Speakers: Michael Levites & Matthew Sullivan
Michael Levites: Good day, everybody! This is Michael Levites from JurisQ Legal Network, and we’re back with our participant attorney, Matthew Sullivan, a construction accident attorney. Matthew, welcome back!
Matthew Sullivan: Thank you so much for having me, Michael.
Michael Levites: Thank you, Matthew. Of course, you’re a partner in the Law Office of Gregory Spektor & Associates. You do personal injury and personal injury only. Day in and day out, you’re in the court. You are fighting for the rights of your clients. And you told me off camera about a very big and interesting success story of one of your clients. We talked in our prior video about how now, after two years while the court is back in session, now the case is finally moving along. So I want to tie it all together to please tell us what happened in such a nice big win for your clients.
Matthew Sullivan: We have been waiting for years to get in front of a jury and to have the trial courts. Those courtroom doors opened for our clients recently. All through the month of October and November, into the holidays, I was on back to back to back trials. One of those trials, in particular, I’d like to share with you, we had a case where we represented a woman who was a passenger on an MTA bus. That bus sideswiped another vehicle; that was our contention. And the issue was with respect to that sideswipe, which vehicle entered the lane first. Was it the SUV, or was it the MTA bus?
Obviously, if we could prove that the MTA bus entered the lane first, we would have the opportunity to go after the bigger insurance policy and really target the deeper pocket ultimately. Well, as we proceeded to trial, the city defendants only offered us $100,000. And they said, if you ever want a penny more, good luck, go pound sand.
Michael Levites: And that’s what they always say, right? That’s their typical line.
Matthew Sullivan: That defense thinks that they can tell you what their bottom line is and intimidate you into thinking your case isn’t even worth that. And that they’re doing you a favor. They’re giving you a gift.
Michael Levites: But you wouldn’t tell them. You’re not timid.
Matthew Sullivan: Of course not at Gregory Spektor & Associates; we see through these tricks and tactics. And we said you’re going to have to put up or shut up. So we picked a jury, and we proceeded through trial. And they held firm; they said, good luck. Well, they eventually produced an accident reconstruction expert. And that accident reconstructionist testified that he looked at the camera from every which way, he was able to tell the jury that that bus did not enter the other lane.
Well, unfortunately for him, at Gregory Spektor & Associates, and myself, in particular, we’re so familiar with these MTA cameras, we’re so familiar with the fact that they’re actually up to eight or nine different angles that these accidents are captured from. And it turned out he didn’t look at all eight or nine. He only focused on those angles most favourable to him.
I was able to get up there on cross-examination. I was able to show the jury that he hadn’t taken all the facts into consideration and that I’d suggest he purposely ignored those angles, which showed the white line disappear there. And when that, yes, in fact, the bus crossed over that white line. Well, after his testimony, the defense attorney for those city entities said hold on, let me make a call. Michael, he came back with $250,000. And we were able to have our client accept that and go home with a nice amount of money to compensate her for her work and her pain.
Michael Levites: You know what? Thank you so much for that story. Because we are now bringing the law to life, we see how the diligent, painstaking, detail-oriented representation of a client can yield great results and takes an army of attorneys like yourselves to go through all the evidence and find where possibly, the experts for the other side slip up. Since they’re getting paid for the by the other side, so they are not to be trusted. And it’s your job to make sure to examine the evidence and find the holes, which you did. And then, you convince the other insurance company to pay the right amount of compensation. So first of all, congratulations to you and to your client that at least now they have some compensation for their pain and suffering and everything else.
So thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing the story with us. And we’re gonna bring you back with some more interesting frequently asked questions on personal injury law and on, construction, and accidents law, which is exactly what you practice.
And of course, if anybody has questions on their particular situation or their particular injury, excellent, call the number at the bottom of the screen. We also have the website for the law firm Gregory Spektor & Associates, and they’ll be able to give you a free consultation about what you could possibly obtain from the other side of the insurance company for your injuries. Thank you, and have a good day.
Matthew Sullivan: I really appreciate your time, Michael. Thank you!
Michael Levites: Thank you!
