If you or a loved one has suffered any injury that was caused by a faulty product, it is vital that you contact a Martin County product liability attorney. At
the Law Office of Lauri J. Goldstein, P.A., the attorneys are experienced and proven the fight for maximum compensation for damages suffered in product liability cases. Often corporations have high-powered attorneys to fight their cases. They may offer certain types of settlements and urge you to quickly sign off and accept their offer. They are watching out for the bottom line of their client, the manufacturer. Do not accept any settlement from a manufacturer without contacting theLaw Offices of Lauri J. Goldstein, P.A. It is quite likely that a much larger settlement could be negotiated than what was initially offered to you.
Millions at stake in Palm Beach trial against Yamaha over teen's death in 2005
May 07, 2011 | By Jane Musgrave, The Palm Beach Post
One of the last photos snapped of the two young friends shows them smiling,
wearing ridiculously tall bunny ears on their heads in March 2005.
Having celebrated Easter Sunday, collecting colored eggs on Dr. Eugene
Holly's waterfront lawn on North Flagler Drive, the two were ready for some
teenage excitement. After falsely assuring Holly they knew how to operate his
WaveRunner, they took off.
Five minutes later, 14-year-old Jaysell Perez was dead and 15-year-old
Samantha Archer was gravely injured when the WaveRunner collided with a
boat. The so-called go-fast boat first crushed the Cooper City teens and then sliced them up in the instant following impact.
Attorneys, who on Thursday described the events leading up to the horrific crash, will spend the next month trying to convince a Palm Beach County jury that the 2005 accident was avoidable.
Yamaha, the WaveRunner's manufacturer, set the stage for it by ignoring years of warnings about flaws in the steering system, attorney Robert Baker said.
Millions are at stake. During Thursday's opening arguments, an attorney representing Archer, who sustained brain damage and suffers a multitude of physical problems, said he will seek nearly $7 million for her past and future medical bills.
That doesn't include the millions he and attorneys representing Perez's parents will seek for pain and suffering.
Further, they will ask the jury to find that the company showed a "reckless indifference to human life," which would allow them to recover millions more in punitive damages.
An attorney representing Yamaha acknowledged the stakes.
"They will ask for millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars," Rick Mueller said.
Attorneys for Archer and the Perezes said the request is justified.
"The girls turned right in front of a boat. You know why?" said David Kleinberg, who represents Archer. "They couldn't steer."
Archer, who was driving, did exactly what any beginner would do when she decided to head back to Holly's house, he said. She took her hand off the throttle to slow for the turn. What she didn't know was that once she released the throttle, she couldn't steer the water scooter, Kleinberg said.
"She did exactly what is intuitive and exactly what Yamaha said they were going to do," he said. Instead of turning, the WaveRunner went straight, colliding with the boat.
Thanks for sharing Sun Sentinel.