Mazie Slater’s Top Drunk Driving Lawyers Help Win a $2M Settlement for Cousins Injured by a Drunk Driver

In a settlement finalized May 2, two cousins who ere permanently injured when their vehicle was struck from behind by a drunken driver recovered a total of $2.05 million in their Middlesex County suit, from the driver and the bar where he was drinking in the hours leading up to the accident.

Shortly after midnight on Dec. 29 2013 Sora Newman an Shulamis Gorelick were rear-seat passengers in a vehicle driven by their grandmother on U.S. Route 9 south in Old Bridge, according to attorneys involved in the case.

Another motorist, Farhad Qamar-Yousufzai approached at a higher rate of speed from behind and hit the plaintiffs’ vehicle, which was set off the road and struck a pole, said Newman’s lawyer, Adam Epstein one of the top drunk driving attorneys at Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman in Roseland, New Jersey.

The suit, Newman v. Qamar-Yousufzai claimed Tamar-Yousufzai of Manalapan, currently 37, had a blood-alcohol level of roughly 3 times the legal limit of .08 percent. Qamar-Tousufzai was criminally prosecuted in connection with the crash and is services a prison term.

Newman lost vision in her left eye and sustained a traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures to her face and orbital bone, which required surgeries and implantation of hardware, Epstein said.

Forelick, too, sustain a traumatic brain injury, he said.

The plaintiffs are currently 20 years old.

Shortly before the crash, the suit claimed, Qamar-Yousufzai has left the Ale House Tavern & Tap on New Jersey Route 35 south in Sayerville, where he had been drinking alcohol for two to three hours. The plaintiffs alleged the bar, owned by Pub 35 LLC, served Qamar-Yousufzai alcohol while he was visibly intoxicated.

Qamar-Tousufzai’s auto carrier, Liberty Mutual, agreed to pay the full $50,000 policy, which capped recovery at $25,000 per claimant, meaning Newman and Gorelick each received $25,000.

Pub 35 agreed to pay the entirety of its $2 million in coverage – a $1 million policy with Starr Surplus Lines Insurance Co. and a $1 million policy with Merchant’s Mutual Insurance Co., Epstein said.

Attorneys declined to disclose how much of the $2.05 million each plaintiff recovered.

The parties went through discovery and were scheduled to go to trail this year, Epstein said.

Qamar-Yousufzai’s attorney John Fearns of Lamb Kretzer in Secaucus, confirmed the facts of the case and his client’s share of the settlement.

Forelick’s attorney Abraham Milgraum of the Donneley Law Firm in Summit, declined to comment.

Terrence M. Kind of Lavallette, for Pub 35, didn’t return a call about the case.

–By David Gialanella