Spinella & Associates not only made a paralyzed little girl's life better, they also helped clean up the legal profession in the Mary Webster (name changed to preserve confidentiality) case.

Mary Webster was a year-old infant when her father was driving her home on Interstate 91 North toward Hartford. Her father fell asleep while she was in the back seat of the car in an infant seat. The car smashed into the back of a parked tractor-trialer in the emergency lane. The father died almost instantly and Mary was thrown out of the car seat and ended up being paralyzed from the waist down.

The family went to see the Smith & Jones (name changed to preserve confidentiality) law firm, which settled for the policy limit against the father's minimal automobile liability insurance and closed the case. They never told the Websters not to throw out the car seat, which was probably defective.

Years later, Spinella & Associates sued Smith & Jones (name changed to preserve confidentiality) for legal malpractice on behalf of Mary Webster.

It was easy to prove the breach of duty of care owed to the client by that law firm. The more difficult case was to show that the underlying legal claim should have been brought, and would have been won by the plaintiff. There were no witnesses to establish how the baby was thrown from the car seat. Because the seat was thrown away, it could not be examined to show the defects.

Based on the limited evidence that remained, Spinella & Associates arrived at a theory with the help of their accident reconstructionist: The tractor-trialer should have had padding on the rear of it to cushion any impact by cars which often do crash when such vehicles are parked in an emergency lane of the highway.

In this particular case, the experts theorized that with such padding the car would not have thrust under the vehicle, as it actually did, and therefore Mary Webster probably would not have been thrown out of the car seat, even if it were defective.

After hard fought litigation the case resolved for a significant amount proportionate to the enormity of the injury suffered and long endured. 

(Click to Area of Practice -- PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE) 
 
 

Little Joey Jones (named changed to preserve confidentiality), a sixth-grader from Wethersfield, wrote in his school yearbook that he wanted to grow up and own a construction company just like his dad. The first born son in a hard-working and successful, first-generation Italian family, Joey was an exceptional little boy.

Joey's close friend, a twelve year old girl, said this about him in a poem.

Little Joey died suddenly of heart failure -- a tragedy that could and should have been avoided. He needed immediate intervention and didn't get it. He was misdiagnosed.

Spinella & Associates, in the course of a pre-trial investigation, worked with top national medical authorities to uncover problems which were significant deviations from the standard and accepted medical care.

Joey's sudden death could have been avoided because he had aortic valve stenosis, a congenital disease, about which the risks were well known.

The Complaint alleged that the pediatric cardiologist entrusted with Joey's care failed repeatedly to perform basic and necessary tests over time; that he failed repeatedly to recognize or respond to common "red flags" signaling the severity of the condition; that he misinterpreted tests that were administered; failed to tell the family about proper athletic restrictions; and, most importantly, that he failed to intervene in a timely manner to prevent Joey's sudden death. 

Based on Joey's life expectancy, his loss of enjoyment of life's activities, his lost potential earnings and numerous other factors, Spinella & Associates won a substantial settlement for the family through use of a non-trial mediation process pursued in order to spare the family the trauma of a lengthy trial. Spinella & Associates made skilled use of their evidence by way of a professionally produced "day-in-the-life" videotape; a voluminous, comprehensive, illustrated mediation notebook; and other professionally developed litigation tools which highlighted the testimony of their numerous, prominent expert witnesses. 

(Click to Area of Practice -- Medical Malpractice PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE) 
 

THE CASE OF THE "ANGEL OF DEATH"

The Cohens' daughter Melissa (named changed to preserve confidentiality), 27, had terminal ovarian cancer and had been cared for at John Dempsey Hospital for an extended period of time.

The Complaint alleged that a nurse from the nursing company arrived unannounced at the Cohens after speaking briefly with Melissa at the hospital. The Cohen's said that the nurse was dressed all in black, with white makeup, and that she looked like a witch.

The lawsuit further alleged that the nurse went into Melissa's room. She began kissing and stroking Melissa on the arms, hands and head. She told Melissa it was OK to die, that it was OK with her family, and "it's beautiful on the other side." Simultaneously, the nurse was alleged to have played background noises sounding like water on the beach, because Melissa wanted to go to the beach.

A commotion ensued. Melissa's waste bag broke. She thrashed up and down protesting and screaming and crying. The family told the nurse to leave.

Melissa never regained consciousness. She spent the next two days in a constant state of terror and hysteria culminating with her death.

Spinella & Associates represented the Cohens in a case that received enormous attention in the health care industry. They argued that the tenets of hospice care -- helping people experience the highest quality of life during the final days of a terminal illness in the context of patient consent and family autonomy and were violated by the defendant health care company and its nurse employee.

The law firm hired an ethicist/oncologist from the University of Tennessee at Memphis to testify as an authority on medical ethics. He was appalled at the fact that Melissa and her family were not the ones who determined the quality of her life before she died, and that Melissa's dignity and the family's memory of their final cherished moments with her were forever tarnished.

Spinella & Associates resolved this case after more than two years of intensive legal maneuvering and court proceedings in a way that served to address the particular needs of its clients in the context of a complex and emotionally charged scenario.

(Click to Area of Practice -- Medical Malpractice PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE) 
 

Rebecca Jones (name changed to preserve confidentiality) was a young child who suffered from an eye disorder called esotropia, or "floating eye". People suffering from this disorder are unable to align their eyes as people with normal eyesight which ultimately results in a loss of depth perception and other serious eye problems.

Rebecca's parents sought help from an optometrist who advised them that they could cure Rebecca by "training" the eyes to work together through a series of exercises, such as touching her nose with her finger, wearing "nasal occluders," and putting a string through a cheerio.

After submitting to this regime for a lengthy period without results, Rebecca's mother sought out the services of an ophthalmologist. Rebecca was rushed to surgery, but the problem could not be corrected because she had passed the window of opportunity where surgery would have been fully effective.

Suit was brought against the optometrist charging him with the unauthorized practice of medicine, and medical malpractice.

Incredibly, the optometrist defended by claiming that he was not a doctor, and therefore should not be held to a doctor's standard of care. More distressing, he argued that since many optometrists recommended this useless therapy, no negligence had occurred.

Attorneys Spinella & Associates relied on impressive expert testimony in the field of ophthalmology since many doctors in this field saw this as an important test case.

After a hard-fought and lengthy trial the jury returned a substantial verdict for Rebecca.

(Click to Area of Practice -- Medical Malpractice PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE) 

Spinella & Associates. Making the law work for YOU.