Voluntary Dismissal on Behalf of Design Professional Named as Defendant

Attorney Debbie Etlinger and her team recently secured an early voluntary dismissal on behalf of their client — a design professional who was named as a defendant in a construction accident case.

The plaintiff alleged he sustained significant injuries when the floor on which he was working collapsed and he fell through to the floor below.

The client’s scope of work did not involve anything that could have contributed to the collapse of the floor and the teams’ goal was to develop a strategy that would result in an early dismissal of their client. They first filed an application to have the case transferred to Connecticut’s Complex Docket determining that if they needed to file an early Summary Judgment Motion it would be adjudicated there. They then went about developing evidence to present to plaintiff’s counsel to support their request for a voluntary dismissal. They obtained OSHA’s investigative report, which identified certain design drawings and submitted a detailed affidavit from their client describing its scope of its work and detailing that it did not include the design drawings identified by the OSHA Investigator.

Their diligence was met with success when the plaintiff agreed to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit against their client.  Their actions extricated their client from a lengthy lawsuit at the outset of the litigation, thus saving both time and money.