ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) – A woman unhappy with a Florida personal injury law firm is suing it for at least $100 million in federal court, alleging it waited too long to bring claims stemming from a 2014 car accident in which her daughter was killed.
The Dec. 30 lawsuit also says Willie Gary of Gary, Williams, Parenti, Watson and Gary took nearly half of a $100,000 death benefit in the insurance policy of the late Katrina Cook, who died after a March 2014 collision with a tractor-trailer.
The deduction, pursuant to a contingency fee, was done “even though the uninsured motorist policy was outside the scope of his retention and no work on his part was required to obtain the death benefit,” the lawsuit says.
The Gary firm is accused of failing to sue the owner and driver of the tractor-trailer responsible for the accident. It also waited too long to file a products liability case against Nissan, the maker of Cook’s car, the suit says, leading to its dismissal.
The lawsuit says Cook was rear-ended while slowing down to avoid another wreck on the C.H. James Parkway in Cobb County. The tractor-trailer was tailgaiting and unable to avoid hitting Cook, the suit says, and her Nissan Infinity burst into flames.
Mom Ernestine Elliott says Gary called her the day after Cook died, urging her to retain him immediately to preserve evidence. However, lawyers lost track of the wrecked Infiniti and other cars involved in the crash and waited more than two years to file suit against Nissan in Cobb County Superior Court, the suit says.
In 2017, Nissan successfully moved for summary judgment by arguing the wrongful death claims were barred under the two-year statute of limitations and the product liability claims were barred under the 10-year limitations statute, the suit says. Cook’s car was a 2005 model.