A woman stopped in her Subaru Impreza at a four-way intersection in West Los Angeles controlled by a traffic signal. While her light was still red, she drove into the junction and collided with the driver’s side of Mr. Alsina’s Nissan Juke. Police arrived and recorded their statements. The woman insisted she had a green light and blamed Mr. Alsina for the crash. After the incident, Mr. Alsina declined an ambulance and refused to see a doctor for two weeks until numbness and radiating pain developed in his lower back. Just before trial, Justin Effres of Effres & Effres attained a $1.5 million settlement for Mr. Alsina by reinforcing his final demand package with a reconstruction and surgical animation.
MRIs of Mr. Alsina’s back showed a dislocated and herniated disc in his lumbar spine, causing anterolisthesis. Doctors performed a series of spinal epidural injections to manage his pain and avoid invasive surgery. Unfortunately, the injections worked temporarily, and Mr. Alsina eventually underwent a spinal fusion and hemilaminotomy procedure to decompress the pinched nerves in his spine.
Justin Effres was referred to help Mr. Alsina attain compensation for his injuries and prove he did nothing wrong. Justin sent a demand for the carrier’s $500,000 policy limit before filing suit. However, the Defense countered with a low $7,000 offer. Next, Justin filed the lawsuit and sent in a 998 offer to settle the case for a reasonable $100,000, but the carrier refused again, forcing him to prepare for trial.
The woman and her carrier denied any responsibility for the accident and refused to meet Justin’s demand. They asserted that they had several witnesses who would testify Mr. Alsina ran the red light. However, Justin deposed their witnesses and discovered no one saw the incident entirely. Then, he tracked down an independent third-party bystander and attained a signed affidavit stating that the Defendant ran the red light.
As Justin prepared for trial, he retained an accident reconstructionist to download the data from both vehicles’ black boxes. The woman’s black box showed she stopped at the intersection and accelerated just before the crash, contradicting her claim completely. Then, Justin brought on Mr. Alsina’s physician to help testify. Finally, Justin enlisted DK Global to consolidate the totality of evidence and testimony into a persuasive presentation. Both experts worked closely with DK Global to recreate the crash and Mr. Alsina’s surgery.
The animation commenced with a satellite view of the intersection and showed the Defendant and the third-party witness waiting at the red light. Then, driver inputs taken from the Defendant’s black box were used in the animation to illustrate her crashing into Alsina’s SUV. The collision replayed from the interior of Alsina’s vehicle as it was broadsided, highlighting how his spine was injured. Finally, with the retained physician’s direction, Alsina’s hemilaminotomy was animated to show the great lengths he went to recover.
Mr. Alsina’s trial was postponed due to the 2020 pandemic. Therefore, Justin amended his demand to $1,500,000, reinforced with the animations. Justin asserted the policy was open and that if the case was tried, a jury would see the animations and award a higher verdict. The Defense agreed and settled the case for the requested $1,500,000 before the demand expired.
Partner Justin Effres of Effres & Effres is a “Rising Star” trial lawyer in Southern California. In addition, he was recognized by The National Trial Lawyers as one of the “Top 40 Under 40 Civil Plaintiff Lawyers” for his role in securing numerous multi-million-dollar settlements. Justin prides himself in attaining justice for his clients whose lives have been affected by catastrophic injuries.
