“Five for Five”: Newark Trial Team Achieves Another Favorable Result in Fifth 2025 Case to Proceed to Jury Selection

Newark, N.J. (May 7, 2025) - The Newark Trial Team of Partners Afsha Noran and Colin Hackett recently picked its fifth jury of 2025, and once again achieved a favorable result for the client. 

In each of the five cases, the plaintiffs’ demand was seven figures the day jury selection began. And in each of the five cases the result was either a “no cause," mid-trial settlement or jury verdict for a fraction of the demand the day jury selection began. 

In this latest matter, following rulings on in limine motions by both sides, jury selection and the plaintiffs being advised that “there would be no further offers," the plaintiffs accepted an offer of 25 percent of their demand.  The facts of Ms. Noran and Mr. Hackett’s latest trial involved the fall and subsequent death due to complications following knee surgery of the decedent male IT worker.  The decedent fell in February 2021 and died in mid-March 2021 from a pulmonary embolism. The pulmonary embolism followed an early March 2021 surgical repair to the decedent’s right quadricep tendon, which was torn as result of the February 2021 fall. The parties that brought suit were the decedent’s estate, spouse and  minor daughter.  At the time of his fall, the decedent was an employee assigned by his vendor IT employer to the firm client at one of its multiple New Jersey properties. The area in which the plaintiff tripped and fell was under the care, custody and control of the decedent’s employer at the time of the incident.  The firm client, however, owned the property, and accordingly, under New Jersey law, it had a non-delegable duty of care concerning the properties’ overall safety. 

Twelve witnesses were scheduled to be called during the course of the estimated eight-day trial. The Lewis Brisbois trial team was prepared to put forth several defenses, including the comparative fault of the decedent for the fall, the culpability of the decedent’s employer, and the superseding unforeseeable intervening cause of the decedent’s death.

Commenting on the favorable settlement achieved, Ms. Noran stated, “What our clients benefit from is our trial team’s trial experience, including counseling clients that often the best settlement figure is achieved by beginning a trial. It may not be comfortable or ideal, but the savings achieved by being able to do this can be quite large, even a million or more dollars in some cases. That is the benefit that this trial team and Lewis Brisbois’ other trial attorneys deliver to clients.”  Commenting on the most recent matter, Mr. Hackett stated, “It’s not brinkmanship, its simply the experience that our trial team and Lewis Brisbois National Trial Practice has obtained from innumerable trials and through which we have gained intimate familiarity with adversaries, judges and ‘how things are likely to play out’… it's simply unmatched I believe. But I am biased.”

For more information on this case, contact the attorneys involved. Visit our National Trial Practice page for more information on our trial capabilities.