Congestion snarled an Iowa roadway on a hot summer day. While most of the cars drove responsibly, one impatient driver whipped a U-turn across a turn lane without first checking to see if it was clear. A hapless motorcyclist that had been waiting to turn left was caught in its reckless path. The vehicle broadsided the motorcycle, splattering him across the pavement. The rider’s right ankle, tibia, and fibula were mauled. The force popped the fractured tibia out through the man’s skin and mangled his ankle into a nearly severed ball of flesh and bone. At the hospital, surgeons were unable to salvage the lower leg and ultimately amputated it.
The injured motorcyclist had been riding for decades. He was in his mid-fifties and was known to be an active man constantly on the go. Before the crash, he would come home from his physically strenuous job and head out to his shed to work on projects or maintain his property. He and his wife would take long walks together, and he would frequently go on hunting and camping trips. Sadly, after the collision, he was forced to surrender his active lifestyle. The man could no longer go on strolls with his wife, take care of his house, or easily navigate his house in the countryside. For the rest of his life, he would require accommodations to get around his home and workplace.
Three days after the crash, the motorcyclist reached out to Pete Leehey, the founder of The Biker Lawyers, for help. Pete’s law firm focused on serving the motorcycling community in Iowa and Minnesota. From the start, Pete knew that insurance adjusters would attempt to limit the case's value based on the amount of the medical bills. But those expenses alone failed to account for all the adjustments the victim was forced to undertake to adapt to his amputated leg. Pete set out to ensure that not only would the victim’s medical needs be met, but also to restore a sense of normalcy to the motorcyclist’s life.
Pete’s first obstacle was finding witnesses. The investigating officer scribbled a name down in his report that even the officer couldn’t later decipher. Pete relentlessly rang the number noted beside the illegible name but no one answered. After a dozen calls, a man finally picked up and agreed to talk about what he saw. Pete met the witness at the scene of the accident, and in the process, he discovered a second bystander: a man from an adjacent business. Overnight, through his persistence, Pete had two solid eyewitnesses who had seen different aspects of the crash.
The Defense lawyer agreed that the Defendant would admit to liability (though he did not do so immediately). However, Pete encountered an unusual problem: the Defendant was profusely apologetic and contrite for having caused the crash. In fact, the Defendant started crying from remorse at the start of his deposition. Pete worried that if the case went to trial, a jury might sympathize with the Defendant, so he shifted his case strategy. Pete knew he needed to balance using a soft hand against the Defendant while illustrating his client’s horrific injuries. His sole focus became showcasing the victim’s needs.
Pete brought on the surgeon who performed the amputation and a lifecare planner who analyzed the Plaintiff’s medical records. A prosthetist helped elucidate the victim’s ongoing needs. Pete also wanted to keep a jury focused on the victim’s life-changing injuries. Thus, he hired DK Global to create medical illustrations that communicated his client’s story and the severity of the damages. 3D exhibits helped strike the balance Pete sought: convey the horror without grossing out a jury. Medical records alone were too antiseptic to bring the injuries to life while photos would have turned jurors’ stomachs. DK Global consulted with the surgeon and used the x-rays and medical records to create a realistic and accurate exhibit of the injuries.
The medical illustrations gave several different views of the double open comminuted fractures of the tibia and fibula, along with the ankle destruction. The first exhibit depicted the full leg with the open tibia fracture, knee laceration, and near-complete traumatic amputation of the ankle. The next three slides recreated the radiology imaging into 3D illustrations of the tibia, fibula, and ankle fractures. The slides demonstrated the fractures in various views alongside screen captures of the CT scan and x-rays. The final slide recreated the veins and arteries from the CT scan to show where the occlusion of the tibial artery occurred.
Initially, the Defense provided zero settlement offers. It wasn’t until Pete sent them the DK Global illustrations and the reports of the lifecare planner and prosthetists that the Defense sought to mediate the case. With that, the Defense finally made good on their promise to admit liability. Pete refused to mediate the case until the Defense put forward an initial, though disappointing, offer. At mediation, the Defense attempted to pigeonhole the case alongside other lower-leg amputation cases. But Pete knew the illustrations would bring his client’s story to life before a jury, and he held the line on the case’s fair value. Eventually, the Defense came around, and Pete secured a confidential but very strong result at mediation. In the end, he was pleased to have gotten the insurance company out of its comfort zone and to be able to bring a life-changing amount to his client.
An avid biker, Pete Leehey is the founder of The Biker Lawyers. For over 40 years, he has helped people injured in motorcycle and auto crashes. He was awarded the AV Preeminent rating, the highest possible rating for legal ability and ethics from the Martindale-Hubbell. He has also been named a Top 100 Trial Lawyer (Iowa) by the American Trial Lawyers Association. He is a member of ABATE of Iowa (District 5) and Minnesota (Flatlanders). Pete serves as legal counsel for the Iowa Confederations of Motorcycle Clubs. He is licensed to practice law in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
