A dump truck’s route went south when he suddenly barreled into a family vehicle. A six-year-old boy sitting in that vehicle’s passenger seat took the brunt of the impact. Had that been the worst the young man endured that year, it would have been too much. Astonishingly, only a few months later, the same boy sitting in the passenger seat found himself victim to another horrid crash when a pickup truck made violent contact with the rear of his vehicle. Within a single year, two nightmares on the road rocked the six-year-old with dual traumatic brain injuries and brain bleeding.
The combined impact of the two large-scale vehicles spared no mercy on the young child. The boy, previously described as boisterous and full of energy, had his whole life ahead of him. His parents, both of whom were caretakers, were in the early stages of opening a small business. However, the boy’s life trajectory dramatically shifted after the collisions. The frontal brain bleed he suffered left him with limited ability to communicate and caused his personality to change from upbeat to reclusive.
Mike Kittleson and Edward Le of Le & Kittleson were notified of the horrific crashes soon after the first incident. As personal injury lawyers specializing in traumatic brain injuries, Mike and Ed saw an opportunity to secure justice for the disabled young boy by securing the maximum insurance policy limits from both offenders. They filed a suit and proposed arbitration to the insurance policies, of which there were four that shared liability: the dump truck, the pickup truck, and one policy per crash from the boy’s underinsured motorist coverage.
Mike and Ed spoke with the boy’s friends and family, looking for any changes they noticed — particularly between crashes. To collect the maximum amount from all four policies, they needed to prove that the damages from each accident were equally and separately devastating to their client. However, having multiple policies at play made a favorable, fast resolution more complex than anticipated. It also increased the likelihood of finger-pointing amongst insurance companies. The Defense mounted roadblocks concerning the child’s age. They questioned whether the boy’s trauma and behavioral changes were caused by the crash or due to getting older. Furthermore, they challenged whether the trauma was permanent — requiring lifelong care — or temporary.
Armed with the knowledge that insurance companies understood risk, the duo prepared to corner the Defense. Regardless of the specific injuries, both trucks caused significant damage and were equally liable for compensation. Thus, the insurance companies then faced a decision: spend money on Defense lawyers and expert doctors in a trial or settle for the maximum policy amounts.
Momentum was on their side, but Mike and Ed needed to overcome one final obstacle: showing the permanency of the Plaintiff’s injuries. To that end, they hired a neuroradiologist, a speech therapist, and a psychologist. However, despite the trove of expert opinions, witness testimony, and medical evidence, Mike and Ed still needed to package their arguments such that the arbitrator understood the gravity of the damages. Thus, they partnered with DK Global to create visuals that illuminated the impact of the boy’s brain injuries. The resulting demonstrative fortified Mike and Ed’s arguments, laying bare the seriousness of what happened to the young Plaintiff.
DK Global created a slide deck of medical illustrations for the attorneys to use during arbitration, demonstrating the specific points of the brain that were injured and permanently affected. The demonstrative showed brain imaging and MRIs of the boy, revealing brain bleeds on both the right and left frontal lobes — including a 1mm left frontal brain bleed near the lateral ventricle. The imaging also revealed decreases in fractional anisotropy (FA) in numerous places, limiting connection in the brain and, therefore, the brain’s ability to communicate. There were also asymmetrical decreases in the left thalamus and right caudate, leaving the right lateral ventricle much larger than the left.
Mike and Ed participated in mediation and received several lowball offers, but none came close to their target amount. They gave the Defense an ultimatum: either they pay the full policy limits, or the attorneys would proceed to an arbitration hearing and attain a just amount that way. The Defense caved. A few days before the arbitration, Mike and Ed tentatively settled for $700,000.
Mike Kittleson is a partner at Le & Kittleson who specializes in traumatic brain injury, premises liability, wrongful death, trucking collisions, and insurance bad faith. He is a Super Lawyers Rising Star and has been named to the National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 list. He is a member of the Washington State Association for Justice, the American Association for Justice, and the Washington State Bar Association.
Edward Le is a senior partner and founding member of Le & Kittleson, who focuses on litigating civil law cases. Le has over 25 years of experience practicing law and has been admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th and 9th Circuits. He has been honored by the National Trial Lawyers Association and the American Society of Legal Advocates, and is a member of the prestigious Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum.
