Case Study: January 2021, Waverly Ohio.
This case represents how the Waverly accident law firm, Warren Law and lead attorney Mike Warren made the trucking company Yukon Logistics pay for their egregious negligence that resulted in multiple serious injuries to our client and her family. The following case study was provided and written by our lead attorney Mike Warren.
The Crash
The mom, Brittany Risner is driving home with 3 kids under 6 all properly buckled in the back seat. 1 mile from home, Brittany enters the intersection at the green light. A dually pickup truck (4 wheels in the back) hauling an intermodal shipping container ran through a red light and hit the family’s car midship on the driver’s side. EMS had to extricate the family from their car using the “Jaws of Life”.
The crash occurred on US 23 (W. Emmitt Ave.) at the intersection of SR 104 (Lake White Road), on January 29th, 2021, at approximately 3:37 PM, within the City of Waverly,
Ohio. The Waverly Police report described the crash as follows:
Unit #1 was traveling south, crossing the intersection of Lake White Road and West Emmitt Avenue. Unit #2 was traveling west on West Emmitt Ave. Unit #2 failed to stop for a red traffic light. Unit #2 was found at fault for the accident.
Injuries to the Family
- 3-year-old Elliott got the worst of it, a broken leg and head injury.
- Mom was banged up but nothing permanent.
- 5-year-old got a broken arm. 3 years old.
- 9-month-old infant girl was just scared but unhurt
Elliot’s Diagnosis and Care
The most commonly underdiagnosed injury is Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). That is exactly what happened here. At age 4, when Elliott entered pre-school, his deficiencies due to the traumatic brain Injury were soon noted. He got referred for an Independent Education Program (IEP). By kindergarten, Elliott was getting special accommodations like 1 on 1 instruction and speech therapy. That continued until first grade when Elliott failed his IEP and was working at kindergarten level.
Elliott’s pre-school teacher shared her thoughts on his behavior after the accident:
“I had a really hard time getting [Elliott] to use his words …. sometimes he would just break down, and we wouldn’t know what was going on. So I had a lot of trouble getting him to use his words to let us know what was going on and how we could help him. At the beginning of the school year, you might see some children like that. But after being in my classroom, you see progress, and they steadily get better …. and it didn’t really seem like he was getting better.”
“Elliott is a sweet and loving child. However, he does have sound errors that make it very difficult to understand him in conversation. In the classroom, I have noticed that Elliott has difficulty following directions and attending to the teacher when at the mat. When he is given directions, such as picking up the trash and putting it in the trash can, he refuses. He also does not use his words at all when he has a problem, he simply folds his arms, shuts down, and just cries until someone figures out what he needs. He does this if he doesn’t have milk, if his breakfast isn’t open, if someone is in his seat, or if someone is playing with a toy that he wants. I have been working on him using his words, but he has shown no progress.”
Michelle Braden, Pre-School Teacher
Initial Insurance Offer- $25,000
Because of the complexity of this case and the life changing effects of the injury to Elliot and his family, we hired multiple experts that could help us prove the truck driver’s guilt. One nurse consultant opined that Elliott’s developmental/academic issues were not related to his TBI. Defense attorney labeled the case “a nice concussion” and initially offered us $25,000 for the entire family. We ignored the negativity and went to work proving my case.
An Unusual Case Requiring a Fierce Investigation
This case was highly unusual. In most Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) cases, we file a lawsuit immediately so that we can investigate and get tons of critical discovery information. Here, the trucking company was a one man show. He couldn’t produce any records he was required by FMCSR to keep. The driver/owner ignored two subpoenas. We went to the judge who put in an order to have him jailed if he failed to show up for another. The driver was told by the judge he would be held in jail until we deposed him.
Our investigation also tracked him down to jails in Georgia and in Northern Ohio. This guy was a walking disaster. But he did have a $1M insurance policy total for all claims.
I referred Elliott out for assessment by Neuropsychologist who has the special competency to deal with kids. Neuropsych is also the Bengals head of concussion protocol and also consulted with the NFL for head injuries. He’s an expert’s expert. He gave us a report that Elliott had severe brain injury, would always need an IEP (Individualized Education Program) and was marginally employable as an adult. That changed everything.
We engaged a Medical Cost Projection to tell us what future care might cost. We engaged a Forensic Economist to give us the present value of future lost wages. We also had a Trucking Expert telling me everything the trucking company did wrong. In the bullpen, we had a Vocational Expert lined up to opine that Elliott would be unemployable as an adult, and a Life Care Planner to graph out Elliott’s special needs.
We had a star mediator from Cincinnati to help with the case. 2 weeks before our mediation, our mediator came down with a serious medical issue and was not available. The defense counsel agreed to use our mediation date as an old-fashioned negotiating day. We met via Zoom (not old fashioned) with defense counsel and his adjuster and worked out the case in about an hour. Since insurance was 1 amount for all claims, we just negotiated a lump family deal, didn’t bother to apportion it to a particular family member.
Settlement $750,000
The $750K settlement was much more than the parents told us they would settle for. We concluded $750K was every last dollar we could squeeze out of the insurance company. Based on our case studies in Ohio and our vast experience with the local courts in Southern Ohio we calculated that the settlement would yield our clients as much as we would have at trial. The other factor we always keep in mind is that once a case goes to trial anything can happen.
“I want to believe that he is as good as anyone else, and he will eventually grow out of his issues. The hard reality is I had a perfectly healthy 3-year-old on January 29th and he will never be the same” – Elliott’s Father
Conclusion
This case was difficult to work on, very complex and required substantial resources. Not only did we invest considerable amounts of dollars out of the firms’ coffers, but the man hours it took to work this case were enormous.
We are certain that any of the “big city law firms” would NEVER have put in the work we did and would likely not have received such a large settlement for their clients.
If you are involved in a truck accident in Waverly or the Southern Ohio area and a trucking company injured you or your family, contact us immediately and we will fight like hell for you.
