A barge under repair at a Louisiana shipyard required inspection following damage from Hurricane Ida. The oil field construction firm that oversaw the flatboat sent a young project manager to conduct the routine examination. To access the barge, he needed to use a special shipyard-commissioned gangway device. As he crossed the gangway and made his way down the stairs to the barge, the device suddenly gave way underneath him. The man fell approximately 16 feet onto the solid concrete below. He met the unforgiving surface on the left side of his body, fracturing several bones and hitting his head so hard that he suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Outside of his project manager duties, the injured man was a husband, a beloved father to four young children, and a hunting buddy. After the fall, he remained stoic in the face of his physical aches and pains. However, he silently suffered from a punctured lung, broken ribs, and collarbone injuries. He gritted through the pain to continue his familial commitments. Still, while his bone and soft tissue traumas eventually healed, his demeanor remained somewhat off. He would forget leaving the stove on and lose his direction on a typical grocery store run. On the outside, he seemed capable. On the inside, he was suffering memory loss and brain damage.
Paul Sterbcow and Jessica Ibert of Lewis, Kullman, Sterbcow & Abramson, LLC heard of the devastating fall about 30 days after the incident. In Late October they were contacted by a Lafayette, Louisiana attorney who the family had contacted for help. Distraught by what they heard and armed with a wealth of maritime law experience, Paul and Jessica began by investigating the shipyard.
The duo had previously handled cases involving the shipyard where the fall took place, but the newly installed gangway presented a new character in the yard. On top of ensuring their client’s long-term wellbeing and financial stability, Paul and Jessica needed to understand the gangway’s design and build. The Defense tried to deflect blame away from the mechanism itself. However, the duo ultimately discovered that the shipyard was liable for the device failure. Paul and Jessica sued the shipyard and its primary and excess insurance companies. But with no witnesses to the fall, the difficult task began to establish the nature, location, and extent of the Plaintiff’s injuries. Looming most prominently over the case, the Defense attacked the father’s demeanor after the fall. He tended to his family; he hunted; he was still working. In their view, his injuries couldn’t possibly be affecting his quality of life. To the casual observer, he was fine.
Paul and Jessica needed to combat the narrative of their client being seemingly well. They hired economists, vocational rehabilitation experts, physicians with various specialties, and a biomechanical engineer to help narrate and illustrate the fall. The most critical expert, though, was a neuroradiologist. Their findings told the attorneys and the jury what injuries the client suffered, how the injuries correlated to his symptoms, and how they affected the man in real life. After hiring the neuroradiologist to confirm what type of brain lesions they were dealing with, Paul and Jessica needed to bring these injuries into visibility to the naked eye. They sought out DK Global to construct an animation of the injuries and illuminate what the Plaintiff was feeling on the inside.
The animation began by depicting the Plaintiff lying in a hospital bed shortly after the fall, showing scattered abrasions and contusions to the man’s face, as well as several hematomas and facial paralysis. It then transitioned to a detailed look inside the Plaintiff’s skull, where numerous fractures to the skull and injuries to cranial nerves could be seen. Linear contusions and a variety of damage points to the ribs, lungs, and collarbone were clearly visible on the Plaintiff’s chest, as were spinal cord fractures to multiple vertebrae. Brain MRIs displayed multiple hemorrhages, effacement of the right lateral ventricle, and extensive frontal lobe damage. Finally, volumetric and DTI analyses showed abnormally high volumes in the left somatosensory association cortex and superior parietal lobule precuneus, in addition to atypical values in the right fornix and stria terminalis.
The two sides engaged in settlement talks prior to an informal mediation, but the plaintiffs’ counsel wasn’t interested in a back-and-forth exchange with the insurance company. Paul and Jessica presented the visual and the neuroradiology report to the Defense and provided a firm deadline for successful case resolution, failing which the case would be tried. Cornered, and with a changed attitude and tone, the Defense agreed to settle the case the following week — roughly 40 days short of trial — for a substantial, favorable amount.
Paul Sterbcow is the managing member of Lewis, Kullman, Sterbcow & Abramson, LLC, and specializes in admiralty and maritime law. He has given numerous speeches and presentations on assorted topics involving maritime law and civil trial practice. Paul was named the New Orleans Bar Association’s 2018 Maritime Lawyer of the Year and is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Internal Academy of Trial Lawyers. He has also served as president of the Louisiana Association for Justice and on the Board of Directors for the New Orleans Bar Association. He was named a top 10 lawyer in New Orleans by Super Lawyers and received the 2021, 2024 and 2026 Lawyer of the Year in Admiralty and Maritime Law in New Orleans from Best Lawyers. The law firm has been recognized as one of the Best Firms in the United States by Best Lawyers on numerous occasions.
Jessica Ibert is a member with Lewis, Kullman, Sterbcow & Abramson, LLC who currently serves on multiple associations, including the New Orleans Bar Association and the Federal Bar Association. She is a 2010 graduate of the Loyola University College of Law and specializes in admiralty and maritime law, aviation, medical malpractice, products liability, and civil litigation. In 2017, Ibert was appointed as a Commissioner to the Louisiana Animal Welfare Commission and in 2019, was inducted as a Fellow of the Loyola University Institute of Politics.
