This South Florida Lawyer Fought the US Government and Won

A Coral Gables attorney went up against the U.S. government this month in hopes of securing a win for his client severely injured in a Palm Beach County crash with a Department of Homeland Security agent on his way to the airport.

Jorge P. Gutierrez Jr. of The Gutierrez Law Firm. Courtesy photo

And the lawyer won—landing a $3 million judgment in federal court.

Trial lawyer Jorge P. Gutierrez Jr. of The Gutierrez Firm brought the Federal Tort Claims Act case against the government over a Homeland Security agent in a government vehicle allegedly speeding in a Jensen Beach neighborhood. The agent allegedly catastrophically injured Gutierrez’s client, who was jogging at the time.

The defense alleged the jogger was at fault for crossing midstreet.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra heard the case of Michael F. Gordon v. United States in West Palm Beach federal court. Gordon’s wife Anita was also listed as a plaintiff.

Read the Judgment Here

Odds Stacked Against Him

Because the United States was the defendant, a bench trial was ordered before a federal judge, who is a paid employee of the defendant.

Difficult circumstances, to say the least, said Gutierrez, who faced other obstacles.

“My client didn’t remember the accident, so I had to use physical evidence to try to establish what happened,” Gutierrez said. “I think that was the biggest challenge and the fact that you don’t have an insurance company. They never made any reasonable offer to make this thing go away, so I decided to go ahead and just try it like I do all my cases, [even though] I had the resources of the United States government against me.”

U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra. Photo: J. Albert Diaz/ALM

Gutierrez said opposing counsel consisted of two U.S. attorneys, Monica L. Haddad and Mary Ricke, who brought eight defense experts to testify.

Neither Haddad nor Ricke returned emails for comment.

“There never was a report, nobody ever took any measurements of the skid marks, because everybody knew that if you would have done that … it was not very favorable to Homeland Security,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez argued that law enforcement officials “had already determined fault” before interviewing his client at the hospital.

“So we hired an accident reconstruction expert, and he was able to verify the skid marks and what had happened,” Gutierrez said. “I think that was the big thing, because at the end of the day, even the defendant’s experts couldn’t really challenge the fact that their defendant was speeding. And even though that was the case, they still fought liability, tooth and nail.”

Read the Plaintiff’s Engineer’s Accident Reconstruction Report

‘He Broke Every Bone in His Face’

Gutierrez’s clients, the Gordons, eventually netted $1.6 million in the lawsuit after paying bills and other debts assigned to the case.

“My client had a [traumatic brain injury]. He broke every bone in his face. The oral maxillofacial surgeon had to put him back together like Humpty Dumpty. It was horrendous. He’s still getting treatment to this day,” Gutierrez said.

Court documents showed that the judge assigned 30% liability to his client and 70% to the Homeland Security agent.

Gutierrez hopes the government does not appeal the case. The defendant has 60 days to challenge the ruling, unlike in other civil court cases, which set a 30-day appeal notice deadline.

“I don’t know how an appellate court can second-guess a federal district judge who heard evidence for two weeks, and have this case for several years and second-guess his decision,” Gutierrez said. ”The only thing we can do as lawyers is seek justice for clients, even if the person at fault is the government or an employee of the government. I respect police officers and I have friends that are police officers, but when somebody does something wrong, they have to be held accountable. … This gentleman’s life changed completely as a result of a Homeland Security officer speeding on his way to the airport for a business trip.”