Massachusetts Attorneys serving the Greater Boston area
At Alford & Bertrand, with offices in Watertown, Mattapan, Quincy and Lynn, our Massachusetts attorneys have a track record of notable verdicts and settlements.
We have won millions of dollars for our clients harmed through medical errors, negligence and discrimination. The following are a few examples of how we have helped our clients.
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Age Discrimination
Attorney Donald Bertrand represents numerous clients before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. In a recent case against a local university, the university agreed to pay in excess of $200,000.00 in a case where Attorney Bertrand’s client was forced into early retirement. The university department head who terminated the client's employment was made to regret his offensive remarks, which included “We are not running an old age home.”
Racial Discrimination
Sometimes a discrimination case can take on a significance that outweighs a money award. A few years ago, Alford & Bertrand filed suit against a national pharmaceutical chain relative to an action of racial discrimination. The findings of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, after fifteen days of trial, established a new approach to reviewing employment claims in this case. For the first time the Commission found that retaliation by an employer in reaction to a claim of discrimination was as important as the Commission's evaluation of the original facts, which resulted in the claim of discrimination. The emphasis on analyzing the retaliation element of the case put employers on notice that they could not punish employees for complaining about employment related acts of discrimination. In this case, the victim of retaliation received a substantial money damages award and the commission issued an order for the national pharmaceutical chain to provide its managers and employees with extensive training on issues related to race and ethnicity sensitivity in the workplace.
Age and Gender Discrimination
Recently a client of Alford & Bertrand received a jury verdict of approximately
$600,000.00 against a state agency in regard to employment discrimination in a case brought on the basis of both age and gender. The client, a 60-year old woman, was removed from her position after many years of exemplary performance. The jury award included $300,000.00 in punitive damages and $100,000.00 for mental anguish in addition to a lost wage claim.
Immigration Appeal
Attorney Stuart Alford’s most recent victory before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) was also one of his most gratifying as it reversed the judgment of an immigration judge, which would have resulted in the separation of young mother from her 4 United State citizen children. The client had been present in the United States since early childhood. Her parents, children and siblings were all either lawful permanent or naturalized citizens. Recently separated from her husband, she was raising her children as a single mother. Her own Application for Permanent Residency was denied on a technicality and she was placed into removal/deportation proceedings. At trial Attorney Alford introduced evidence of the numerous hardships which would impact his client and her entire family if this young woman were deported from the United States. Despite overwhelming proof in support of the case, the immigration judge ordered the young woman to be deported. Attorney Stuart Alford filed a notice of appeal and appellate brief with the Board of Immigration Appeals against the erroneous judgment and argued that the judge’s decision should be reversed. Attorney Alford presented evidence to the Board of Immigration Appeals that he and his client had clearly satisfied their significant burden at trial and that the judge was clearly in error. The Board of Immigration Appeals reversed the finding of the immigration judge and the client is now a lawful permanent resident who is looking forward to someday becoming a United States citizen.
Medical Malpractice
A young woman was born with a condition known as congenital bilateral hip dysplasia. This condition though visually difficult to detect in early childhood becomes extremely debilitating as the child grows. Doctors have, however, developed standard tests for this condition, which require only a few minutes during each well baby visit. Unfortunately, this young woman’s doctor neglected to perform these simple tests. Had her condition been discovered early simple, non-invasive procedures would eliminated this problem. As it turned out, however, several very serious surgeries were required. After having been rejected by two other law firms in the City of Boston, this young woman’s parents consulted with Attorney Paul Chomko of the law firm of Alford & Bertrand who agreed to take the case and who received an award in excess of $1,000,000.00 for this client.
Medical Malpractice
In another case other law firms turned down Attorney Chomko obtained a large award. A woman in her forties became pregnant as a result of donated eggs in a process known as in vitro fertilization. The woman’s doctor performed an amniocentesis, which is a precautionary measure almost always given when the mother is of advanced age. The administration of this test led to the loss of the client's pregnancy, which is a known risk of this procedure. Attorney Chomko was able to prove that the amniocentesis should never have been administered to his client as the donor of the eggs was in her early twenties. It is the age of the egg, not the mother that determines whether the amniocentesis is appropriate and as a result the test should never have been given, and it is likely that the mother would have given birth. A substantial settlement was made in favor of Attorney Chomko’s client.
When you need legal help and guidance to hold liable parties responsible for harm they caused, please contact our office at 888-361-1693 for a no cost, no obligation case evaluation. We’ll put our legal team to work for you.
Tenant Injured as the Result of Insufficient Lighting
Our client was a senior citizen who lived at a municipal Housing Authority Senior Citizen Housing Development.
At approximately 5:30 p.m. on a winter evening, she left her apartment and exited the building was towards the parking lot where her car was parked.
There was a pathway directly to the parking lot which ordinarily had lights on after dark so that an individual going from the building to the parking lot would be able to see the walkway in front of them.
The lights were set with an automatic timer to turn the lights on before dark and then turn them off when it became light in the morning.
