PERSONAL INJURY

• Ms. Rossi obtained a $1.475 Million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit.
  On behalf of her clients, the Estate and the surviving spouse of the decedent, Ms. Rossi filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of New Haven, Connecticut alleging claims of wrongful death, including those for: negligence, statutory negligence, negligence per se, statutory recklessness, and loss of consortium.
  The decedent was a 34-year old father of three young children. While the decedent was operating his motorcycle in New Haven on a weekend afternoon in the fall, his motorcycle was violently struck by a 90-year old woman who was operating her car from the opposite direction and turned left into the lane of travel of the motorcycle. The decedent was conscious for less than one hour and died from the injuries sustained in the accident. Defendant raised issues of comparative negligence in her responsive pleading filed with the Court.
  During the course of the litigation, and following Ms. Rossi’s review of the Arrest Warrant and Affidavits from police personnel responding to the scene of the accident, Ms. Rossi requested that the Court permit her to serve non-standard written discovery upon the defendant because the information obtained from the police records suggested that the defendant was using a cell phone at the time of the accident. Overruling the defendant’s objections, the Court permitted Ms. Rossi to serve non-standard written discovery, which included several questions involving defendant’s use of a cell phone at the time of the accident, her cell phone provider, hands-free devices used, and copies of cell phone records. Ms. Rossi also successfully convinced the Court to permit her to obtain information and records regarding defendant’s medical history over the course of the past 10 years because, as Ms. Rossi argued, defendant’s statements to police personnel after the accident reasonably raised questions about defendant’s vision and her medical condition generally, leading to concerns about defendant’s ability to safely operate a motor vehicle.
  Following only five months of litigation, and as a direct result of her unwavering efforts, Ms. Rossi convinced the defendant’s insurance company to pay the Estate $1.475 Million to settle the claims raised in the lawsuit (which was nearly the full policy limits available under defendant’s insurance).
• Ms. Rossi obtained a substantial six-figure settlement on behalf of her client, a 63-year old man whose vehicle was violently struck in the rear by a commercial pick-up truck on I-84 Eastbound. Ms. Rossi’s client was driving home from work at the time of the accident.  As a result of the accident, Ms. Rossi’s client’s vehicle was declared a total loss. 
  While Ms. Rossi’s client did not seek medical treatment immediately, within hours after the accident, he started feeling pain and spasms in the neck and shoulder areas and visited his PCP the same day of the accident.  Ms. Rossi’s client further experienced numbness and tingling radiating down his arms and hands.  While subsequent physical therapy helped ease the pain and discomfort, it did not fully suppress the pain and discomfort.  Within a month following the accident, an MRI of the cervical spine revealed significant trauma-related findings commonly caused by motor vehicle accidents and consistent with Ms. Rossi’s client’s pain and discomfort.  Following multiple injections to the neck and spine by an orthopedist, Ms. Rossi’s client still was left with residual soreness and numbness in the neck and shoulder areas.  Viewing surgery as a last resort, and having done everything he could to avoid surgery, approximately 18 months following the accident, Ms. Rossi’s client underwent an anterior cervical discectomy and arthrodesis.  While the Defendants, business owner of the truck and the driver, proffered several arguments in defense of the claims, including pre-existing conditions, no evidence supported such arguments.  Defendants’ insurer failed to offer a settlement that was reasonable given the factual circumstances.  Thus, the parties engaged in voluminous discovery and depositions.  At mediation with a Judge in the Hartford Superior Court one month before trial, the Judge agreed with Ms. Rossi’s valuation of her client’s claims, and Ms. Rossi secured a substantial six-figure settlement on behalf of her client.
