About Us » Case Studies
FELA
One week before his trial, the power company told our client that his electricity would be cut off at the end of the month. Having been out of work for more than two years, with his savings gone, our client had nowhere to turn except to the justice system. His neck injury had damaged his spinal cord so that walking, while possible, was difficult. His case looked like a tough one, he had not reported his injury at work, had not gone to the doctor for months, and his first doctors thought his problems were from some kind of poisoning or disease, not a work injury. As a result, more than a year went by before anyone connected the onset of our client’s injuries with his operation of a defective derail device. To make matters worse, the railroad made no pretrial offers and our client did not qualify for his pension. If we lost at trial, he would have lost everything. Fortunately, we not only prevailed at trial, but during the appellate process we convinced the railroad to contribute to our client’s Railroad Retirement account so that he qualified for his pension. While this required us to reduce the amount of the verdict, and our fee too, it added more than $850,000 in present value to our client’s recovery. It was the right thing to do to protect his family and get him the result he needed.
DEATH OF A PARENT
Our client’s fall from a 100 foot tall aerial lift left his children without a father, his wife without a husband, and his family without income. Our client’s aerial lift tipped over when a sudden storm blew in while our client was working on high tension lines. As always happens in this kind of work, our client and his crew were on tight deadlines and had been working from sun up to sun down for days on end. Thus, it was not surprising that he and his co-worker forgot to put out the stabilizing outriggers that would have prevented his rig from turning over. The manufacturer blamed the entire tragedy on our client’s bad judgment for failing to take the required safety step of extending the outriggers that would have widened the stance of the truck, and kept it from blowing over. We countered this by redesigning the truck so that the boom could not be extended unless the outriggers were first extended and weight bearing. No longer would men have to rely on their fatigued memories to protect themselves from avoidable danger. Our simple fix would have added less than $200.00 to the cost of the quarter million dollar truck and would have protected a family from tragedy and loss. Recognizing that a jury was likely to agree with us, the manufacturer settled and the family recovered a large cash payment, guaranteed income and college tuition for the children.
MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE
When our client suffered severe broken feet in an automobile accident, she had no idea that her leg fractures were the least of her problems. In fact, she had also suffered a subluxation in her cervical spine. This condition, had it been recognized and treated appropriately after the accident, would not have posed any problem to her. However, because the neck injury was not recognized by the physicians who were treating her, and her neck was not properly immobilized, her spinal cord was compromised and she became a quadriplegic.
Our client was a single mother, working in the local textile mill. She prided herself on her ability to care for her children and grandchild; she was proud that she owned the small, but neat home they lived in. After becoming paralyzed, however, her home became a prison. She was confined to essentially one room, as she could not get into her bathroom, or the kitchen in her wheelchair; and could only sit on the porch and stare as life passed by. She could no longer care for herself, much less her children. She needed 24-hour assistance, a modified home, and replacement of her income stream.
We filed suit against the doctors who failed to recognize and treat her neck injury. Ultimately, the case went to trial, and the doctors’ insurance company refused to make any offers, trusting that the jury – almost all of whom knew these doctors and many had even been treated by them, would not find against the local physicians. After a 2-week trial, and 3 days of deliberations, the jury came back with a verdict that will appropriately provide for our client’s future. She now has a new home, fully handicap accessible, with a lovely garden. She has the care she needs, while maintaining a level of independence. The system worked.
The verdict remains a record verdict for a medical malpractice case in the county. But that is not what we think of when we reflect on our role in the case. We are grateful for the trust our client placed in us; and our ability to take on the medical establishment and make a difference in this family’s life.
BIRTH INJURY
Lyle and Michael recently reached a substantial settlement on behalf of a 4-year-old boy who suffered catastrophic brain damage at birth, when his mother’s uterine rupture went undetected for a period of time because she was not being properly monitored by the obstetrical team. The case was extremely unusual, in that the firm represented the child, and not his parents. Both parents had their parental rights terminated, and our client was essentially a ward of the state. As a result of the settlement, however, the child is going to be able to leave the institution where he has been living since shortly after his birth, to be reunited with his family, including several siblings, in another state. The case involved complex legal and medical issues, and was hard-fought by the defense. Most notably, after settling with the hospital almost a year prior to trial, we were successful in preventing the obstetricians from blaming the nursing staff for their role in failing to recognize the changes in the mother that should have alerted the team to problems with the baby. The case settled on the eve of trial.