An inattentive driver rear-ended a 32-year-old woman and inflicted her with a minor traumatic brain injury. She could not work or return to her job as a graphic designer. Tragically, she was involved in a second collision a year later – one more severe than the last – when another driver failed to yield the right-of-way and turned in front of her. The woman was trapped inside her vehicle, suffering multiple fractures. While her broken bones eventually healed, the woman’s brain injury from the first crash was aggravated. William Wells of King, Kitrick, Jackson, McWeeny & Wells, LLC secured the woman a combined $1,140,000 in settlements using an animation describing the mechanism of her brain injuries and the resulting cognitive deficits.
William met with the woman and coordinated her evaluation at one of the nation’s most renowned brain injury rehabilitation institutions. Neuroradiologists found only minor evidence of a traumatic brain injury despite her ongoing and debilitating symptoms. Consequently, William anticipated difficulty proving his client’s damages without objective proof if the case went to trial.
William filed a complaint against the drivers and their insurance carriers, receiving settlement offers amounting to $40,000. He revealed the Defendant in the first crash was covered by her insurance and her employer’s $2,000,000 policy. The second driver only had minimum liability coverage. Fortunately, William’s client was covered by an underinsured motorist policy after her first crash, increasing her case’s available recovery.
Preparing for mediation, William retained the woman’s treating doctor to help explain her condition. Then, he collaborated with DK Global to bring his expert’s testimony to life and overcome the obstacle of communicating the extent of her damages. They determined that while medical scans weren’t able to find objective evidence of a brain injury, both crashes caused coup-contrecoup injuries and axonal shearing. They created a litigation visual explaining the woman’s mechanism of injury and a molecular look at its effects.
The animation commenced with the woman’s likeness modeled in 3D before focusing on the cerebrospinal fluid in her skull that protects her brain from impact. Then, her brain’s neurons were shown, identifying the cell body, the axons, and the dendrites in charge of synaptic transmission. The woman’s head propelled forward to explain the mechanism of her coup-contrecoup injury – where both ends of the brain are damaged after an impact. Finally, the woman’s diffuse axonal shearing injuries were recreated – the collisions’ rotational forces stretched and sheared her brain’s nerve cells, causing cognition problems.
With the animation in hand, William contacted the first Defendant’s carrier and received the $100,000 policy limit. Then, William shared the presentation with the employer’s insurance attorneys during mediation and obtained a $750,000 settlement. Finally, the second collision was settled for $290,000 before filing suit, amounting to a combined $1,140,000.
Partner William Wells of King, Kitrick, Jackson, McWeeny & Wells, LLC is an attorney with seven years of experience representing the survivors of catastrophic injuries. Will obtained his first million-dollar settlement for his client at age 30, earning him a spot on the prestigious Million Dollar Advocates Forum. As a trailblazing attorney in Manasquan, New Jersey, he has also been listed among The National Trial Lawyers: Top 40 Under 40.
