Notable Results
Please note: We do not publicize the amount of our clients’ recoveries out of respect for their privacy.
Head-On Crash With the Beast Bronco Critically Injures Teen
Our client was on his way home when a teen driving an over-powered and over-lifted rebuilt Ford Bronco prophetically named by him as the “Beast Bronco” lost control and went on the wrong side of the road, hitting our client head on. After two months in the hospital, more months of intensive out-patient therapy and an incredible amount of hard work from our client, he made a substantial recovery.
We successfully pursued a lawsuit against the teen driver and his insurer. Through discovery, we developed information regarding the modifications made to the Beast Bronco and got a Court order preserving the bullet vehicle for viewing by the jury at trial. We also educated the defense on the severe nature of our client’s injuries and medical treatment. Shortly after our client’s deposition, we were able to settle the case for a confidential sum which permitted our client to enter the next stage of his life with the same determination as he utilized in his recovery.
Broken Iron Cross Brace Causes Catastrophic Injuries
A skilled construction worker was standing behind a large water pipe when the brace that was being used by a crane as an anchor to lift it broke loose and violently struck our client in the face causing life-threating facial and orthopedic injuries. When our client hired us, he had already undergone many surgeries and months of hospitalizations which left hm horribly disabled unable to eat solid food with near unintelligible speech and a terrible addiction to opioid pain medication.
The most impactful work we did for the client was to persuade his worker’s compensation insurer to find an in-patient treatment program which would address his whole body rehabilitation. This treatment permitted the client to learn to eat normally, rehabilitate from his opioid dependence and resume some aspects of his life as a husband, father and worker.
Due to strategic reasons, we filed a products liability suit in St. Louis, Missouri where the company manufacturing the pipe was located. Almost 4 ½ years after the injury, the case was compromised and settled on terms agreeable to the parties.
Serial Cell Phone Policy Offender Kills Motorcyclist
A cement mixer turned right in front of an oncoming motorcycle rider causing his instant death. As is the case with many of our trucking cases, the crash was caught on drivercam, so we soon learned why it happened — the cement mixer driver was distracted by talking on his cell phone to a fellow driver. While his employer had a policy preventing cell phone use while driving, we discovered that policy was rarely enforced and that the driver was a serial violator talking to his cell phone buddy while driving over 150 times in the three months prior to the crash and walking around his bosses with his cell phone amplifier device around his neck advertising his noncompliance without any action being taken.
The motorcyclist was a wonderful son and husband whose needless death devastated his parents and wife. The case was settled for a confidential sum.
Deadly DWF –Driving While Fatigued — Fracking Engineer
Just outside of Midland, a fracking engineer driving a company truck home on the 7th day of working deep nights drifted into the opposing lane and hit our client head on at highway speed causing his death. Our client was a wonderful father, husband and son whose death left his young wife, two sons under 5, his teenaged son and his parents devastated.
We immediately filed suit on behalf of the family and soon learned through analysis of the GPS data on the company truck that the fracking engineering was progressively becoming more fatigued as he endured the seven days of deep night 12 hour + shifts with a 2 hour drive each way. We hired the leading fatigue expert in the country from Harvard Medical School who testified that the fracking companies’ fatigue management policies were inadequate and created a crash waiting to happen.
The case was settled for a confidential sum.
Warehouse Worker Strangulation Death
Our client was a beloved father and husband who was working overtime in a warehouse for extra money to help his family buy a home when he was strangled to death when his hoodie was caught in a conveyor driveshaft that was not properly guarded.
Because our client was on-the-job at the time of his death, we had to pursue the case against his employer in binding arbitration and against the product manufacturer in federal court. Both cases settled for confidential sums only weeks before trial.
Catastrophic Construction Failure Causes Hangman’s Fracture
Our client was the victim of a catastrophic failure during construction that broke his neck causing debilitating pain, physical impairment, and severe PTSD. Our first order of business was getting him the medical help he needed to survive and recover from the injury to the greatest extent possible.
