People just like you make up the clientele we serve. From deckhands to galley hands, housewives to husbands, welders to blasters and painters, ordinary people from all walks of life have sought our help. We are committed to the basic principles of honesty, integrity and hard work, and we also see our clients as friends who are not forgotten when a case is resolved. Presented below are a few of the many types of cases we have handled over the years. You can see from these case spotlights the divergence of the clients themselves and the variety of ways injury and disability strike the unfortunate.
A Lafourche parish lady was visiting her friend in the Lockport area, at an apartment complex. Upon exiting the apartment, she headed back to her automobile. The sidewalk she utilized had an abrupt elevation in the sidewalk catching her shoe and causing her to trip forward and fracture her wrist. After multiple surgeries, the injured lady sought help through Kopfler & Hermann. Again, utilizing the services of an expert architect and thorough investigation, it was proven that the sidewalk was defective. After the institution of the lawsuit and numerous depositions, the lady was compensated for her personal injuries, pain and suffering, and medical expenses. Subsequent to the resolution of the lawsuit, the property owner demolished the defective sidewalk and rebuilt them to correct the defect. A local victory for pedestrians!
In a wheel chair accident case, Kopfler & Hermann represented a disabled individual who was attempting to enter a municipality jail to bail out a loved one. The jail had been constructed a number of years ago. The area where a handicapped individual would park required access to the jail along a side walk. The parking lot for the municipality had been designed improperly, and there were no wheel stops for the vehicles. As a consequence, any vehicle that parked with the wheels resting against the side walk blocked access for a wheelchair bound individual.
As it turned out, a vehicle blocking the side walk was parked there by an employee of the municipality. Her actions blocking the sidewalk required the wheelchair bound individual to leave the sidewalk to get around the vehicle blocking access. The grassy area she was required to traverse had a hole that caused her wheelchair to tip forward breaking one of her legs. Utilizing an expert architect and standards for construction of parking lots and sidewalks, Kopfler & Hermann was able to reach a successful settlement for the wheelchair bound patient’s injuries, pain & suffering, and medical expenses. Before the lawsuit was settled, the municipality installed wheel stops on all of the parking spaces so that any vehicles parking would not intrude on the sidewalk. A local victory for wheelchair bound individuals!
If you, your family, or friends suffer an injury due to the failure of a commercial business or municipality to provide adequate wheelchair access, please contact Kopfler & Hermann so we can explore your right and remedies under the American Disability Act and other related laws.
In a chain store trip and fall, a grandmother was entering a local branch when she was caused to trip and fall on a mat that had rippled up and created a tripping hazard. She fell forward with her arm extended and suffered a serious fracture of her arm. Kopfler & Hermann was able to obtain the video footage of the event. This chain store had an employee assigned to monitor the entrance but there were multiple entrances and she was not aware that the mat was rippling and causing a tripping hazard. Kopfler & Hermann consulted with the expert witness who had formulated the standard for rubber mats at entrance After review of the matter the expert rendered a report that there was a violation of the standard for floor mats. After depositions of various personnel, a settlement was entered where the grandmother was compensated in full for injuries, pain and suffering, and all medical expenses.
A local family of sisters came to our law firm concerned that their elderly father had been admitted to a local nursing home and less than 24 hours later, he had suffered a fall and a fractured hip. Unfortunately for the family, their father passed in a number of days. Kopfler & Hermann undertook representation and recommended a complaint survey with Louisiana Department of Hospitals. From a review of the nursing home records, there was an indication that the father was a definite fall risk and the nursing home failed to follow their own precautions from the admission assessment. The elderly gentleman was not used to being in a strange environment and his roommate was creating noise and such that sleep was nearly impossible.
He wandered out of his room without any assistance and was observed by the CNA and the LPN in charge of the wing. We were able to obtain video footage and the video footage revealed that the elderly patient had approached the LPN in the hallway. The video reveals the LPN ignored him because she was busy checking her emails. Within minutes, the elderly patient fell and suffered a broken hip.
A conference was held with the physician who had treated and recommended the elderly man’s nursing home admission. The physician was very surprised that the death had taken place so soon. The treating physician confirmed that a significant portion of the population of elderly individuals who suffer a fractured hip will die thereafter.
