Rush hour traffic accumulated along a Los Angeles freeway with drivers eager to get home and enjoy the weekend. As cars slowed their pace to a bumper-to-bumper speed, an inattentive Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) bus driver crashed into the rear-end of Kimberlee Watkins’ Chevy Volt. Kimberlee was severely injured and sat in her car until first responders arrived. Complaining of a debilitating headache, she was transported to the nearest medical center where doctors found evidence of a brain hemorrhage. Days later, Kimberlee checked herself into a local emergency room, reporting new symptoms accompanying her headache, such as difficulty reading. Attending doctors sent her home and attributed her symptoms to a mere concussion.
As months went by, Kimberlee’s symptoms worsened – sensitivity to light, fatigue, memory problems, and difficulty conversing – all common signs of a traumatic brain injury. It took a year of recovery simply to return to work part-time. Kimberlee retained an attorney who contacted Panish Shea & Boyle LLP to aid in her case. LACMTA was contesting the severity of her injuries. Matthew Stumpf and Kevin Boyle began litigating the case and found evidence that Kimberlee’s injuries were being undervalued by the Defense.
Despite her injuries, Kimberlee continued to make a positive impact in her workplace, earning herself a pay raise. Meanwhile, Matthew and Kevin continued advocating for Kimberlee. The Defendants eventually accepted liability for the accident but argued Kimberlee’s injuries were mild since she had been doing so well in her work.
Matthew and Kevin scheduled their client to be evaluated by a team of medical professionals where they found remnants of her injury linking to her ongoing symptoms. All imagery found hemorrhaging inside of Kimberlee’s brain accompanied by cerebral atrophy – the loss of neurons and the connections between them. To prove their client’s symptoms were dire and needed to be recognized as such, Kevin and Matthew took their medical findings to DK Global, to enhance them into detailed illustrations. Four custom graphics were created using the CT scans and MRIs taken after the crash and laid over a 3D model of Kimberlee’s likeness.
With Kimberlee’s brain injuries clearly depicted for the Defendants to evaluate, Kevin and Matthew went into mediation – during the pandemic – and obtained a $6 million settlement for their client.
Matthew Stumpf is a trial lawyer at Southern California-based firm, Panish Shea & Boyle LLP, and specializes in representing the survivors of complex injuries. Matthew has obtained numerous multimillion-dollar awards for his clients and prides himself on his dedication to attaining justice. Notably, he was a member of a trial team that obtained a monumental $41,864,102 jury verdict for a veteran who suffered catastrophic damages.
Founding partner of Panish Shea & Boyle LLP, Kevin Boyle, specializes in representing plaintiffs in high-profile cases. Recently, Kevin Boyle obtained an $800 million settlement for the 4,400 families and victims impacted by the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kevin received a Martindale Hubbell Peer Review Rating of “AV Preeminent” and is consistently named among the “Top 100 Lawyers in California” by the Daily Journal.
