Case Results

$4,200,000.00:  My client tripped and fell in an auditorium causing a serious back injury. Originally, the owners claimed she should receive nothing from our claim since she should have been looking where she was walking.  However, after our expert showed that the premises were not built according to the Uniform Building Code, my client was fully compensation.

$4,000,000.00: Mr. S sustained a serious brain injury in a motor vehicle accident which prevented him from ever going back to work.  The careless driver had insufficient insurance to properly compensate my client.  Teaming with other attorneys experienced in this field eventually it was revealed that the driver was on the job when the injury happened and the employer contributed to the final award to give Mr. S fair compensation.

$2,780,000.00: Three years after Mr. S bought a disability policy from a major insurance company, he became disabled due to neck and upper back problems. When Mr. S came to our office, his insurance company refused for years to make any disability payments to Mr. S. Determination on the part of Mr. Buchta resulted in the insurance company paying Mr. S $280,000 in back payments. Then after an Insurance Bad Faith action was filed, his insurance company paid Mr. S an additional $2,500,000.00 in damages.

$2,100,000.00: Was obtained for Mrs. S after she suffered a serious crushing injury to her pelvis when Mr. L lost control of his vehicle, ran off the road and struck Mrs. S as she was about to enter her own vehicle in her driveway. Mr. L's insurance company offered his $100,000 policy limits to settle the cases, but Mr. Buchta refused that offer and after much research and investigation, Mr. Buchta discovered that Mr. L was in the course and scope of his employment with Ross Stores at the time of the collision. Eventually, Ross Stores added $2,000,000 to the settlement and the cases was finally resolved shortly before trial for $2,100,000.

$1,250,000.00: Was recovered by Mr. Buchta for the widow and children of a gentleman shot and killed while delivering luggage to a Sheraton hotel. The hotel and the shooter's employer maintained that the shooter was acting outside of the scope of his employment, but after extensive litigation Mr. Buchta was able to prove that the shooter (later convicted of murder) was acting within the scope of his employment as a valet parking attendant when he shot Mr. U in a dispute over a parking spot.

$1,065,000.00: Three different attorneys refused to take Mrs. A's case. She stopped at an Illinois RV park while she was taking a cross-country trip in a recreational vehicle. After parking she began to exit the RV when she lost her balance on the steps of the RV, stumbled forward, tripped over a curb and struck her head causing a serious spinal injury. Mr. Buchta hired an out-of-state investigator, who discovered an eleven foot drop off on the other side of the subject curb. Mr. Buchta obtained $1,065,000.00 for Mrs. A from the RV park for maintaining dangerous premises.

$1,000,000.00: Mr. S had just achieved his long-time dream of having a custom motorcycle built. On a beautiful sunny day he was cruising along on his new motorcycle when a bolt fell out of the rear fender causing the fender to become entangled in the rear wheel. Mr. S was thrown form his motorcycle landing on his head and died at the scene. Mr. Buchta hired a motorcycle construction expert who studied the construction of this motorcycle and it was discovered that there was insufficient bracketing of the rear fender. The company that built this motorcycle paid Mr. S's wife and surviving children $1,000,000.00.

$912,000.00: Mrs. Q died as a result of a crash when the brakes on their pickup and trailer failed while she and her husband were descending a very steep downgrade on the Teton Pass in Wyoming. Thorough investigation by Mr. Buchta and his engineers revealed that an electrical connection had come loose resulting in an overload of their braking system and an eventual failure of all brakes. The manufacturer of the electrical connection maintained that there was no prior evidence of such a disconnect. However, determined research and presentation by Mr. Buchta showed that a certain fraction of these connectors would indeed fail under similar circumstances. After 3 ½ years of litigation the defendants finally conceded and paid.

$650,000.00: Mr. G, a PG&E poleman, was rear-end by a tractor-trailer resulting in a sore neck and upper back pain. Seven weeks later his low back began to hurt and her eventually required surgery two years later. The defense contended that the late onset of low back symptoms along with the remoteness of the surgery proved that the collision was not the cause of Mr. G's low back problem. Detailed evidence produce by Mr. Buchta's biomechanical engineer showed that the forces of the collision did in fact cause Mr. G's low back condition. The trucking company finally paid Mr. G $650,000.00 for his injuries.

$500,000.00: Mrs. C died when her vehicle went out-of-control and rolled over when she experienced a blowout of her right-rear tire. Mr. Buchta represented the two adult children of Mrs. C. Although, the initial CHP report attributed the accident to the blowout, Mr. Buchta employed specialists in the field of automobile crashworthiness and its was determined that a weak seatback bracket broke allowing Mrs. C to be ejected through the rear window resulting in her death. The auto manufacturer paid $500,000.00.

$425,000.00: Mrs. B fractured her back when she leaned on the corner of a booth table and fell to the floor in Coco's Restaurant. Coco's denied liability saying Mrs. B simply lost her balance due to a pre-existing injury. Thorough investigation by Mr. Buchta and his investigators revealed that Coco's was the only chain of restaurants that failed to fasten their table tops to the wall or the floor. When Mr. Buchta's engineering experiments showed that the subject table would tip over with only 18 pounds of pressure applied to the edge of the table, Coco's settle for $425,000.00.

$300,000.00: Spencer, a twelve year old boy riding his bicycle, suffered multiple fractures and dislocations when he was struck from behind by an eleven foot snow plow blade mounted on a Cal-Trans truck. The Cal-Trans driver maintained that Spencer had swerved left from the shoulder of the road into the path of the truck and the CHP officer wrote his report that way. However, after Mr. Buchta's intensive depositions and his expert's investigation established that Spencer was still on the shoulder of the road when he was hit, a structured settlement with a total payout of $300,000.00 was paid by the State of California.

$300,000.00: Was obtained for a two-year-old girl after she was viciously bitten on the face by a pit bull dog. The owner of the dog had no insurance and no assets. However, deeper investigation revealed that the owner of the premises where the bite occurred knew that his tenant had this pit bull and that the dog had vicious tendencies. A structured settlement was stuck with the property owner such that the young lady will begin receiving payments when she turns 18 and will receive total compensation of approximately $300,000.00.