In rural Louisiana, a delivery driver for a meatpacking company failed to check behind him before reversing. He didn't know that a single 39-year-old mother and her three-year-old daughter had stopped behind him in their car. As the truck rolled back, the mother twisted around to check on her toddler, who was in a car seat. The box truck hit and crushed the family's car at 5 mph, and the whiplash wrenched the mother's spine. In the shock and adrenaline of the moment, the mother suffered no pain and felt well enough to head into work. In the hours that followed, though, things went from bad to worse.
While at work, severe neck and back pain flared up, causing the mother's hands to tingle and her toes to go numb. As a radiology technician at a local hospital, she often helped elderly and heavy-set patients move between MRI machines and their wheelchairs. Sadly, the sudden pain prevented her from assisting her patients. Unable to serve her clients, she sought advice from ER doctors at the hospital, but the X-rays revealed no apparent injury. A neurosurgeon ordered MRIs, flexion-extension x-rays, and a motion analysis test. Those scans told a different story. They found extensive damage in her lumbar discs and in the surrounding ligaments, which caused instability of her neck and spine. A pain management doctor injected her with medial branch blocks and followed up with radio frequency ablations. At first, the pain appeared to be controlled, but after six weeks, it came roaring back and left her unable to work or support her patients. Her physicians agreed: she needed to undergo surgeries on her neck and lower back.
The mother's ER physician was a friend of Brock Duke of the Bison Law Firm and referred her to him. At first, Brock did not expect this to become a big recovery case. The overall picture appeared to be a simple soft-tissue injury from a low-impact collision. However, after sending the mother to the neurosurgeon, Brock was shocked to learn that her injuries were significant. She needed multiple surgeries, and without them, she'd no longer be able to work or fully care for her child. Unfortunately, she could not afford these surgeries, let alone the childcare that would be required during her long recoveries.
To get the mother the care she needed, Brock had to find a way to access the meat delivery company's substantial insurance policy. His biggest obstacle was proving that a 5 mph crash could have caused the mother's extensive damages. He hired a life care planner to project the mother's medical needs, and the planner yielded an estimate of $989,000. The number was lower than Brock expected, but still large enough to command the insurance company's attention.
Brock filed suit, and the insurance company demanded an independent medical evaluation. For the first time in Brock's career, the defense's doctor agreed with all previous recommendations of the prior physicians. The examiner concluded that the mother needed the surgeries and that the crash was the only likely cause of her injuries. The insurance company offered about $150,000, which was too low to cover the projected expenses. Brock knew he had to show his client's pain, both now and in the future, to counter the low-impact crash narrative.
Brock assembled an expert team that included the treating neurosurgeon, a pain management physician, and a life care planner. He initially considered hiring an accident reconstruction expert but instead turned to DK Global. He needed to demonstrate visually how invasive the mother's spinal procedures would be to a potential jury. Given that most people have been routinely poked by needles, it was imperative to show the specialized nature of her procedures. DK Global created a 12-minute animation that captured the full extent of her injuries, as well as her past and future medical procedures.
The animation showed the overextension of the tendons and spine on a musculoskeletal diagram. The disc herniations and ligament injuries were correlated with captures from the MRIs. Her branch block and radiofrequency ablation procedures were animated to show the invasive nature of the spinal injections, electric shocks, and nerve deaths. The animation for the future lumbar fusion surgery illustrated the procedure's cautery, bone grinding, and the implantation of metal brackets and screws. Her future cervical discectomy and fusion surgery was also animated to show the C-spine dissection, discectomy, osteophyte removals, allograft placement, and her metal bracket being screwed into place.
Brock sent the defense counsel the life care plan and DK Global animations ten days before mediation. Within 24 hours, the defense attorney called to cancel, explaining she needed to consult her client after seeing the animations. She didn’t have enough money to settle. The mediation was reset for two months later. At that time, a representative from the insurance company attended in person. The session lasted only a few hours, and the defense settled for a confidential record-setting amount for their region. When Brock told the mother, immense relief washed over her face as she realized she would be okay. The settlement was enough for her to care for her daughter and purchase a home.
Brock Duke is the founding partner of Bison Law Firm with over 20 years of courtroom experience across Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. He began his legal career as a criminal prosecutor in Dallas, Texas, and in 2010 transitioned to exclusively civil litigation. He dedicated his practice to representing victims of catastrophic 18-wheeler collisions, serious trucking accidents, and fatal wrecks across the country. His high-stakes trials have been featured on CNN, ESPN, CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox.
