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Heeney & Arii, Chartered handles personal injury cases related to individuals hurt by the negligence of others or by defective products. It does absolutely no insurance defense work. The firm's attorneys are skilled in handling the following types of personal injury cases:
- Traumatic Brain Injury ("T.B.I.")
- Wrongful Death, Including Death Caused by Automobiles
- Automobile Accident
- Medical Malpractice
- Product Liability
- Slip and Fall and Premises Liability
- Worker Compensation, On The Job Injury
In all cases where there are significant injuries, including those involving complex litigation, the firm provides representation to our clients on a contingent fee basis. In these cases, our fee is a portion of the amount recovered from the party responsible for the client's injuries. If there is no recovery, there is no fee.
Attorneys, Thomas L. Heeney and C. Sei-Hee Arii, are known for their thorough preparation of the damage and liability components of their clients' case necessary in order to achieve the best possible jury verdict or insurance company settlement. They believe that it is improper to promise a client a particular recovery because lawyers do not control the outcome of what a particular jury will award, or what figure a particular insurance claims adjuster, mediator, or arbitrator values the case; however, the firm has developed over the years a reputation for valuing a case reasonably and demanding and acquiring from the wrongdoer fair and just compensation.
SAMPLE CASES:
Significant awards collected from jury verdicts and settlements over the years, in the context of diverse, interesting, and challenging liability matters include:
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Under-insured Motorist Insurance Carrier Paid Maximum Insurance Funds Available, as a Result Of Negligence of Fire Emergency Vehicle, that engaged in "sirencide". A fire vehicle entered a blind intersection, controlled by a flashing red traffic light, with full siren and lights, and failed to stop or slow down or otherwise keep a proper lookout. The client vehicle proceeding on a flashing yellow traffic light was "T-boned" resulting in Traumatic Brain Injury. Innovative approaches to this case employed by Mr. Heeney and Ms. Arii included (1) The use of siren sound non-detectability evidence developed from a retained acoustical engineer, utilizing test protocols of instrumentation and acoustical measurements, highway closure, facsimile vehicles, and a substantially similar emergency siren, (2) The utilization of a Human Factors Expert, verifying that the over-ambitious emergency lights survey of the insurance company, consistent with the earlier client siren sound testing, established the client had no possibility to detect the emergency lights in sufficient time and distance, from the first possible perception of the fire vehicle red light stimulus, to avoid the accident, and (3) Development of a "Special Needs Trust" to permit the brain injured client to maximize his Social Security Disability (SSDI) payments without any offset from his sizeable under-insured motorist settlement recovery. At the conclusion of the settlement, the report of the acoustical engineer expert entitled "Noticeability of a Siren in a Jeep Traveling at 45 mph" was submitted to the Department of Fire and Rescue Services by Mr. Heeney. The government changed the traffic light pattern for this blind intersection to solid green and solid red lights.
- Tractor-Trailer negligence causing Traumatic Brain Injury resulted in successful outcome after a $1.5 M offer by insurance defense counsel was turned down at settlement table as being insufficient. Principle defense to the permanent wage earning capacity claim of the plaintiff was a well known defense psychiatrist suggesting Plaintiff had made a complete recovery and the alleged disability was motivated by secondary gain, malingering, and symptom embellishment due to pre-existing personality disorders. Innovative strategies employed by Mr. Heeney to combat this were 1.) the use of defendant's own secret surveillance tapes to establish a pathetic quality of Plaintiff's daily life; 2.) the employment of a "life coach" who documented activities of daily living travails; 3) the retention of a private investigator who obtained under- cover video and audio documentation of the client, without her knowledge, unsuccessfully attempting to perform basic work duties despite obvious best efforts; 4.) the placement of the client in effortful community service projects in order to further establish employment incapacity in the real world as observed by independent witnesses, thereby aiding others despite the inability to maintain gainful employment; 5.) the destruction of the defense psychiatrist as an effective witness by exposing his suppression from his Independent Medical Exam report and from defense counsel themselves of the computer generated Base Rate Scales on a neuropsychological personality test favorable to Plaintiff's case. In addition to the efforts in the lawsuit, Mr. Heeney was also successful in reversing the Social Security Administration and obtaining SSDI, and eliminating a contractual right of her own insurer to repayment, from the lawsuit recovery, of past and future Long Term Disability payments, under an insurance policy giving the right of subrogation.
- Wrongful death murder-for-hire case against publisher of a book advocating contract murder. This was a Wrongful Death case and First Amendment case of a deceased nurse, the nurse's deceased patient who was a disabled child, and the child's deceased mother, all murdered by a hit man hired by the child's father who was behind in child support payments. The hit man was alleged to have been aided and abetted by the publisher of the books entitled "Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors," and How to Make a Disposable Silencer, Volume 2, which were read and utilized by the hit man in the triple murder. Mr. Heeney handled the damage claim of the nurse's surviving child and the widower father. Co- counsel handled the liability claim and the damage claim of the other plaintiffs. The case settled on the eve of trial and the confidential settlement amount secured the financial future of the child and his father.
- Commercial truck negligence causing plaintiff traumatic brain injury without loss of consciousness, resulting in $815,000 present value structured settlement.
- Concrete truck negligently blocked roadway at entrance into construction site preventing bicyclist, ridden by off duty police officer, from stopping before colliding with truck. Case settled in Court ordered mediation for $230,000 with full waiver of the $70,000 health insurance lien.
- Police officer suffered back injury when an outside physical performance testing firm negligently used flawed fitness and strength testing protocol, resulting in jury verdict of $540,000 including $50,000 in consortium damages.
- Fraud case in which Defense witnesses were exposed on the witness stand with their perjured testimony via their "perjury script" acquired by Mr. Heeney, resulting in $269,000 jury verdict, $200,000 of which was in punitive damages. Entire judgment was collected despite attempted bankruptcy shield.
- Summer day camp negligently failed to provide proper supervision and instructions to mentally challenged child camper who suffered facial scarring when her go cart vehicle, that she was unable to brake thinking the brake pedal was the accelerator, crashed through barbed wire horse coral fence, resulting in present value structured settlement of $130,000.
- Product liability case involving improperly designed dry wall dolly cart carrying significant weight of dry wall which shifted when dolly cart became unstable during transport into construction site, falling through the open side of the cart and onto the face of the client workman pushing the dolly. Case settled for a significant sum, and the $90,000 Worker's Compensation lien was waived in its entirety by the carrier.
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Heeney & Arii, Chtd.
Adams Law Center
29 Wood Lane
Rockville, MD 20850
Tel: 301-762-8545
Fax: 301-762-8572
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