Serious Car and Truck Accidents

Selected Results*

• Represented a 63-year-old farm wife who was severely injured when an approaching car crossed the center line on a rural two-lane road and struck the vehicle she and her husband were driving in.  The collision left the woman injured with fractures to her right shoulder and arm, pelvis, right hip, right leg, and right foot.  After developing an infection in her left hand, the woman's left arm had to be amputated below the elbow.  The defendants denied liability and disputed damages, but our attorneys secured a $3.8 million settlement to cover the woman's mounting medical expenses, projected future expenses, and to cover the creation of a life-care plan to help her adapt to the injuries she sustained.
• Pro Bono Legal Services for Those Injured and Those Who Lost Loved Ones in the I-35W Bridge Collapse. Robins Kaplan LLP led a group of 17 law firms which have provided legal services to the 100+ people who were injured and who lost loved ones on August 1, 2007, when the I-35W Bridge in downtown Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River. Our firm has provided free legal services to its clients while many firms in the Consortium offered their services at a reduced rate.  In 2008, our attorneys helped secure a legislatively created $37 million compensation fund for those injured on the bridge and those who lost loved ones.  In 2009, PCI Corporation, the construction company which placed thousands of pounds of construction material on the bridge the day it collapsed, paid additional settlement funds to the Consortium's clients.  Now, three years after the collapse in August 2010, URS Corporation, the company hired by the State to assess the bridge's safety, announced an agreement to pay more than $40 million to settle the Consortium clients' claims.  An additional $1.5 million was recovered from URS which will be donated for the construction of a memorial honoring those who died.  In total, more than $77 million has been recovered for those injured and those who lost loved ones and Robins Kaplan LLP attorneys and staff devoted more than 20,000 pro bono hours to the case. 
• Counsel for families of Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife, daughter and three staff members who died in a crash of a chartered airplane.  Policy limits settlement of $25 million with aviation charter company and its corporate affiliates.
• $17 million settlement of consolidated cases in the I-5 (California) dust storm litigation involving a 99-vehicle, rear-end accident.
• $10.3 million jury verdict involving a child who was seriously injured in an automobile incident with a semi-trailer.
• $8.5 million jury verdict involving a teen who lost both of his arms.  The case was tried in  the hometown of the defendant manufacturer.
• $7.4 million jury verdict on behalf of a widow and her children for the wrongful death of a 51-year-old man killed in a Cirrus plane crash near Hill City, Minnesota.
• $4 million jury verdict involving a young girl who lost her arm in a parade accident.
• $3 million settlement on behalf of the family of a man killed in a head-on collision.
• $2.8 million verdict for a brain-injured child.
• $2.6 million verdict involving an explosion that caused burns to over 85 percent of an individual's body.
• $2.3 million settlement on behalf of a laborer who was crushed to death by a defective machine that polished raw iron castings.

Articles

Are you Getting the Most for Your Car Insurance Dollars?

For as little as $10 or $20, you may be able to double, triple, or even quadruple certain car insurance coverages to protect yourself, your family, and friends!  Unfortunately, most insurance agents do not volunteer this information -- some are not even aware of it -- so it's important to know what to ask for when you are shopping for car insurance.

The Robins Justice Report - Special Edition
Summer 2011 (Vol. 5; Issue 2)
The I-35W "Remembrance Garden" Memorial

Toyota's Sudden Acceleration Recall
Following a recall of over 8 million Toyota vehicles, a safety researcher has reported that he found 19 deaths and 341 injuries resulting from 815 separate crashes involving the sudden acceleration of Toyotas.

Rebuilding Lives 
Survivors of the I-35W bridge collapse are ready to tell their tales to the panel that will decide how much to compensate them.

*Past results are reported to provide the reader with an indication of the types of matters we handle and do not and should not be construed to create an expectation of result in any other situation as all legal matters are dependent upon their own unique fact situation and applicable law.