Is There a Case You Handled in The Last Few Years That Stands Out?

Greg Hach talks about a case that stands out most to him. If you or a loved one has been injured, contact a personal injury lawyer by calling (212) 779-0057.

Since we started our practice, there’s been quite a few cases that stand out in my mind for many different reasons. We’ve represented many clients that we’ve come to really care about and know on a very personal level. But there’s one that stands out specifically because I actually worked with this kid’s father when I was going to school. He was one of the engineers on the job where I worked.

He had passed away — the father — unexpectedly, unfortunately, so he was left in a home with just his mother and his two older brothers. He was a young, aggressive kid, in a nice way: aggressive, just a hard-working, motivated young man. You could tell he had the world in front of him.

He was driving to work one morning, very early in the morning. The weather was a little inclement. He made a left-hand turn in front of a truck, an 18-wheeler. The Mack truck crushed the car. They wrote ‘fatal’ on the ticket, actually, they thought he was dead, that he wasn’t going to make it. The car was pushed hundreds of yards from where he made the actual impact with the vehicle.

It was a difficult case because he ended up with a traumatic brain injury. He would never be the same. That life that he had ahead of him was changed forever from that date.

I’d known the family. The mother had actually called me and asked for advice. I went to see the client in the hospital, and seeing him in that condition was difficult to say the least, having that relationship with his father and knowing of him, and how proud his father was of him.

Also knowing that being a motivated young man, he was really, even though he was the youngest of the three sons, the primary breadwinner now for the family. So his income was really important. The problem with the case was that he made a left-hand turn in front of the vehicle, so it really involved a lot of detailed investigation.

The investigation led to a determination that the truck was going just around the speed limit, maybe a mile or two faster than the speed limit, which isn’t egregious in any way. But in inclement weather, we found out that the CDL license, the truck drivers have, they’re supposed to drive 2/3 the speed limit in inclement weather. So having that under our hat, we were able to obtain a significant recovery for him.

But it was a difficult case because had some complicity in the case, as well as he had negligence as well having made a left-hand turn. So he did recover some money, that money went into a trust and was able to sustain him, sustain him to this day. So he’s able to still take care of his family in some regards, which gives him the pride and dignity that he’s always wanted since he’s gone to work.

We’ve become very close. I still see him to this day. He’s got a difficult life, very, very difficult life actually, with the traumatic brain injuries, and he’s homebound most of the time. But on the weekends, occasionally when I can, during the week once in a while, I’ll pick him up, I’ll take him out for a bite to eat, we’ll talk.

I’d say that’s one of my most fond memories of a case, of a real bad situation that may not have the best ending, but we were able to give him some comfort, some dignity, and the pride to help him take care of his family. That’s very, very important to us, and to me personally as well.