Justice for Alicia

By Michael E. Moore, TLC 2010

Be careful what you ask for, because you may get it! I’d been dying to take

a case to jury trial. Felt like a bad ass ready to try anything after getting my

medicine bag in July 2010. Last words I heard Gerry speak to me before I left the

ranch: “Go get em!” Fired up, I returned to San Diego and told local attorneys –

you got a crappy case you don’t want, I’ll take it to trial for you.

In the first week of December 2010, an attorney down the hall came by and

asked if I was still looking for crappy cases set for trial; I said sure. He introduced

me to Alicia Lopez whose case was set for trial in 5 weeks and she had no

attorney.

Alicia is 32-year-old obese (265lbs at time of incident) Hispanic female who

never finished high school and has 3 children and 5 months pregnant with her

4th child. There family lives in extreme poverty and her oldest daughter has

Down’s syndrome. Alicia’s previous attorney abandoned her because she

couldn’t pay any costs for the case. Previous attorney ONLY propounded

written discovery; all responses, with the exception of 2, had page long

objections. Previous attorney had also designated a non treater as the expert.

The only deposition taken in the case was Alicia’s. I told her I would only take

the case if we can just go straight to trial; I don't want a continuance. She agreed,

so off we went.

Defense attorney is typical old school insurance defense attorney – 75 jury trials

under his belt. Offers nothing (money or discovery) on the case.

The case: August 2008 Alicia is shopping with her daughters. Goes into aisle

3 and notices a man stocking yogurt. Walking down the aisle, Alicia sees sour

cream and goes to get it. The girls keep pushing the cart slowly forward. They go

past the man stocking yogurt. Alicia picks up the sour cream and walks towards

the children. As she walks by the man stocking yogurt, she slips and falls. The

man stocking yogurt runs to the back of store and soon comes back with

assistant manager and towels to clean up the mess on the floor. Alicia’s 11 yr

old daughter sees what appears to be blue yogurt on the floor as he is cleaning.

The manager takes Alicia’s information, then Alicia leaves the store in pain.

Next day Alicia went to ER - did not complain of back pain, but was diagnosed

with hip contusion. Few days later went to chiropractor complaining of back pain

and pain radiating down her right leg. Chiro sent her to lawyer. Saw chiro 7 times

over a period of 3 months. She stopped because it wasn't working so well. No

other treatment until Feb the next year. She was cleaning house and the pain got

really bad, so bad she was crying and went to the ER. They gave her morphine

and other hard core meds for pain. She goes to another chiro 2 times, once for

exam and once for consultation. He recommends she get an MRI. She get's MRI

and shows 1.5 mm at L1-2, 2 mm at L4-5, 2 mm at L5-S1. Sees nerousurgeon

who recommends pain injections, she gets injections from some doc, but there

not epidurals, some thing else. Little relief.

The good facts, they never produced surveillance video, which I argued would

have shown them at fault. Also, I subpoenaed the man stocking yogur for trial,

but he was no show and I got judge to issue bench warrant for his arrest.

Damages: Her leg and back still hurt. Past medical bills are 14k and all on

liens; 12k of which are diagnostic. Future medical by the expert designated

by previous attorney had 100k-150k which was a mixed bag of weight

loss, acupuncture, more pain management and possibly surgery; he could

never say how he came up with that number. But he said on the stand under

cross, "Alicia would get the most benefit from weight loss"! Yep, our on expert!!

No other damages.

Four day trial. Judge admonished me a few times; once for “ingratiating” myself

during voir dire, because during our discussions of racism, I mentioned I lived in

Japan for 3 years and knew what discrimination felt like. During opening I laid

down on the floor in front of the jury, judge, and everyone. Court reporter freaked

out and asked “what do I do”, I said “have the record reflect plaintiff’s counsel is

on the floor.” I laid down again, during one of my witnesses re-enactments.

Used soft cross on every defense witness and just told our story. Used polarizing

the case with soft cross on defense doctor. He mentioned he previously had

back surgery, so I asked him about his pain before and after surgery. Defense

counsel got pissed off and started objecting.

Jury deliberated for about 7 hours and returned liability 11-1, damages of

$103,000.00, and apportioned 20% to plaintiff. We were so happy we almost

started crying!

Special thanks to San Diego local warriors who worked with me at our local

meeting the Friday before trial started. Our local meetings are terrific!!