We recently finished a two day trial in front of a jury for a client of ours who was rear-ended. Most people think of that type of accident and playfully grab their shoulder and say “oh, my neck” and roll their eyes. However, my client suffered a permanent injury and one he will have to contend with for the rest of his life. The other party’s insurance company and attorneys would not recognize the ordeal my client went through, nor acknowledge the fact that he will be living with this impairment for the rest of his life (and he’s only in hid mid-30s). When he was first hit, he indeed suffered the symptoms of whiplash, radiating pain, headaches, tenderness, and spasmodic muscles. But as time went on, his pain level grew instead of diminished. His doctor sent him for testing and, after many tests and doctors visits, it was found the vertebrae in his neck had been damaged and were unable to mend themselves without support. His pain level was unbearable and he could not work or pick his newborn baby up. His doctor sent him to a surgeon who advised surgery with the implantation of an anterior interbody “mesh” cage to allow for stability and healing. The treatment used to be fusing the vertebrae together which resulted in rigidity and continued pain and loss of motion. The prospect of having a foreign object permanently implanted in his spine was intimidating to my client; however, this type of surgery started in the late 90s and have proven very successful for this type of injury, so he decided to go for it.
This whole ordeal took about 8 months from in accident until the surgery and during that time my client had incurred huge medical bills, lost wages due to time off work, and suffered emotionally by not being able to fully participate in taking care of his little daughter. The insurance company pointed to the damage on the vehicles being minimal and stating that there was just no way such a terrible injury could have happened with such a “minor” wreck. Well, first, my client was a healthy and active young man before the accident and second, we brought in physics as one of our witnesses. There are severel “laws” of physics that proved the velocity was transferred to the neck of our client which was unable to absorb such trauma, while the big vehicle was able to absorb the impact with relatively little damage. That, and the fact that our client’s surgeon was so compelling in his depositions and on the witness stand, made us as confident as you can be in a jury trial. The other side didn’t really present a coherent case and, during final arguments, I got a little hot on the rebuttal that my client had been dragged through this long and painful process just to be insulted with the other side really having no defense other than they didn’t want to pay him.
In the end, the judgment turned out even better than we’d hoped. We were awarded $369,000 and my client was very happy – we all were. Due to the mesh cage, he’s been able to heal quite a bit and is now able to pick up his (now) 2 1/2 year old and he’s returned to work. Of course, he does have a permanent implant in his neck and will always have to take extra precautions because of it. It’s amazing what science can do to help restore us to as close to normal walk of life after an accident. It’s also amazing the lengths insurance companies will go to not to pay a legitimate claim. I hope I am able to practice law for many years because winning this type of case is exactly why I went into the practice in the first place, to protect the rights and recovery of people like my client.