It was Tammara McMahon-Schriefer’s livelihood as both an accountant and gardener that swayed the defense to give her $225,000 from a two-car accident in which she needed two surgeries on her left wrist, her lawyer said.

Plaintiffs counsel and Cheshire-based solo practitioner Frank Bartlett Jr. stressed the fact that McMahon-Schriefer used that wrist for her accounting job and her gardening. The accident, he said, diminished her income.