James Burke (Partner-White Plains, NY) and second-chair Bryan O’Keefe (Associate-New York, NY), with daily in-court assist by Nicholas Caiazzo (Partner-New York, NY), tried a damages-only case with a $25 million demand in Supreme Court, New York County. The plaintiff, a 47-year-old construction laborer claimed he was injured on a job site by a 6,000-pound pallet jack when its brakes failed and allegedly pinned him and causing a “crush” injury to his left great toe, requiring three surgeries that included failed hardware, and a multiple-level lumbar spine injury. He was awarded Labor Law 240(1) summary judgment and claimed an economic loss of $4 million and had a vocationalist testify he was unemployable. Jim, Bryan and Nick obtained excellent surveillance that showed the plaintiff acting for a three-year period completely inconsistently with his claims, and got the vocationalist to admit that in 30 years she could not recall the last time she ever helped a person get a job. They got plaintiff’s pain management doctor to admit that he did not know how to read an EMG/NCV test, and the podiatric surgeon to admit that he did not know anything about work-life disability for anything that was above the level of the knee. Our last offer to the plaintiff prior to the case going to the jury was $1.5 million, which the judge recommended, but by insisting on a verdict instead of a more modest payment that would have included a lien reduction, likely nets five figures. The jury returned a verdict for total damages at only $960,000. Moreover, since the plaintiff elected to take a verdict, he must pay a full $455,000 back to Workers’ Comp.