A row of delivery trucks sat quietly in a beverage company’s truck yard in Victorville, California. A sunny, peaceful Sunday afternoon, the lot was quiet following a rush of morning deliveries. But as mid-day turned to afternoon, one of the trucks began inching forward, moving slowly at first, then picking up speed. A few seconds later, sounds of destruction echoed through the yard: cracking wood and metal followed by a woman’s screams.  A 25-ton tractor, detached from its hitch, slammed headfirst into a security shed. Inside, the weekend security officer was launched from her chair, slamming into a large refrigerator behind her. A 60-year-old grandmother, the impact left her with chronic pain. The injuries cost her career, her quality of life, and her peace of mind. In an instant, a corporation’s negligence had unraveled her life as she knew it. 

Already suffering from neck and back pain, the accident plunged the guard into an endless cycle of chronic pain. A British émigré with a dry sense of humor, she had recently escaped an abusive marriage. She spent most of her time with her grandkids or caring for her disabled twin sister. Suddenly, a woman who spent her time caring for others found herself as the one being cared for. 

The security guard’s first attorney attempted to mediate, demanding $500,000. However, the beverage company refused to go higher than $300,000. They were sending a clear message: she didn’t have a case. That’s when Minh Nguyen got involved. The principal lawyer at boutique Long Beach firm Nguyen Lawyers, Minh had handled complex personal injury cases for years. Still, this one seemed special. Minh met the injured woman at her apartment and found her smart and funny. He liked her, and he believed her. As they discussed her pain and suffering, Minh’s eyes began to light on the half-finished Costco-sized handle of vodka stashed in her kitchen. Unable to afford prescriptions, she was self-medicating with one of the few pain management tools available to her: alcohol. Minh could see she was truly hurting. She needed help, and the cost of her injuries far exceeded even the initial demand. 

But to prove liability, Minh knew he had to answer a lot of questions. First: what caused the truck to start moving? At the time, the incident was seemingly inexplicable. Just before 2 pm — nearly 10 hours after the morning rush — the parked delivery truck had slowly began rolling forward, traveling 40 feet before crashing into the security pod. The only witness, the Plaintiff, had no idea what triggered it to start moving. Minh began pulling records and deposing witnesses, determined to shed light on the truth. A breakthrough came in an early deposition when a driver said he’d noticed the truck’s air brakes hadn’t been engaged the morning of the crash. Nguyen subpoenaed work records and found the driver of the truck was sick that day and not paying attention. Indeed, medical records showed he left work early that day, heading straight to his doctor’s office from the lot. He had discovered how the trailer tractor was able to move forward, regardless of what had caused it to begin moving. 

Unmoved, the Defense had an alternate explanation: the Plaintiff had staged the entire thing. In the beverage company’s telling, the security guard herself — an overweight senior with chronic neck and back pain — had disengaged the truck’s air brakes, nudged the cab forward, run back into the pod, and sat back at her desk before the vehicle crashed. However, the Defense had a witness to back up their accusation: an old coworker came forward to testify that the Plaintiff had once joked that she wanted to stage a work accident so she could collect a payout and retire.  

It was a clear example of his client’s dry sense of humor, Minh thought. Like much of this case, the Defense’s theories crumbled under the confluence of detail. A flu-ridden driver making a simple oversight, combined with a little inertia, seemed much more plausible than the Plaintiff outrunning a rolling truck. He enlisted the help of liability expert Brad Avrit, who conducted extensive 3D scans of the parking lot. Data showed it sat at a 3.7-degree slope, bolstering Minh’s theory. Still, the case boiled down to he-said-she-said. The only way a jury could believe Minh’s version of events was if they saw it for themselves. To solve this challenge, Minh partnered with DK Global early on during litigation strategy. Ultimately, DK Global produced a 5-minute animated reconstruction of the accident, with the context necessary to grasp its full repercussions.

DK Global’s presentation began with an aerial view of the truck yard. The view traveled inside the cab of the parked truck, where the video showed the difference between engaged and disengaged air brakes. Next the animation showed the impact of the collision inside the pod. The Plaintiff was sitting at her desk when her body suddenly flew backwards, slamming into the metal refrigerator. Next, the presentation showed the impact from the outside, depicting the truck rolling down the 3.7-degree slope in real time. The animation detailed the Plaintiff’s injuries, anatomically illustrating how the accident had exacerbated existing medical issues — arthritic shoulders, spondylosis and degeneration in her cervical spine, and bulging discs. The video concluded by explaining that the company’s failure to protect the pod with bollards or other security measures, despite the foreseeable risk of a rogue truck, was a clear act of negligence.

Minh Introduced the animation to the Defense as they prepared for trial, altering the trajectory of the case. Shortly after viewing the video, the Defense came forward with serious settlement offers. For years, the beverage company had argued that a $500,000 settlement was excessive. But following the introduction of the DK Global animation, the Defense swiftly agreed to settle with the Plaintiff for more than ten times that — resolving the lawsuit for $6,000,000. The funds were enough to ensure quality medical care and closure from a traumatic workplace injury.

Minh Nguyen is the principal lawyer and founder of Nguyen Lawyers, a litigation firm based in Long Beach, California, that focuses on complex personal injury cases. Minh has been working as an attorney for 23 years, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Consumer Attorney Association of Los Angeles (CAALA), a professional organization comprising over 3,000 lawyers. In 2023, he was appointed the first Asian-American president of CAALA.