SKETCHES OF COURT: Plaintiff awarded $50,000 in car accident trial
In this courtroom sketch, Hon. Debra Silber listens as plaintiff’s attorney Vladimir Rodney (standing) addresses the jury during opening remarks in the motor vehicle accident trial Maisonet v. Steiner. Rodney is trial counsel to the law firm Silbowitz, Garafola, Silbowitz, Schatz & Frederick.
Christine Maisonet was a passenger in a livery cab involved in a collision in March 2014 on Joralemon Street, near the intersection of Court Street. Maisonet testified that the impact jolted her back and forth and that her knee hit against a magazine rack in front of her, causing her serious injury. At issue in the trial was the determination of damages; the matter of liability was waived.
Maisonet testified to complaining of knee pain resulting from the accident, for which she started conservative treatment. She claimed that physical therapy and injections failed to provide sufficient relief, and eventually underwent surgery for the alleged finding of a chondral “crack” of her patella and for chondromalacia, a condition where the cartilage beneath the knee cap softens and breaks down.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.