The maintenance staff at the Housing Authority had failed to change the time as winter approached and this evening at 5:00 p.m. the clocks had been set back and it was dark and the lights were not on.
On the walkway path, a tree root had broken through the cement and our client, unable to see the tree root, tripped on the tree root, fell to the ground and seriously injured herself.
Under Massachusetts law a claim can be brought against a municipal body based upon the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act which requires certain specific notices and had a specific time element as to when the claim can be brought.
It is very important when bringing a lawsuit against a city, town, municipal agency or the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority that an attorney be familiar with all aspects of the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act.
Our firm has handled numerous claims of this type and, in regard to our client in this case, we were able to collect significant damages for her as a result of a successful lawsuit which was not settled by the town and required a jury trial.
The jury found that the town was negligent, had breached its duty of obligation and care to our client, and awarded her significant damages for the injuries that she suffered.
Cruise Ship Accident
Our client was taking a vacation on a cruise ship with a major cruise line that she expected to be comfortable, relaxing and luxurious.
While on the cruise ship in international waters, our client got on the elevator and while the elevator descended, the mechanism let go and the elevator crashed to the lowest level of the elevator shaft.
As a result our client was seriously injured.
When an individual is injured in international waters on a cruise ship, there are specific laws that prevail over the claim and jurisdiction. The area of law that must be followed is known as Admiralty Law.
Admiralty Law is a very specialized field and you must pass specific test and specific Admiralty bar exams to practice Admiralty Law.
The firm of Alford & Bertrand, being in existence for more than thirty (30) years, has made contacts with legal firms with all areas of very specific and unusual expertise.
In this particular case, wanting to make sure that we did what was in the best interest of the client, we brought the client to a legal firm that specializes only in Admiralty Law and together as co-attorneys in this case our client received a very significant settlement for the injuries that she suffered in the open seas.
Motorcycle Accident
In 2010 Attorney Stuart Alford represented a Worcester County resident who was operating his Harley Davidson motorcycle when struck and seriously injured by a driver who had failed to yield for the motorcycle. The client's injuries included multiple fractures to his leg and weeks of post surgical traction.
The initial settlement in this case was for the total policy limit of the driver who struck him which was in the amount of $250,000.00. This exhausted all the money available through the drivers motor vehicle insurance policy and after investigating the drivers ability to make additional payment, it was determined that the driver had no assets or sufficient income to make additional payments. Attorney Stuart Alford did, however, discover the existence of an additional umbrella insurance policy owned by the parents of the driver, with whom the driver lived, and was able to obtain an additional $125,000.00 through the drivers parents umbrella insurance policy for a total of $375,000.00.
Family Real Estate Dispute
Unfortunately, some legal disputes arise among family members over assets held by parents later to be distributed to their offspring.
A sad situation arose when a husband and wife, both senior citizens, made an agreement with their daughter to give her a two family home that they owned with the understanding that child would live in the second floor unit but that the rent from the first floor would be paid to mother and father each month to help them support themselves in their later years.
For many years the daughter made regular monthly payments of the rent from the first floor apartment to her mother and father. However, when the father died, the daughter decided that she had paid her mother enough money and stopped making the payments from the first floor rent to her mother.
Unfortunately for the mother, there was nothing in writing other than the deed transferring the property from her and her late husband to their daughter.
The mother came into the firm of Alford & Bertrand with this problem and asked for representation.
Based upon the facts that were presented, a complaint was prepared and filed with the court to create what is known in the law as a Constructive Trust asking the court to make a finding that the daughter who now owned the two family house owned it as a Trustee for the benefit of the mother and that the mother was legally entitled to the rent from the first floor apartment even though there had been no agreement in writing.
Fortunately there was a great deal of communication through e-mail and otherwise along with the payments that had been made for many years to provide evidence of what the intentions of the parties were.
The daughter hired her own attorney and there was a lengthy period of pre-trial discovery and preparation followed by a week long trial.
The jury found in favor of the mother who was represented by Alford & Bertrand, LLC, and required the daughter to pay to the mother all of the rent from the first floor unit that she had accumulated and not paid to the mother over the years and to make all future payments from that unit to her mother for as long as her mother lives.
It was a very unhappy set of circumstances to see a family at war with one another but, unfortunately in life sometimes these things do occur and we were pleased that the mother who was elderly at the time of this incident was able to collect the money that she had coming to her so that she could live in some degree of comfort in her old age.
Beyond The Client's Expectations
What begin as simply a worker's compensation claim on behalf of our client turned into both a worker's compensation claim and a successful claim for liability against a third party based upon the attorneys of Alford & Bertrand doing a thorough investigation as to the cause of our client's injuries.
We were contacted by the client who was a delivery person for a company that supplied products to beauty salons. While carrying packages to the storage area at the rear of the salon, our client fell and injured himself. Since he was on the job, he wanted to make a worker's compensation claim since he was unable to work as a result of the injury and had to undergo extensive medical treatment.
