Quite often, personal injury litigation becomes drawn out when the Plaintiff and Defendant disagree on damages. In this case, a bus driver with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) rear-ended Kimberlee Watkins, causing post-concussive syndrome. While LACMTA admitted liability, they contested the damages. Even though Kimberlee experienced persistent and disruptive symptoms, they insisted she only suffered a mild concussion.
As the evening rush hour traffic slowed to a halt along a Los Angeles freeway, the LACMTA bus driver approached the standstill at an unsafe speed. He crashed into the back of Kimberlee’s Chevy Volt at 50 miles per hour. She was severely injured and sat in her car until first responders arrived.
At the hospital, Kimberlee complained of a debilitating headache, and CT scans found evidence of a brain hemorrhage. Days later, Kimberlee checked herself back into a local emergency room, reporting new symptoms including difficulty reading, memory problems, and fatigue. Attending doctors sent her home and attributed her symptoms to a mere concussion. Kimberlee’s difficulties continued to worsen as months went by, exhibiting clear signs of post-concussive syndrome, a traumatic brain injury.
Kimberlee was referred to Matthew Stumpf and Kevin Boyle of Panish Shea & Boyle LLP to recover compensation and prove her injury was more than a mild concussion. As Matthew and Kevin began litigating, they encouraged Kimberlee to continue attending her medical evaluations and return to work at her own pace. Over the following months, Kimberlee returned to work full-time, made a positive impact in her workplace, and earned two pay raises.
Meanwhile, Matthew and Kevin continued advocating for Kimberlee. Their mission was to communicate why her problems lingered and how they connected to the initial trauma. Further diagnoses from neuropsychologists revealed remnants of Kimberlee’s injury correlating to her ongoing symptoms. Medical imagery found hemorrhaging inside of Kimberlee’s brain accompanied by cerebral atrophy – the loss of neurons and the connections between them.
Because Kimberlee was doing so well in her work, the Defendants argued her injuries were minor. To prove Kimberlee’s symptoms were dire and her damages were undervalued, Kevin and Matthew took their medical findings to DK Global to enhance 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 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.
A founding partner of Panish Shea & Boyle LLP, Kevin Boyle specializes in representing plaintiffs in high-profile cases. Recently, Kevin 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 one of the “Top 100 Lawyers in California” by the Daily Journal.