We then turned our attention to telling out client’s story in such a compelling way that the defense was motivated to participate in an early mediation that resulted in a confidential settlement that changed our client’s life and that of his family.
Trucker’s Unsafe Pass Creates Lifelong Disability
Our client was riding on a tractor traveling to a nearby field when a trucker began passing in a no-passing zone unbeknownst to the tractor driver. When the tractor driver turned left towards the field, the truck hit the tractor and ran over our client causing devastating injuries that required 27 surgeries, 3 ½ months in the hospital, and left him unable to walk normally.
Drivercam footage helped establish that the trucker was passing in a no-pass zone and we discovered he had caused another major accident the year before doing the exact same thing without discipline from his employer. We spent months summarizing our client’s massive medical records and then provided the trucking company a single opportunity to resolve the case for their policy limits. The demand was accepted and this confidential settlement gave our client the chance to have a home and the help he needed for the future.
Abusive Spouse’s Estate Held Accountable
We represented an abused spouse in a case where the wealthy husband broke in and beat her and then continued to stalk her for many more months while their divorce was pending. Before the divorce became final, he died of an overdose and his wife’s spousal recovery was limited by a prenuptual agreement.
We presented a claim to the executor of the husband’s estate and were able to negotiate a confidential settlement that allowed the wife to begin a new life for herself and her children.
Construction Fall Causes Brain Injury
Our client was working on the roof of a building under construction when he fell through an unsecured skylight hole causing him to suffer a catastrophic brain injury. Before the fall, he was an active marathon runner, skier, roller derby referee and actor. Afterward our client slowly emerged from a coma, moving voluntarily and even speaking was a challenge. He refused to quit and inspired us to overcome the challenges of his case just as he fought so hard to learn to walk and speak again.
We initially sued the general contractor and the framing subcontractor for the clear OSHA violation presented by the unsecured skylight covers. As we dug deeper, we discovered other potential responsible defendants and brought them into the case. The case was further complicated by a huge worker’s compensation lien that had to be repaid.
After several years of intense litigation and full development of all liability and damages facts, we, the defendants and the worker’s comp insurer came together and fashioned a settlement that permitted our client to leave institutional care where he had been for over four years, receive the 24/7 care he still required in a new home with his beloved wife and dogs and begin his next adventure.
Runaway Concrete Truck Critically Injures Construction Worker
A driver failed to properly chock an overloaded truck hauling bags of concrete on a major construction project at Texas A&M University. The unmanned truck began rolling down the hill and eventually caused a chain reaction crash. Our construction worker client had just exited his pickup truck when he was crushed between it and a van parked next to it. He suffered severe pelvic fractures and urologic injuries that required hospitalization for almost six months and left him with major permanent deficits.
We were hired in late August and the case was fully prosecuted and resolved in less than five months. We obtained and presented the police body cam footage that established the truck driver’s culpability and our client’s severe distress at the crash scene. In connection with preparing an extensive demand package, we collected and summarized literally thousands of pages of medical records, spoke with our client’s physicians regarding his prognosis and retained expert life care planners to establish our client’s future medical needs. The case was successfully settled for a sum that ensured our client and his four daughters would be well taken care of.
Deadly Texting Trucker
Our client was stopped on a rural highway while a school bus unloaded when he was rearended at 61 mph by a gravel truck and instantly killed. Left behind was a widow, two young daughters and his parents to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. DPS officers investigating the crash obtained the truck’s Drivercam which showed the trucker looking at his phone for over 8 seconds before the crash and never looking up until it was too late.
We were brought in on the case because of our extensive expertise in texting cases. Besides suing the trucker’s employer, we also sued the employer’s parent company. As the case progressed, we established that the parent company exerted substantial control over the operations of the employer thereby creating another viable defendant to compensate the family. After over two years of hard work, the case was settled at mediation.
Overserved Drunk Kills Iraq War Hero
A drunk driver swerved onto the wrong side of the road and killed a father of two. Tragically, the father had just retired from the US Army after four decorated tours of duty in Iraq to spend more time with his 14-year- old daughter and 12-year- old son.
