Law firm notches $4M award over motorcycle crash

SARASOTA — A Bradenton law firm won a $4 million judgment for a client, a motorcyclist who suffered debilitating injuries in a 2012 crash.

The firm, Gallagher & Hagopian, says the judgment, based on a settlement agreement, awards Sarasota resident David Jones $3,992,500. Attorneys with the firm, formerly Czaia & Gallagher, say the award is one of the largest motorcycle accident judgments handed down by a Sarasota court.

The case, according to a release, involves an accident from November 2012. A father of four who operates a motorcycle repair shop, Jones was hit while driving his motorcycle on Gantt Road and Honoree Avenue in Sarasota. Jones' attorneys alleged that the driver of the car who hit Jones, Carl Ozug Jr., made an illegal left turn in front of Jones' motorcycle. Ozug, a cabinetmaker, was lost while he drove a 14-foot U-Haul box truck he had rented that day, states the release from Gallagher & Hagopian.

After the crash Jones was airlifted to Blake Memorial Hospital in Bradenton, where he underwent several surgeries, according to the release. Attorneys with Gallagher & Hagopian say Jones faces $400,000 in current medical bills and at least $500,000 more in projected future medical bills.

Attorneys for Jones and attorneys for the defendants, Ozug, U-Haul and its insurance company, were set to go trial this week, says Kevin Gallagher with Gallagher & Hagopian. But the sides worked out the agreement last week.