Mediation Video Hits the
$2,000,000 Settlement Target

UPDATE PROVIDED AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE

CASE STUDY: Mediation Video on Excessive Force: Lee County, Florida

RESULT: $2,000,000 SETTLEMENT: Two Weeks After Mediation

OVERVIEW: When you take the police to court, you had better have your facts together. The men and women on our police departments do a service for our society that is without question essential, but sometimes policies are not followed, officers get jaded and people who really need their help fall through the cracks. Carlos Laudadio had a long history of suicidal episodes that were known to the Lee County Police and their medical provider, Corizon. Without proper care and treatment coupled with excessive force, Carlos snapped, and tried to take his life because he had no other options. Today he is brain damaged, uses a wheelchair and needs 24/7 skilled care.

 

OBJECTIVE: Organize the 100's of facts and media assets into a precise liability and damages presentation that tells the other side we are ready for trial!

 

After several conference calls with Patrick Harland and his co-councils, Jeff Coleman and Andy Klymenko, plus the review of 125 gigabytes of depositions and other materials we made a plan of attack. I put together a list of video assets we would need and began aligning the many many different deposition elements of liability into smoking gun must have segments then began setting shoot schedules for interviews of the client's family and footage of Carlos today.

 

Carlos Needs 24/7 Care by Skilled Nursing Care

FINALIZATION: Make a 15 to 20 minute hard-hitting HD video that will not give Lee County any other option, settle the case.

After interviewing the eyewitness to this event, I focused on the life care expert, Michael Shahnasarian in Tampa, and Carlos' family and current caregivers. Editing of the many video clips is always best done chronologically. You can go back to before the incident but it is critical to place the flashback at the correct point in the video documentary. Demonstrating the excessive force by Lee County was very involved but when put together was clearly undeniable. I personally played the video documentary at the mediation and Lee County really paid attention. Carlos was brought in the mediation room after playing his life's story on the Blue-ray DVD player with 65 inch HD monitor and soundbar system. Lee County wanted to talk!

 

 

Settlement is the Only Option!

The impact of the video documentary was not only persuasive, it was successful. Within only two weeks, Lee County settled the case for what the plaintiff attorneys wanted. Patrick Harland said this about the effectiveness of a high quality video mediation presentation.

 

Patrick Harland- Trial Attorney

 

"The video documentary James Jenkins produced was truly phenomenal! Jeff, Andy and I had a target to hit for this first mediation. We knew Corizon, the other defendant and medical provider for Lee County, was going to be stubborn but focused on Lee County. James did all of the video interviews, scripting, editing and even played the HD video at the mediation for us. James' video documentary lead to the case settling two weeks later for our target of $2 million dollars. We are currently in heightened negotiations with Corizon and expect the total settlement numbers to be much larger because of our concise video presentation to the defense. I am currently using James on my next case and I think that says it all!"

 

Forensic Video Law is a fact based video production company that believes in quality! Producing HD and 4K video documentaries is what the average viewer expects today in their own home so why not have that same production quality at your mediation? Presentation...that is what settles the case for your target number. If you have any questions please contact me.

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UPDATE:

After the mediation video was shown, Mr. Harland had the defense's attention. The video was uploaded to a secure weblink and sent to the next level of representation from Corizon. The documentary was viewed multiple times and mentioned in further negotiations. Ultimately everyone agreed and the case settled out of court for a very good number. Educating the defense concerning our liability and damages gave them a pre-trial view of our facts, our client and witness.

By James R Jenkins
904.716.5149