Together with Dobbs & Tittle, PC, we pursued an overservice dramshop case against the two bars where the drunk had consumed alcohol that afternoon. After over two years of tenacious prosecution of the overservice case and extensive work telling the story of a wonderful family’s terrible loss, the case was successfully settled at mediation.
Texting Driver Kills Two
A young wife and mother of two children and her elderly grandmother were stopped on a busy roadway while waiting to make a left turn when their vehicle was struck from behind at highway speed by a texting Cable One driver. By the next morning, our accident reconstruction experts were on the site helping local authorities investigate the crash.
A lawsuit was filed within a week and we hired the leading experts in the country on cell phone use and commercial vehicle safety. We discovered that Cable One had no policies preventing its employees from texting while driving. Moreover, we developed evidence that motorists had complained of the Cable One driver’s reckless driving and speeding before this crash and nothing was done.
Two weeks before trial and just one day shy of the one year anniversary of the wreck, the case was settled for a confidential sum. Since then, Todd has become a crusader for cell phone and texting safety.
Commercial Vehicle Driver Makes A Child An Instant Orphan
While under the influence of meth and marijuana, the owner of a large McKinney construction company swerved onto the wrong side of the road killing a 13-year-old’s mother, father and grandmother.
We were chosen to represent the orphan upon approval by the court overseeing the orphan’s best interests. A team of experts was assembled to insure this child received justice for this terrible loss. Many complicated issues that could have derailed fair compensation were overcome and the case was resolved for a confidential sum approximately six months after the crash.
A Case Of Affluenza
Most of America is familiar with the “Affluenza Case” where a drunk teen, Ethan Couch, killed four people and seriously injured others. Our firm initially represented Eric Boyles, whose wife, Hollie, and daughter, Shelby, were killed in the crash. After sitting through the criminal trial with the Boyles Family, we shared their outrage when Ethan Couch received probation when the juvenile judge apparently bought his defense team’s offensive “affluenza” defense.
After negotiating a confidential settlement of the Boyles’ claims, we undertook to pursue the only remaining civil case on behalf of the McConnell Family with a goal to give the victims some closure by bringing to light the full story. The fruits of two years of work were featured twice on ABC’s 20/20 in a story entitled “A Case of Affluenza.”
Distracted Trucker Rear-Ends Stopped Car At 70 MPH
A distracted and terribly inexperienced truck driver failed to notice traffic stopped on I-20 near Terrell and hit a stopped vehicle at 70 mph instantly killing an amazing husband, father and grandfather. The truck then proceeded to hit several other vehicles.
Since there were competing claimants involved in this crash, this case required immediate action. We had a productive prior relationship with the insurer and defense attorney and they worked cooperatively so that we could confirm the small trucking company had no substantial assets and that the only source of recovery was its insurance policy. This claim was made a priority over all others and the case was resolved in less than three months after the crash with the family receiving the maximum possible recovery.
Dangerous Denny’s Manager Causes Head Injury
While the crash report indicated an uninsured driver crashed into our client causing her to suffer a significant head injury, we sued and discovered that the uninsured driver was actually a Denny’s manager returning to work after making a bank deposit which triggered the business’s insurance.
When Denny’s tried to quickly and quietly “settle” the case, we suspected they were hiding something. We demanded the driver’s deposition during which it was revealed he was a habitual speeder whose driver’s license had been suspended for years. Further, we discovered Denny’s failed to do driving background checks of their employees.
The case settled shortly after this explosive evidence was discovered. The client was pleased that due to her case, Denny’s now performs driving background checks to prevent this from happening to anyone else.
Quadriplegic Victim In A Multiple Fatality
Our client and several other residents of a nursing home were on their way back from an outing when a truck failed to yield right-of-way and struck the nursing home van causing it to roll. Three residents were killed and three others suffered significant injuries. Our client suffered a severe spinal injury that rendered him a flaccid quadriplegic.
