Ervin Gonzalez Scores Another One!

What do you all think -- this strikes me as a tough case:

Officer "Oreo" Lorenzo, a highly decorated Police officer with the City of North Miami Beach Police Department, was driving westbound on Pines Boulevard in Pembroke Pines, Florida on July 2, 2004, when 18 year old Natasha Russo failed to stop at a stop sign and attempted to make a left turn eastbound on to Pines Boulevard, causing Officer Lorenzo to swerve to avoid a direct impact. As a result, his car swerved and tripped on the median curb, rolled over and slammed up against a Royal Palm tree within the median that crushed the roof of his police car and ejected him into the street. He sustained a serious head injury that resulted in his death a week later.

The lawsuit alleged that Ms. Russo was negligent for failing to remain stopped at the stop sign and yield the right of way to Officer Lorenzo. The lawsuit also alleged that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) violated its own internal rules and standards by allowing a drainage curb (referred to by the Department as an "F" curb) and very large Royal Palm trees to be present in the median of a road with a speed limit of 50 miles per hour. "The Florida Department of Transportation rules do not allow curbs and Royal Palm trees to be present on roads with speed limits greater than 45 miles per hour precisely because of the danger that they present to motorists who may roll over when they impact the curb of the median at high speeds," said Ervin A. Gonzalez, attorney for the Lorenzo Family. "Had the FDOT implemented its own rules, there would be no 'F' curb or rigid tree trunks on Pines Blvd. and Officer Lorenzo would have walked away from the accident."

The Jury agreed and found in favor of "Oreo" Lorenzo's family, awarding them 70% of the total $11,537,700.

First of all, I had no idea you could go 50 miles an hour on Pines Boulevard, even as a theoretical proposition. Second, 70 percent seems high, even if there were violations of the FDOT internal rules and standards.

Still, it's another solid win for Ervin.

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Inexplicably, They Still Write Letters.....

You all know my opinion of the Herald's letters page. Yet sensible lawyers continue to write in, hoping against hope that something halfway intelligent gets printed amid the dreck and noise of that usually inane page.

Our latest victim -- dashing Ervin Gonzalez, who heroically tilts at windmills, perhaps seeking to educate South Florida voters one small mind at a time:

Voters should be careful when voting for constitutional amendments. Florida's Constitution should not be used to legislate matters that are best handled by elected lawmakers. They have been charged with creating, amending and abolishing laws to support the needs, health, safety and welfare of state residents.

Amendments should be limited to matters of great fundamental importance such as guaranteeing basic freedoms, setting forth the separation of powers and other principles that we are entitled to enjoy in a free and democratic state.

Sounds reasonable, no? Except when the Herald surrounds it with letters by crazies who think Barry "Hussein" Obama was born in Indonesia and is best friends with Josef Stalin. Then I think some of the subtlety gets lost.

Ervin, next time just write an op-ed, dude.

(BTW, I haven't seen Ervin in a while, so I wasn't sure which of the above photos is correct.)

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Awkward!

Julie Kay reports that powerhouse litigator Ervin Gonzalez has been brought in, informally, to investigate concerns that mold at the old federal courthouse may have caused or contributed to Magistrate Judge Ted Klein's death last year of a mysterious respiratory ailment.

That should be interesting when Gonzalez has to next appear in front of Chief Judge Moreno, who has been the public face of the Court's response to allegations that the old courthouse may be a "sick building."

Anyone who was at last month's Dade County Bar Association luncheon, where Judge Moreno spoke and addressed the issue in the wake of the first Julie Kay article asserting the possibility of such a link, can see that the Judge's heart is in the right place and he is committed to addressing the issue fairly and carefully. But Judge Moreno basically said that Julie Kay had presented only one side of the issue, and that Magistrate Judge Klein was already sick and his death had nothing to do with mold issues in the building.

Meanwhile, Klein's longtime former partner, the vivacious and tenacious Rebekah J. Poston, brought Gonzalez in to investigation because, in her words, "the jury is out."

In addition to a wrongful death suit, possibilities exist for other personal injury actions as well as a class action suit on behalf of all employees who had to work in that building.

Anyone with further information can report it here, to southfloridalawyers@gmail.com.

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