A driver barreled down a busy interstate in Atlanta, Georgia. Despite their speed, the driver wasn’t paying full attention to the road and changing traffic patterns ahead. Indeed, traffic was slowing to a crawl, but the negligent driver was all but oblivious. The car violently sailed into the vehicle at the back of the stoppage — slamming into the rear of an SUV. The impact violently shunted the two passengers inside. One of those riders was a man in his late 40s, Edward, who was fast asleep in the passenger seat. A friend was driving the two of them home from a birthday party. Edward, a family man with two children at home, proudly worked as a technician and supervisor at a cable company — a physically and mentally demanding job. The collision jarred him awake, and he instinctively stomped his right foot forward in response. The impact jammed his femoral head into his hip joint. Little did Edward know that the jolt would cause a cascade of trauma that would lead to agonizing pain and hip replacement surgery.
At the hospital, Edward reported pain in the soft tissues of his neck and back, as well as in his right hip. He was sent home, but his hip pain worsened over the coming months, shooting up from the low end of the 0-10 pain scale all the way up to an 8. Initially, he was treated for bursitis and received an injection, pain meds, and physical therapy. None of it helped. Months later, he rose out of bed and collapsed onto the floor, unable to stand due to the agony. An orthopedic surgeon discovered avascular necrosis of Edward’s right femoral head, which had developed as his bone’s blood vessels died off. Edward was whisked off to surgery, where his dead bone was removed, and his hip joint was replaced.
The initial lawyer representing Edward filed suit but left the law firm. Mike Smith, a partner at Calvin Smith Law, took over the case. Mike and his firm had handled cases throughout Georgia, including car wrecks, premises liability, negligent security, workers’ comp, and medical malpractice. As a competitive guy, Mike wanted to fight to make things right for Edward. He brought in a co-counsel, and they dug into the human side of Edward’s story, taking inventory of all that he had lost. Not only had Edward suffered medically, but he was also forced to leave his career as a cable technician. He could no longer carry heavy loads and was shunted into the gig economy, where he drove for Uber and Lyft. His cable tech job was a source of enormous pride; it had helped him turn his life around after getting out of prison and allowed him to take care of his family.
Mike knew the insurance company’s policy limit of $50,000 was not enough to compensate for all that Edward had suffered. Unfortunately, the case had been assigned to an aggressive yet inexperienced associate at the defense firm, who believed the case could be settled within the policy limit. The defense lawyer did his best to wear down Mike’s client, hoping he’d settle. The lawyer constantly pushed for extensions on discovery deadlines and trial dates; he even hired experts at the 11th hour to instigate another extension. Worst of all, he discovered Edward was HIV positive and attempted to attribute the avascular necrosis to that rather than the accident. He brought on a prominent orthopedic doctor to testify that avascular necrosis occurred at higher rates within the HIV population.
Mike’s client had managed his HIV successfully for 20 years and had never developed avascular necrosis before now. Mike knew he needed to make the causation between the accident and the bone death undeniable to a future jury. He brought on the orthopedic surgeon who replaced Edward’s hip and another orthopedic expert who could testify to the bone death. To explain the unusual injury mechanism, Mike turned to DK Global to recreate the accident and to illustrate Edward’s medical progression. DK Global worked hand-in-hand with the experts to confirm each detail was accurate, to ensure the animation could be played alongside the expert’s testimony in court.
The DK Global animation recreated the accident, showing Edward asleep in the passenger seat and being thrown forward during the collision. A replay with an internal view showed how his femur and hip were impacted as he stomped his foot. A 3D medical illustration demonstrated how the blood loss into the femoral head resulted in cell death and osteoarthritis. The second part of the animation displayed a timeline of events and included pictures, x-rays, snippets from medical records, and an illustration of Edward's fall from bed. Edward’s x-rays were also retextured to better show the bone and necrosis.
Before Mike had joined the case, initial offers came in under $25,000 as the hip issues hadn’t fully presented yet. The defense made an immense effort to settle the case around the policy limit of $50,000. However, when Mike revealed the animations, the defense abandoned the policy’s cap and offered amounts in the low six figures. After a failed mediation, the case went to trial, where Mike opened with the animations. The defense knew they had nothing to compete with Mike’s visuals, and they clamored for a mistrial, which the judge granted. Immediately afterwards, the defense pushed hard to settle the case. Edward too was ready to put the ordeal behind him. Mike shepherded negotiations and ultimately achieved a settlement for $500,000 — ten times the policy limit — which greatly satisfied Edward.
W. Michael Smith, partner at Calvin Smith Law, focuses his practice on the areas of workers compensation and personal injury. He received his B.A. from Emory University in the Philosophy of Religion and continued on to New York University and Harvard University with Masters Degrees in Social Thought and Theological Studies, respectively. He completed his J.D. at Stanford University and was a member of the Black Law Student Association, as well as the Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance. At Emory University, he was an All-American in soccer, served on the university’s Honor Council, and was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
