July 14, 2025
ShareKelley Kronenberg Secures 80% Reduction in Major Retailer Liability Case
Kelley Kronenberg’s General Liability team of Partner/Business Unit Leader Paul Milberg, Attorney Benjamin Lazarus, and Legal Assistant Lisa Mananzan secured an exceptional settlement for a major retail client in Sumter County Circuit Court, reducing a $275,000.00 demand to $60,000.00—an approximately 80% reduction from the plaintiff’s original position.
The case involved clear vicarious liability for the retail chain, placing the defense team in a challenging position where liability was not in dispute. Rather than accept an unfavorable outcome, Paul and Benjamin developed a comprehensive strategy focused on aggressively challenging causation and the plaintiff’s inflated damage claims.
The turning point came when opposing counsel from a prominent plaintiff’s firm disclosed no retained experts and instead attempted to convert treating physicians into expert witnesses. Paul and Benjamin immediately recognized this tactical vulnerability and filed a strategic motion to limit the testimony of plaintiff’s non-retained treating experts to their treatment only, excluding opinion testimony.
When the court granted this motion and denied plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration, opposing counsel was forced to scramble. They late-disclosed a retained expert who opined on nearly $290,000.00 in future damages and re-disclosed the previously limited non-retained experts with opinions explicitly barred by the court’s prior order.
Paul and Benjamin capitalized on these procedural missteps, successfully persuading the court to strike the late disclosure as prejudicial and in violation of existing court orders. This decisive motion practice effectively dismantled the plaintiff’s damage case just as trial approached.
With their expert testimony severely limited and facing trial without adequate support for their damage claims, plaintiff’s counsel abandoned their previously inflexible negotiation position. The strategic pressure created by our team’s motion practice ultimately resulted in the $60,000.00 settlement.
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