After meeting with the client and taking in all the necessary information to begin a claim for worker's compensation, which would cover his wages and medical bills, we had the client go with us to the scene of the accident.
Upon arriving at the scene of the accident, which was in Worcester, Massachusetts, we noted that the storage area was at the back of the salon and that there was a paved walkway which was in total disrepair with potholes and broken areas on the walkway.
It was our opinion that the people who owned the salon were aware that delivery people had to use this walkway to make deliveries and that it was foreseeable that because of the condition of the walkway, a person could be caused to fall down while carrying heavy packages for delivery.
As a result we filed a separate claim against the owners of the salon, who also owned the real estate, for keeping the walkway in a negligent and dangerous manner which resulted in our client falling and injuring himself.
We had a successful worker's compensation claim and got all of our client's medical bills and lost wages paid for the period of time that he was out of work.
In addition, we ended up settling this case for a significant amount of money which paid our client for his non economic losses including pain and suffering and long term disability.
If we had not taken the time to go to the scene of the accident with the client and only handled this as a worker's compensation case, it would have cost our client tens of thousands of dollars that he received as a result of the law firm of Alford & Bertrand to try and go over and above the expectations of our clients and making sure that all of their legal needs are satisfied.
Knowing Who to Bring a Claim Against
Our client worked for a major bank in suburban Massachusetts. The bank's main headquarters were located in a large building in Burlington, Massachusetts. There was a cafeteria in the bank that was run by an independent contractor.
Our client went to lunch at the cafeteria. At the time she was eight (8) months pregnant.
A cleaning crew was cleaning the floor of the cafeteria with wet mops and had failed to put up any signs, notices or other protective devices. Our client slipped on the water. She did not fall to the ground but she severely twisted her back when she slipped.
This was not a claim against her employer because the incident took place in the cafeteria that was run by an independent contractor and the cleaning company was also an independent contractor.
The client was concerned that she would not be able to collect for her back injuries since she never fell to the ground. The day before trial this case was settled for $90,000 against the independent company that ran the cafeteria at the client's place of employment.
Construction Site Accident
In Medford, Massachusetts, work was necessary to repair sidewalks in the Fellsway area of the city. A private construction company was hired to do the work and had broken up the cement on the sidewalk for the purpose of installing new sidewalks. At night, the area was boarded up with low boards to create a barrier but there were no lights placed out to make sure that someone walking after dark could see that there were barrier preventing someone from walking on the sidewalk.
Our client, while walking his dog at night, was caused to stumble on the boards, fell to the ground and caused serious injuries including a broken nose which was disfigured and required plastic surgery to put back into as close a condition as it was prior to this accident.
There are often accidents a construction sites when construction companies fail to properly put protective devices and lights around the construction site.
Negligent Auto Repairs
Can you imagine a situation in which you as the driver strike another car from behind and end up collecting for the personal injuries that you suffer in the accident? That very thing took place with a client that engaged the law firm of Alford & Bertrand.
Our client had their brakes fixed at an auto dealer, no longer in business, located in Newton, Massachusetts. While operating the motor vehicle, our client was unable to stop at a red light because of the failure of brakes and smashed into the car in front of him. He suffered serious physical injuries as a result of the accident.
Our firm engaged a forensic expert to check the work that had been done on the brakes and discovered that the work that had been done on the brakes was faulty and negligent and a claim was brought against the auto dealer for injuries suffered by our client who struck another car from behind.
We were able to bring a successful claim and settled the case for a significant of money for the benefit of our injured client.
Discrimination
Our client, a bright and ambitious young African American man, visited our office with the following job history.
For approximately five years he had worked for the security division of a national retail chain.
His job performance was evaluated on a regular basis and he consistently received excellent comments from all supervisors as to all aspects of his job performance.
After being employed for approximately five years, he noted that other new employees had been hired, had the same job for awhile and were then promoted. Notwithstanding his excellent reviews he had never received a promotion.
As a result of this situation he made an appointment with his supervisor and told the supervisor that he felt that the failure to be promoted could be the result of discriminatory behavior based upon the fact that he was one of the very few African Americans in the local security division of this national retail chain.
The immediate response of the supervisor was to tell him if he felt that way, he was fired.
The firm of Alford & Bertrand, which has had numerous successful claims against companies who have engaged in discriminatory behavior, brought a discrimination claim against his company.
The company hired a major Midwest law firm to represent itself and eventually there was a trial that lasted twenty-nine (29) days.
The law firm of Alford & Bertrand received Judgment in favor of its client who received not only monetary benefits for his lost income and emotionally injuries but also an order to this national company that they institute a program for all supervisor employees in regard to equal opportunity access to jobs and promotions and that all individuals regardless of race, color, country of national origin, sex, sexual orientation or age be treated equally.
The large Midwest law firm filed an appeal on this case and subsequent to this appeal, which was won by the firm of Alford & Bertrand on behalf of its client, our client received a substantial sum of money and the company in question was required to mend its behavior with regard to minority employees.