A claim was brought pursuant to the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act. The Nursing Home and the Patients Compensation Fund, which is involved in medical malpractice litigation, came to terms and a successful settlement obtained where the children of the deceased individual were adequately compensated. In a nursing home setting, the nursing home must adhere to rules and regulations set down by Medicare and must develop a care plan. The nursing home failed to follow its own care plan to provide assistance to a resident who had difficulties ambulating on his own.
A 65-year-old oiler/gauger at an oil and gas inland separation facility suffered burns over a large part of his body when a corroded high pressure line burst, spewing natural gas into the air which ignited in a fireball where the gauger was performing his work. We discovered records that the owner of the facility had placed underground piping in corrosive and acidic soil conditions without any type of covering or protective tape, causing the pipe to almost disintegrate within five years. Unfortunately for the oiler and gauger, the burst occurred while he was on the premises. A long series of debridements and skin grafting at a special burn unit in Baton Rouge were crucial in the gauger’s ultimate recovery. Although he was not physically disabled from working and could cover up his scars with clothing, the burn was so severe that the case settled for more than $2 million.
A 74-year-old man who lost his wife of 50 years to the hands of a drunk driver received $650,000.00 in settlement of his case. The drunk driver, who had left Memphis, Tennessee, early that morning and who had apparently been drinking all day, struck the rear of the client’s wife’s vehicle at more than 90 mph, propelling the wife’s vehicle into the rail of the Hale Boggs Bridge in Luling, Louisiana, resulting in her instantaneous death.
A Croatian immigrant who was a cross-country 18-wheel truck driver suffered a severe neck injury when his rig was broad-sided by another 18-wheeler on the Airline Highway north of Baton Rouge. The injury resulted in numerous epidural steroid injections and, ultimately, an anterior cervical fusion and discectomy. Restrictions in this man’s neck motion after the accident affected his ability to drive trucks and he was thus relegated to other types of work activity that were not as lucrative as his truck driving business. The case settled for $495,000.00.
A sixty-three year old woman was brought by her family to the emergency room of a local state hospital with complaints of abdominal pain. The emergency room physician cursorily examined her, diagnosed mental illness and made a coroner’s commitment. Despite her extreme discomfort and feebleness, she was required to be transported by a Tangipahoa Parish deputy to the local parish health unit where she was examined by a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist, recognizing that the woman had a serious physical condition, indicated that he would make arrangements to have her hospitalized in another state facility and asked her to come back in the morning. The following morning, while waiting outside the health unit, the woman died. A subsequent autopsy revealed that the woman suffered from an obstructed small intestine which could have been readily diagnosed at the emergency room the day before. If a proper diagnosis and medical attention had taken place, the woman’s life would have been spared. We represented the children and widow of the woman in a claim for medical negligence. The case settled for $450,000.00.
A roofing contractor who had gone to a loading dock for supplies tripped on a one-inch metal stud sticking up from the concrete walking surface at the dock and fell, injuring his shoulder and knee. When he realized the potential severity of his injuries, he contacted Kopfler & Hermann to handle his case, which was recently concluded for $325,000.00 after intense settlement negotiations.
A junior high basketball coach suffered a sprain to his knee in a physical education class. He went to an orthopedic surgeon who, with a minimal exam, indicated the coach should undergo arthroscopic surgery within a week or two. The doctor then injected a steroid solution into the coach’s knee. At the time of the arthroscopic procedure, the orthopedic surgeon recognized that there was something going on in the knee which looked suspiciously like an infection. The orthopedic doctor ordered testing to determine if an infection was there, what was the cause of the infection and what antibiotic to use. Because the orthopedic had a practice in two cities, the lab report showing an MRSA infection never got to the doctor. Despite the coach’s complaint of increased pain following surgery, the physician ordered physical therapy. Two and one-half weeks after the infection misdiagnosis, the doctor realized his mistake and cleaned out the knee joint which had been seriously damaged by the infection. The doctor denied performing the injection which caused the infection despite a charge for the injection. A claim for medical review panel was brought against the physician who admitted his liability and paid the $100,000.00 required under the Medical Malpractice Act. A subsequent proceeding was brought against the Patients’ Compensation Fund and the coach received full compensation for his knee injury and disability.