On a Pennsylvania highway, a trucker’s attention diverted from the road. He bent down to retrieve a fallen headset. Up ahead, traffic came to a crawl as the lanes bottlenecked for a construction zone. The truck driver’s brief distraction caused his 18-wheeler to collide with the rear of a Ford passenger van. Inside the van, six exchange students from India were on a coast-to-coast road trip, exploring the United States on their way to a friend’s wedding. One of the students, Karteek Koganti, was pursuing his master's degree in computer engineering. When the truck made impact, the force launched the van 30 feet forward, sideswiping a Mercedes and into the path of a U-Haul truck.
While most of the students escaped the crash with minor injuries, Karteek wasn’t so lucky. He was rushed to Geisinger Medical Center in critical condition; his legs were unresponsive. He was rendered an incomplete paraplegic.
Uninsured, alone, and uncertain if he would ever walk again, Karteek found himself in a foreign hospital with no one by his side. Karteek needed help. On the other side of the country, Ted B. Wacker founded TBW Law learned about Karteek’s critical condition from a colleague. Ted dropped everything and took the first flight out. He met Karteek at the hospital and assured him he would help however he could.
Ted brought in Puneet Toor of Toor Law Firm to represent the other five victims, allowing him to focus on Karteek. From the start, there were numerous obstacles. As an international student, Karteek had no insurance. Ted, his firm, and Karteek’s family in India raised over $100,000 to transfer him to a rehab center in Ohio.
From the police report, Ted discovered that the truck driver, Vasili Ursati, admitted fault and was transporting PODS moving containers. PODS had outsourced the transportation job to IBY Trucking, Vasili's employer. The report also revealed that Vasili lived in Riverside, California. Ted's firm is also based in California. Thus, he made the strategic move to file locally, in Riverside, against Vasili, IBY Trucking, and PODS on behalf of his client.
With Vasili admitting liability, the case against him and his employer, IBY Trucking, was strong. However, PODS argued that their role did not extend to direct oversight of the driver, positioning themselves as merely shippers of goods and attempting to eschew responsibility for the tragic accident.
PODS's Defense team filed motions for summary judgment before the trial in 2021, seeking to extricate themselves from the case by asserting that there was no legal basis to hold them accountable. They aimed to dismiss the charges against them without needing a trial, and initially, it worked. However, after two years of appeals, Ted and his firm successfully overturned the MSJ ruling and sent PODS back to the courts.
With the MSJ successfully overturned, Ted encountered another issue. When Karteek’s injuries stabilized, he was transported back to his home country to be with his family. Ted needed him back in the United States for court, but his visa was denied. A third-party company specializing in visas was hired to help Karteek, but they were also denied. Even an order from the judge presiding over the case resulted in a denied visa.
How do you represent a foreign client outside the United States?
Even with the trial date approaching, Ted Wacker and his team refused to give up. They enlisted the aid of a neurosurgeon, a long-term care specialist, a nurse life care planner, a vocational rehabilitation expert, and an economist to assess the damages Karteek sustained. However, these specialists were all located in the United States. With no way for his experts to physically examine the Plaintiff, Ted hired an orthopedic surgeon in India who performed the necessary physical exams under the direction of the specialists.
A persistent challenge was effectively conveying the intricate details of the case and the severity of Karteek’s injuries to a potential jury. Over six years had passed since the incident, and Karteek could walk with a cane. In addition, the Plaintiff had only undergone one surgery — which took place in India — a procedure to lengthen his hamstring tendons with a series of lacerations to relieve pain. While an animation of the accident would help the jury understand the severity of the impact, Ted wanted something to solidify the jury's understanding and make them wince at a small glimpse of his client's recovery process. To achieve this, he contacted DK global for three animations, translating the complex medical and legal information into a visual format that would resonate powerfully with the jury.
The first animation reconstructed the crash. It began with a bird's eye view of the incident location in Pennsylvania, showing the Defendant's vehicle rapidly approaching halted traffic and the driver reaching down to retrieve his fallen headset. The initial collision was depicted from the front of the vehicles, followed by a replay that provided a step-by-step breakdown of how the accident unfolded and the resulting damage from multiple angles. A side-by-side comparison of the animation and the dash camera footage was also included. The second animation highlighted the fractional lengthening of the left hamstring, detailing the invasive surgery with multiple incisions made on Karteek’s tendons to stretch them and relieve pain. A third animation showcased the severe damage Karteek sustained from the initial impact, using radiology imagery to highlight his scoliosis, damaged muscle, collapsed lung, and critical injuries to his L5-L6 vertebrae.
Mere months before trial, Ted engaged in mediation with the Defense. The DK Global animations, along with his expert reports, were presented privately to the Defense, with the mediator noting the animation's significant impact. Despite initially opposing settlement offers, the mediator suggested meeting in the middle. After two weeks of deliberation, the Defense agreed to the terms, resulting in a $15,230,000 settlement for Karteek Koganti. The other five Plaintiffs received $760,000, bringing the total resolution to $15,990,000.
Ted B. Wacker founded TBW Law and has been a trial attorney for over 30 years. Specializing in catastrophic injury cases, including personal injury, medical malpractice, elder abuse, and mass tort pharmaceutical and medical device cases, Ted is a past President of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association (OCTLA) and has been named a California Super Lawyer for the past decade. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and recognized as a top trial attorney by the National Trial Lawyers.