• Defendant, an individual, had a lawsuit brought against him in Stamford Superior Court in Connecticut for, what initially was, a straight-forward negligence action, resulting from a motor vehicle accident. The accident occurred in the parking lot of a high school in Fairfield County when Defendant was backing up out of a marked parking space. Plaintiff, a minor, along with her parent, alleged that when Defendant backed up his vehicle, the exhaust pipe of his vehicle contacted the minor Plaintiff in the leg as she was obtaining items from the trunk of her parent’s car (which had pulled into an undesignated parking area, leaving the tail end of Plaintiff’s vehicle sticking out into the parking lot where the minor then had to walk to obtain items from the trunk of that vehicle). The lawsuit continued for over a year as a standard negligence action.
  Thereafter, Plaintiffs amended their complaint against Defendant to include claims of common law and statutory recklessness. Defendant’s insurance company, who had been defending the negligence claim against him, then denied coverage to Defendant for the recklessness claims, leaving the Defendant’s assets personally exposed for any monetary damages resulting from the recklessness claims, including multiplied damages under relevant Connecticut General Statutes.
  Defendant retained Ms. Rossi to defend him two weeks before trial commenced. Within eight days of being retained, Ms. Rossi convinced Defendant’s insurance company that the recklessness claims pending against her client were not excluded by her client’s insurance policy. In a rare admission by an insurance company, and as a direct result of Ms. Rossi’s swift and unwavering efforts, arguing the current state of Connecticut law on this issue, as well as issues of statutory construction and the language contained within her client’s insurance policy, her client’s insurance company reversed its position on coverage, withdrawing its position that there was no coverage under the policy for the recklessness claims.
  In addition, Ms. Rossi insisted that her client’s insurance company fully settle the case within her client’s policy limits immediately. One day after reversing its coverage position, and at the Trial Management Conference at the Stamford Superior Court, the insurance company did just that.
  At the Trial Management Conference, Ms. Rossi further argued in defense of Plaintiffs’ claims, arguing that the Plaintiffs’ claims for recklessness were unsupported by Connecticut law and would never reach a jury. As a result of her efforts, Plaintiffs’ demand for settlement was reduced by tens of thousands of dollars, and her client’s insurance company paid the settlement in full.
  At the end of the day, Ms. Rossi’s client’s personal assets were protected. The lawsuit was fully settled and withdrawn. Plaintiffs signed a release of all claims against Ms. Rossi’s client, and the insurance company paid the settlement in full.
• Ms. Rossi was retained by a New Hampshire based equipment company to defend it and its driver in a lawsuit filed against the equipment company and driver in Hartford Superior Court in Connecticut, involving a motor vehicle accident and plaintiff’s claims of injuries. Plaintiff’s claims included alleged significant injuries to his arm and hand, resulting in surgery and thousands of dollars in medical expenses.
  Due to a series of unfortunate events, the equipment company found itself without insurance coverage for its truck that was involved in the accident. Plaintiff’s uninsured motorist carrier also was named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
  Throughout the duration of the lawsuit, Ms. Rossi remained steadfast in her position of no liability for the accident by her clients, and that plaintiff’s alleged injuries pre-existed the accident and were diagnosed by a number of medical professionals years before. Ms. Rossi declined demands made by plaintiff to resolve the lawsuit, and consistently maintained the position that her clients were not paying any monies in this matter, were prepared to take this matter through trial, and that her clients should not even be named as defendants in the lawsuit in light of the uninsured motorist carrier being named. Among other things, Ms. Rossi also objected to responding to written discovery that deviated from standard written discovery in Connecticut and declined plaintiff’s request for a deposition of her client due to the notice being unreasonable, improper, and untimely.
  The same week that trial initially was scheduled to commence, plaintiff withdrew all claims against all defendants, having reached a settlement with the uninsured motorist carrier. Ms. Rossi’s clients paid nothing toward the settlement. The uninsured motorist carrier never asserted crossclaims against Ms. Rossi’s client in the lawsuit.
• Ms. Rossi successfully has handled multiple other personal injury lawsuits on behalf of plaintiffs, resulting in various six-figure settlements, including those involving comparative negligence, sudden emergency, and bad faith settlement negotiations by insurers.