$3.6M+ Settlement in Negligence/Wrongful Death Case
A trash hauler found that his pull-out bar for removing the trash from his trailer was bent when he was at a recycling and transfer facility. Trying to be helpful, the excavator operator agreed to use his bucket to straighten it out. He neglected to take the trash hauler’s safety into consideration, doing this maneuver while the hauler was standing very close. The operator abruptly lifted his bucket up without warning, causing the pull-out bar to snap back like a mousetrap, slicing through the hauler’s leg and causing severe trauma.
The hauler had been going through chemotherapy for kidney cancer at the time, in remission, but still having regular chemo treatments. Because of the violent injury to his leg, he had to cease his chemo for his leg to heal from the extensive repair, which required multiple skin grafts. Being on chemotherapy would have prevented his wound from healing, which could have resulted in amputation. Unfortunately, within six weeks of stopping his chemo treatments, he relapsed and tragically died one month later from the cancer, a mere five months after his injury. He was only 47 years old. His widow, as the personal representative for her husband’s estate, secured Jon Marko of Marko Law to bring suit against the recycling and transfer facility for their lack of policies and procedures to protect trash haulers from the risks of heavy machinery operating closely to them, as well as their negligence in hiring, training, and monitoring their employees engaging in inherently dangerous practices without being educated as to the danger of such practices.
Jon Marko came to Focus Graphics for graphics to show how this horrific injury occurred. It was suggested to create an animatic – essentially an animated storyboard that shows the mechanism of injury in a very simplified manner. Less expensive than a full 3D animation, an animatic is often the step taken prior to an animation to ensure the basics of the case are being portrayed correctly. It tells the story without the surrounding environment, almost like animated line drawings. These are great to use for mediation due to the lower cost and the ability to then turn it into a full-blown animation should mediation fail and the case goes to trial. For this case, Jon Marko was successful in convincing the defense it was not in their best interest to go to trial and settled the case for $3.6825 million.
“We are always preparing for trial, even when we hope to settle, and we do everything in our power to make sure the defense knows we are giving them a chance to make this right before it gets to that point. Utilizing Focus Graphics helps us tremendously because we show up with visuals that support our case, and the defense can see that they will be very powerful in front of a jury.”
~Jonathan Marko, Esq., Detroit, MI | Marko Law Firm
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