Maria G.

Client Name: Maria G.

Attorneys On The Case: John Austin and Mark Roman

Case Type: Pedestrian Accident

The Full Story

María: "No te veo", le dije, "¿quién eres?". Y me dijo: "Soy un paramédico y te voy a ayudar. Tranquila, María, tranquila. Ya estamos contigo, te vamos a ayudar". "Olvídate de mí. Quiero que des un mensaje. Prométemelo, que lo vas a dar". Le dije en inglés: "Can you tell my daughter I love you?"

[Translation: "I can't see you," I told him. "Who are you?" And he told me, "I'm a paramedic, and I'm going to help you. Stay calm, María, stay calm. We're with you now. We're going to help you." "Forget about me. I want you to give a message. Promise me you'll give it." I told him in English, "Can you tell my daughter I love you?"]

María's daughter: My mom was in a very severe accident. She was walking to work, and she was struck by a school bus.

María: Iba caminando por la calle, por la calle 19. Cuando yo iba a pasar la calle, se puso el semáforo en rojo. Di diez pasos, yo creo, cuando sentí que me impactó algo por atrás de mi espalda. Y me voló, me tiró y pasó la llanta por encima de mi espalda.

[Translation: I was walking down the street, down 19th Street. When I was going to cross the street, the light turned red. I took ten steps, I think, when I felt something hit me from behind, in my back. And it sent me flying, knocked me down, and the tire ran over my back.]

María's daughter: I remember getting a phone call that she didn't make it to work, and I immediately panicked, because my mother, she worked three jobs. She's a single mom. She's never really been the type of person to call out of work. I called around to all types of hospitals, and I eventually found her after five hours of searching, and she was in the ICU.

So it was just me and my little sister at the time. Throughout the week, I found Roman and Austin, and I spoke to them, and they came out to talk to me. And they were so helpful.

María: Pudo sentir mi dolor. Pudo sentir que esto era una injusticia.

[Translation: He could feel my pain. He could feel that this was an injustice.]

John Austin: María's case was something that was very personal to everybody at this firm.

Mark Roman: Under normal circumstances, lawyers don't even want these cases, because you're dealing with a government agency. A $200,000 cap on what you can get, no matter how egregious the thing is that a government agency, what their employee did. And in this case, it's a hit-and-run by a school bus driver.

María's daughter: When we first heard about the cap, I started to lose hope. I remember speaking to the attorneys, and they assured me, "This is their cap, but we're not going to take that. We're going to fight because she deserves that."

María: Y él me levantaba. Él me decía: "María, sí se puede. Vamos a poder. No pierdas la fe".

[Translation: And he lifted my spirits. He would tell me, "María, yes, we can. We're going to make it. Don't lose faith."]

John Austin: Essentially, we had to go all the way to Tallahassee and had to go through a legislative process. Everybody was affected in such a profound way. And it finally got to the governor's desk for signature.

Mark Roman: When we negotiated to this number, $3 million, I'm confident that if we tried this case, it would have been a large multiple of that.

John Austin: It's something that is very rare. We're very proud to have been a part of this, just because there's just very few attorneys that you can talk to that, in their career, they're actually able to take a case all the way to the point of actually getting approved for a claims bill.

María: Yo estoy satisfecha con el resultado que tomé con este bufete de abogados. Me sentí muy confiada, me sentí respaldada por mi abogado, que a veces no lo hacen muchos abogados.

[Translation: I'm satisfied with the result I got with this law firm. I felt very confident. I felt supported by my lawyer, which a lot of lawyers sometimes don't do.]

María's daughter: I see them as basically one of our family members. My mom's really appreciative of all of their help.

Mark Roman: In cases like these, it's just a rare opportunity to really achieve something that makes a difference in a person's life.

María's daughter: Watching them fight and just help my mom out as much as they did, that was so inspiring for me.

Narrator: We won't leave any stone unturned to get to the bottom of what happened and who's going to be held accountable. If you're looking to have answers to serious problems about what you've been through, and you want to have the right people held fully accountable, that's what we're here for.

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