$5M Settlement

An academic researcher was seriously injured when her laboratory experiment exploded.  The university who sponsored the research denied liability. The university first claimed that, as our client’s employer, her claims against it were barred by the workers’ compensation statutes.  So, we obtained a ruling that our client was not the university’s employee, even though the university paid her a stipend and provided her certain benefits.

The university next blamed our client for using inappropriate and unsafe equipment.  But we showed that the university approved the equipment, and that the university should have better trained our client on safety measures that should be taken when working with explosive gasses.

The settlement we achieved was calculated to take care of our client’s needs going forward. And as a result of the investigation, universities across the country changed their laboratory safety practices so that other researchers would not suffer similar injuries.