Confidential Settlement
Jan 01, 2012OUTCOME: $4,000,000
Case involved the wrongful death of two individuals. The details of the case cannot be revealed due to a confidentiality agreement.
James B. Reed's Legal Cases (7)
Elmira, NY
Personal injury Lawyer at Elmira, NY
Practice Areas: Personal Injury, Car Accidents ... +6 more
Allen vs NJ Transit
Jan 05, 2011OUTCOME: $2,500,000
My client suffered disabling injuries when his car was rear-ended by a N.J. Transit Bus. Together with my N.J. co-counsel, we were able to achieve a $2,500,000 settlement on behalf of our client.
Deutsch vs. Sutherland
Apr 10, 2008OUTCOME: $500,000 Settlement in Ankle Fracture Case
My client received a complex ankle fracture in a car crash when a 17 yo driver ran a Stop Sign and T-boned her in an intersection. After an extensive workup of both the liability and damages aspect of ... the case, the carrier finally settled the case for $500,000. I believe this may be the highest settlement ever for an ankle fracture case in Yates County, NY which is a very conservative, rural county in Upstate NY.
Hunt vs Corning Hospital
Dec 12, 2007OUTCOME: $2,400,000 Settlement
Tragically, just 40 minutes can make the difference between a healthy baby and a little girl who will never walk, never talk, never feed herself, never have a boyfriend, never get married… In this ... case handled by Elmira medical malpractice attorney Jim Reed, the Labor and Delivery nurses hooked the Mom up to an electronic fetal monitor and then left the Mom unattended for 40+ minutes. Unfortunately, fetal monitors are absolutely no good if no one is there to read the results…. That’s why the standard of care for labor and delivery nurses is that they are required to review the monitor strips for the first 20 minutes that the mother is placed on the monitor. If all is OK after 20 minutes, the Mom can then be left unattended for short periods of time. If the strips are not OK, then the nurse is trained to immediately intervene and summon a doctor if necessary. In this case, a careful review of the medical records revealed that the mother had been left totally unattended for the first 40+ minutes she was placed on the fetal monitor. As you might have guessed, the monitor strips were bad meaning that the baby was in trouble and needed immediate delivery. The problem is that no one was in the room to hear read the results and respond to the baby’s cries for help. As a result, the necessary C-section to rescue the baby was delayed by more than an hour causing the baby to suffer profound brain damage (Cerebral Palsy). The baby was rushed from the Corning Hospital to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, but the damage was already done. The baby had a permanent brain injury called Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) which means that the baby’s brain was deprived of oxygen at birth. Despite the clear negligence on the part of the Corning Hospital staff nurses, the medical malpractice insurance carriers for the Hospital and the Guthrie Clinic (Guthrie now owns the Corning Hospital), stubbornly refused to settle the case. It was not until 2007, more than NINE years after the baby’s birth in August, 1998, that the lawyers for the malpractice insurance companies finally made any offer to settle the case. And it was not until after Steuben County Supreme Court Judge Joseph Latham actually set a firm trial date, that the carriers finally offered a present value amount of $2,400,000 to settle the case. By very sophisticated use of annuities, life insurance planning and a Supplemental Needs Trust, the expected payout of benefits to this little girl over her projected lifetime will be more than $20,000,000. It sounds like a lot of money but given the high cost of medical care and the 24/7/365 medical needs of this child over her lifetime, each and every penny will be necessary for her care. As experienced medical malpractice attorneys know, there is no such thing as an “easy†medical negligence case. No matter how strong your case, the doctors, hospitals and their medical malpractice insurance carriers, defend these cases tooth and nail. They force you to spend year upon year and tens of thousands of dollars (we have invested more than $80,000 in some cases) prosecuting your case. Consequently, there is nothing more satisfying than to resolve a case in a manner that you know will benefit your deserving client for the rest of their lives…
Whitehead vs Ira Davenport Hospital and Dr. Lin
Jan 10, 2000OUTCOME: $2,000,000 Settlement
Attorney Jim Reed represented the family of a baby girl who was deprived of oxygen and suffered permanent brain damage (cerebral palsy) because her Dr's failed to timely deliver her despite clear signs ... on the electronic fetal monitor that the baby was in distress. The case was brought against the Ira Davenport Hospital in Bath, N.Y. and Dr. Lin, a local obstetrician who now practices in Corning, N.Y.. Discovery in the case revealed that there were clear signs of fetal distress on the electronic fetal monitoring strips but despite the clear evidence that the baby was in trouble and required immediate delivery, neither the obstetrician nor the nurses intervened. In preparing the case for trial, Attorney Reed was one of the first lawyers in Upstate N.Y. to employ a powerful tool-- the videotaped deposition of the medical witnesses. Initially, the lawyers for the Dr's resisted videotaping but Reed didn't take "no" for an answer and he was able to get a court order forcing the videotaping of the Dr's. Attorney Reed strongly believes that the videotapes showing the damaging testimony of the doctors played a strong role in the insurance company's ultimate decision to settle this case just before trial. After trying to settle the case for less than the available insurance coverage, and after Reed rejected a $1.85 million dollar offer, both the Dr and Hospital were forced to pay every penny of their $2M coverage to settle this case just prior to the scheduled trial.
Johnson vs Ira Davenport Hospital
N/AOUTCOME: $1,600,000 Settlement
This was a sad birth injury (cerebral palsy) case where there were clear signs of fetal distress shown on the electronic fetal monitor but the obstetrician-- a visiting, retired Rent-a-Dr-- ignored the ... nurse's requests for a prompt cesearean section. The delay in delivery resulted in permanent brain damage to this baby boy.
Sullivan vs Canadian Trucking Co.
N/AOUTCOME: $975,000 Mediation Decision
John Sullivan's car was violently rear-ended by a Canadian tractor trailer driver who tried to blame the accident on John. Our investigation revealed all kinds of dirt on the defendant driver-- prior a ... ccidents, log book violations, prior speeding tickets, etc. Needless, to say, the defendant was aggressively questioned at deposition! John suffered both neck and back injuries that ultimately required surgery.
Ad
Transform legal challenges into solutions.
Connect now to review your situation.
