Sometimes attorneys' efforts go well beyond the courtroom.

That's what happened when counsel for shooting victim and quadriplegic Peru native Hernando Pezo went the extra mile—actually, 3,700 miles to South America—to protect their client's interests. To ensure his medical needs were met, lawyers made an overseas visit, and negotiated a $2.5 million workers' compensation settlement with their client's insurance carrier.

It's unusual for Connecticut attorneys to travel internationally for a workers' compensation claim, but Middletown-based Vargas Chapman Woods plaintiffs counsel Meghan Woods and Amado Vargas did just that during a five-day December trip to Lima.

Their 56-year-old client had been shot in the neck during his first day on the job as a delivery driver for New Haven's USA 1 Pizza.

"If he does not get the medical care he needs, he will die," Woods said.

Pezo's case settled Dec. 30, and he received the $2.5 million lump-sum payment Tuesday. He is set to move to Peru Monday to live with his son and his son's girlfriend.

Woods and Vargas didn't have to make the trip to adequately represent him in the U.S., but they did so anyway, meeting with Peruvian housing officials, doctors, nurses, lawyers, bankers and financial managers to secure Pezo's interests.

"Because of his medical condition and the level of care he needed, we needed to ensure that once he transitioned down there, he was going to have a comparable level of care to that in the United States," Woods said.

The attorneys took meetings with banking and trust account company representatives in Peru to determine the best way for Pezo's settlement money, which will be diversified, to be put to use. They met with four medical providers, including a rehabilitation physician and a home health care agency representative. And they went to the condominium where Pezo will be living with his son. That home is next door to the medical facility that will be overseeing Pezo's care.

"We did not have to do this, but for peace of mind, we wanted to make sure he was adequately protected," Woods said. "I don't think I would have felt good about myself if I did not go to Peru and check everything out for myself. He will be in good hands there. There will be some very good medical providers caring for him."

One obstacle, Woods said, in working with The Hartford Financial Services Co., the insurer for the pizza restaurant, was that the shooter was never located.

"Their argument was that it was not known if the shooting [had] a personal motive … or a random shooting or an attempted robbery," Woods said.

While the case was settled before it was mediated, Woods said she believes the plaintiff would have prevailed because of the neighborhood where the shooting took place.

"The owner of the pizza place testified he had drivers in the past that were robbed in that area," Woods said, "Shootings in the Ferry Street area were always on the news."

Representing the eatery and the insurance carrier was Jason Indomenico of The Law Offices of David Mathis in Hartford. Indomenico did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

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