Judge Helps Settle Multi-Million Dollar Case

Paul Grieco

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Justice was served in the Cleveland Justice Center when a local judge put a piece of paper with a seven figure dollar amount on it in two envelopes and presented it to the lawyers involved in the case with the option of accepting the figure and settling the case or go to trial. The case involved a serious car accident which led to an 18 yeaar old college student losing his eye sight. The young man and his fellow college swim team members were in route to a swim meet when their rental van crashed.

On the eve of trial the Judge made on last effort to bring the two sides together by writing down the number he felt was a fair and just compromise. Before the settlement, the lawyers had been locked in an impasse: the victim's lawyers demanded $3.7 million and the defendants wouldn't pay more than $1 million."I made an educated guess about what would be a good compromise number, and it all worked out," [Judge]Matia said afterward. The number the judge wrote down and which was accepted by both sides was $2,050,000. For more on this case see http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/117939080245900.xml&coll=2