The case was complicated by the fact that the collective damages suffered by the many claimants exceeded the amount of available insurance coverage. Since everyone acknowledged our client’s claim was the most severe, we took the lead in assembling a team of experts that included an accident reconstructionist, a future medical life care planner and an insurance coverage lawyer to prove to the various insurers why they should pay the maximum possible total recovery and why our client should receive the lion’s share of the recovery. Following settlement, many hours were spent setting up trusts and meeting with caseworkers to make certain our client’s medical and emotional needs were provided for in the years to come.
Ivy League Ph.D Disabled By A Drunk
A brilliant young scientist was run over by a drunk driver while walking his beloved dog. The crash caused him to suffer disabling orthopedic injuries.
Before we agreed to help, our client was turned down by several lawyers because the case did not appear on its face to be valuable. We immediately filed a lawsuit and discovered the owner of the car, who was too drunk to drive and entrusted it to her drunk boyfriend, was insured by a several large insurance policies. After relentlessly pursuing every possible aspect of the case, it resolved successfully for the entirety of available insurance coverage ensuring our client had the funds necessary to put his shattered life back together.
Magnablend Chemical Fire Brain Damage Trial
Our client suffered significant brain damage due to smoke exposure from the Magnablend chemical fire in Waxahachie, Texas. During our prosecution of the case, we discovered Magnablend violated their own safety policies by failing to identify and prevent the creation of flammable explosive hydrogen by one of their new products.
The case went to trial against one of the most renowned law firms in Fort Worth. After several weeks of trial during which the jury learned of Magnablend’s egregious safety violations and the life-changing consequences to our client and his family, the case was settled for a confidential sum.
Bennigan’s Overservice Causes Catastrophic Brain Damage
A drunk driver, at over three times the legal limit, swerved onto the wrong side of the road and destroyed a high school senior’s life forever. Our client spent months in a coma and when she awoke, she and her family learned that she would require care for the rest of her life.
We partnered with Dobbs & Tittle, PC to pursue an overservice dramshop case against Bennigan’s, where the drunk was a regular patron who had his own namesake drink, a “Jefferita.” Through exhaustive investigation and deposing every possible witness, we built such a strong case that the bar was responsible for their patron’s action that three days before trial, the case was settled for a confidential sum which ensured the client would be well taken care of for the rest of her life.
Amputated Leg Caused by Defective Oilfield Equipment
A piece of equipment accidentally became operational and tore off the foot of an oil field worker resulting in a below-the-knee amputation and many medical complications. After filing suit, we discovered that the defect that caused the equipment to become operational was the subject of an industry safety bulletin several years beforehand, and the company had been in the process of retrofitting their equipment to eliminate this known hazard, but had not yet gotten to this piece of equipment before this injury.
The case was hard fought with the defense attorneys blaming the victim for putting himself in harm’s way while deposition after deposition confirmed the company’s knowledge of and failure to rectify the danger. Shortly before trial, the case settled for a confidential sum.
Trucker’s Unsafe Left Turn Badly Injures Man
An 18-wheeler turned right in front of our client’s truck causing a high-speed crash. The truck’s insurance company initially tried to blame our client for the crash claiming he was speeding. However, after our accident reconstruction team downloaded both vehicles’ “black boxes,” we established that our client was driving the speed limit and the trucker’s negligence was the sole cause of the crash.
The collision caused our client to suffer multiple fractures including a broken foot, a broken neck, broken facial bones and a broken arm. Due to prior dealings with our firm, the insurer requested a pre-suit mediation where the case was settled.
Commercial Van Sideswipes Motorist — Caught on Camera
A commercial van driver belatedly realized he missed the 121 on-ramp and unsafely cut across the median sideswiping our client, a motorcyclist, at high speed causing him to lose control and nearly his life. This terrible crash was recorded by Tollway cameras. Our client suffered a severely fractured ankle resulting in a permanent limp, a broken arm, a broken neck and significant road rash. He was off work from his job for months and missed many important irreplaceable family events.
To explain his injuries and surgeries, we used life-sized medical illustrations. A video addressing the impact of his injuries on our client and his family was created. After over a year of prosecution, the case resolved for a confidential sum at mediation.