position. He noted that Platt lost little time from work, and essentially resumed a full-time schedule and wages. 

The jury deliberated briefly before returning a verdict awarding Platt $175,000 in damages for past pain and suffering, and $250,000 as compensation for future pain and suffering, in the trial that resolved in Kings County Civil Term. 

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