$3,250,000 Settlement – Inadequate Security Case: Paraplegia Resulting from Shooting (Broward County, FL)

When someone comes to the United States to take advantage of schools here they shouldn’t have to pay for it with their life. An educational visit to the United States ended with a spinal cord injury and paralysis for a young Italian man who came to Florida.

A young man visiting from Italy was shot and paralyzed when thieves attempted to steal his rental car.  Attorney John Elliott Leighton represented this man, whose trip to the United States was a graduation gift from his parents so he could attend an education program. When he heard sounds outside the building the school had assigned him to live in, he walked out to find thieves breaking into his rental car.  Before he knew it, one of them shot it, striking his spinal cord and rendering him a paraplegic.

A confidential settlement of $3,250,000 was obtained shortly before trial.  Mr. Leighton proved that the area was dangerously unsafe and reasonable security was lacking at the apartment complex where the young man was shot.

This young man has gone on to develop boats that are handicap accessible. He piloted a sailboat across the Atlantic Ocean to demonstrate the success of his design.

 

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