A truck driver flouted traffic laws when he blew through a red light at an intersection. Unaware of the danger careening towards her, a young woman named Kim responded to her green light and began making a left turn. Until that moment, Kim’s life had been full of adventure and travel: she loved skiing, scuba diving, and had even rock climbed the dangerous Mount Olomana in Hawaii. The truck driver smashed into her car, crumpling it and scattering glass across the hot asphalt. Inside, the victim found herself slammed against the interior of her own car, her shoulder acting like a battering ram. A lightning bolt of pain streaked down her shoulder blade, and a fracture as long as a butter knife splintered her scapula.
To a casual observer, the victim appeared to emerge from the accident with minimal damage. Her broken scapula healed without the need for surgery, and her hospital bills totaled less than $40,000. However, the bone-deep pain from the massive fracture lingered. She had moved her coffee cups lower in the cupboard, and she needed showers to warm up her stiff shoulder at the start of the day. Prior to the accident, physical challenge had been like therapy for her, allowing her to feel free and alive while savoring the zest of life. But after the collision, the chronic shoulder pain stole away her ability to rock climb and haul heavy scuba diving gear, forcing her to give up those moments of joy. She was only in her 30s, but the pain would follow her forever.
Over time, however, her hopes of a full recovery faded as she realized her injuries were more severe and persistent than what she had initially expected. The Plaintiff’s lawyers hit a dead end with the insurance company, whose highest offer had been $50,000. Consequently, they escalated the case to Brian Kim, a partner and trial lawyer at SHK Law. Brian knew he needed to dig deeper into the nature of her scapula injury to discover its full, lifelong ramifications. First, he performed in-depth research about the medical and anatomical particulars of the scapula bone. He also got to know his client and learned all the ways the fracture had changed her daily life and future ambitions.
Early on, Brian served the Defense with a CCP-998 Offer to Compromise, but the Defense allowed it to expire. He had sought $399,999 but the Defense’s best offer was only $180,000. At that point, there was no going back: Brian was taking the case to trial. However, his primary obstacles were that the victim never required surgery, her doctors confirmed that the fracture had healed, and she was not living with constant crippling pain. His research also showed that shoulder injury cases tended to only go for $250,000 when surgery was involved. In addition, the insurance company adamantly claimed it was a small injury that was not worth much. However, when Brian assessed how the fracture would affect Kim for the rest of her life, he decided he would bring it before a jury.
Brian retained a single expert for the case: a shoulder and extremity specialist. However, he still needed to communicate the severity of Kim’s injury and lasting pain to a jury. To bring more clarity to the x-rays and MRIs, Brian brought on DK Global to create a reconstruction of the scapula fracture. The 3D animation demonstrated the true severity of the wound: this was not a simple hairline fracture. It was a deep crack within a major bone, which halved Kim’s scapula from top to bottom. Even Brian was shocked to see the extent of the fracture site, which hadn’t been fully appreciated from the imaging and medical reports alone.
The DK Global animation began by morphing the radiology imaging into an exact 3D representation of Kim’s bone, muscles, and fracture. Then, the visual showcased the Plaintiff’s skeleton and the massive fissure (highlighted in bright red) that splintered her scapula from top to bottom. Kim’s scapula was then isolated and the individual fracture segments were pulled apart for better visualization. Three radiology screenshots with the fractures highlighted in red were set against the 3D model, which was rotated to correlate with the anterior, posterior, and transverse views. The animation concluded by demonstrating the placement of the scapula within the skeletal system.
No settlements or negotiations prefaced the jury trial. Brian and his law partner, Maureen Hennessey, brought forth the shoulder specialist, the medical imaging and reports, and the DK Global animation. Over the course of two weeks, they argued that Kim’s injury was far from minor; it was a life-changing trauma that would impact the Plaintiff for the rest of her life. The jury verdict came in at just shy of $700,000, and once pre-judgment interest and trial costs were included, the total judgment came out to around $835,000. For the Plaintiff, the verdict not only captured the pain of her injuries today but also its unrelenting presence for decades to come.
As a partner and trial lawyer at Savin Hennessey & Kim, Brian Kim has helped recover more than $200 million in jury verdicts and settlements for personal injury cases. Since 2018, Los Angeles Magazine has recognized Brian as a Southern California “Rising Star,” an honor reserved for lawyers under the age of 40 who exhibit excellence in practice. Only 2.5% of attorneys in Southern California have received this distinction. In 2023, Brian was nominated for Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA). He gained public attention in 2022 after obtaining an $18.79 million jury verdict in one of the largest-ever slip-and-fall jury verdicts in the country for a lumbar-spine injury that did not result in paraplegia. He has lectured frequently at law seminars and law schools, and contributed to Jesse Wilson’s Witness Preparation: How to Tell the Winning Story by Trial Guides.
