Transcripts from shade sessions were key in a Florida jury returning a seven-figure award to an ex-police officer who sustained a severe injury in response to an emergency call involving a female who was being attacked by two men, one of whom was wielding a knife.

Michael Pike, Daniel Lustig and Talina Bidwell of Pike & Lustig in West Palm Beach represented the plaintiff, Joseph Viera, whom the defendant, the City of Lake Worth, declared catastrophically injured in 2001. Yet the City challenged various aspects of the plaintiff’s worker’s compensation claim and breached a settlement agreement, ultimately setting up a jury trial.