Day: March 21, 2019

Tampa, FL (Law Firm Newswire) March 21, 2019 - All things considered, Randy Willoughby has a good life. Every day he spends time with his wife, Kayliegh, and their beautiful two-year-old daughter. When he’s not playing with his daughter, Randy can be found feeding his horses, playing video games, or enjoying his passion for cooking. But through it all, Mr. Willoughby suffers from a severe traumatic brain injury caused by a 2012 car wreck.

On November 2, 2012, Mr. Willoughby, 20 at the time, and his girlfriend, Kayliegh Lewis, were on their way to dinner when an elderly driver ran a four-way stop sign and T-boned Ms. Lewis’ vehicle on the passenger side where Mr. Willoughby was sitting. His injuries were severe, including a Grade III diffuse axonal brain injury.

In 2013, he filed a lawsuit to recover the damages caused by the wreck against the driver of the vehicle that hit him, as well as the driver’s wife as a co-owner of the vehicle. (Under Florida law, a co-owner of a vehicle is vicariously liable for damages caused by the negligent use of that vehicle.) Both defendants were insured by GEICO.

Mr. Willoughby eventually settled with the driver, thus leaving the driver’s wife the only defendant responsible for Mr. Willoughby’s damages. Before trial, GEICO prevented the driver’s wife and Mr. Willoughby from settling the case for $4.8 million. GEICO even refused to let the parties agree to any amount of damages more than $147k in past medical expenses. As a result, Mr. Willoughby and the driver’s wife proceeded to trial to obtain a determination of the full amount of Mr. Willoughby’s damages.

On Friday, March 15, 2019, a Florida jury returned a verdict for $30.1 million in Mr. Willoughby’s favor, which included $7.2 million in economic and over $22.9 million in non-economic damages.

Mr. Willoughby was represented by Swope, Rodante P.A. attorneys Brandon Cathey, Brent Steinberg and Daniel Greene. At trial, the defendant co-owner was represented by attorneys Jim Thompson and Troy Holland of the defense firm Goodis Thompson & Miller, P.A.

About Swope, Rodante P.A.

As advocates of justice, Swope, Rodante P.A. is dedicated to fighting for the underdog, protecting our clients’ rights, and recovering compensation for clients to help rebuild their lives. Founded in 1979, Swope, Rodante P.A. has grown to meet the unique needs of our clients and the challenges of today’s legal environment. The firm’s focus is complex litigation, insurance bad faith and catastrophic injury cases, including brain and spinal cord injuries. With a Tampa office located in the historic Florida Brewery building, Swope, Rodante P.A. handles cases across the Southeast and Nationwide.

Houston, TX (Law Firm Newswire) March 21, 2019 - The government shutdown affected many areas of government, including the shuttering of immigration courts. Roughly 400 immigration judges were furloughed. The 35-day shutdown threw the status of thousands of immigrants into limbo because the courts had yet to decide whether they can stay in the country or be deported.

As a result of the judges being furloughed, there are over 80,000 cases to be rescheduled to attempt to alleviate the backlog, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Furloughed immigration judges are only able to hear cases for immigrants held in detention centers. In other words, they are only able to hear those cases that are deemed to be the most urgent. They cannot hear other cases, which does not help the system backlog.

There are about 385 judges across the United States, including about 15 in the Houston, Texas area, attempting to handle an ever-increasing caseload. An average immigration judge could oversee more than 2,000 cases.

There were approximately over 827,000 open cases prior to the shutdown, including over 51,000 in Houston, and as a result of the shutdown, there are now thousands of new cases adding to the backlog. Hearings scheduled during the shutdown were set on the docket years ago and now hundreds of immigrants that were to appear are facing years of waiting for their turn to come around again.

“It’s not just immigrants [in detention centers] that have been waiting for a hearing,” said respected Huston immigration attorney, Annie Banerjee, “the shutdown has affected those attempting to renew work permits, get a driver’s license or apply for asylum.” The delays, once thought to be tediously long, are now worse. “Texas had the third-most postponed hearings in the United States behind California and New York.”

The irony of a shutdown to ensure border security is not lost on the judges who now face staggering backlogs to keep up with and maintain the caseloads they face. Judges have now been rescheduling cases, some even to 2023. “The system, once confusing, complex and slow, is now even slower,” added Banerjee. “Recovery from the shutdown is going to take a long time. Should there be another one, the system is likely to sustain another major hit.”

Learn more at http://www.visatous.com

Law Offices of Annie Banerjee
131 Brooks Street, Suite #300
Sugar Land, Texas 77478
Phone: (281) 242-9139

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