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 patient admitted to the hospital for routine gall bladder surgery suffered permanent injuries when the doctor severed her common bile duct instead of her cystic bile duct . The doctor’s failure to detect the surgical error has led to a life of continuing, painful medical procedures and disability. The physician settled for the maximum cap allowed by Louisiana law.
A floor hand on an inland drilling barge suffered facial fractures and brain damage when a joint of casing struck him across the face. Finding liability under the Jones Act and pursuant to the maritime doctrine of unseaworthiness, the trial court awarded damages fully compensating the worker for these disabling injuries. Kopfler defeated the barge owner’s efforts to limit its liability to the value of the vessel, opening the way for the severely injured worker to receive fair and just compensation.
A truck driver/trainer who slipped and fell in the diesel bay of a truck stop received fair compensation for his injuries during a meditation at the offices of Kopfler Personal Injury Attorneys. There was no question that a large amount of diesel had been spilled in the bay, that the store employees knew it was there but took no steps to clean it up. Diesel on any surface is very slick, and the lack of appropriate lighting at this particular facility made the condition even more hazardous.
A tenant of a local landlord busted her knee and back when steps at the rent house collapsed as she was walking down them. Even with the qualified limitation of liability available to landlords under Louisiana law, Kopfler Personal Injury Attorneys achieved courtroom victory when they were able to show that the tenants had reported problems with the steps in the past sufficient to place the landlord on notice of their defect.
Two sandblasters in a helicopter transporting them offshore sustained compression fractures in their vertebrae when the helicopter dropped into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of co-pilot error. Both workers recovered full damages.
A diesel mechanic sent offshore to repair a winch on a tugboat was attempting to make a swing rope transfer to a crew boat after finishing his work and injured his back and neck when he slammed into the bulwarks on the first attempt. A tricky task when going from a stationary platform to a vessel, a swing rope transfer is made ever more hazardous when attempted from one vessel to another. The mechanic had never performed such a transfer before and an alternative, safer means of transfer existed but was not employed because of time constraints inherent in the oil field. Expert evidence provided the backdrop for the obvious danger involved in such a transfer, and Kopfler Personal Injury Attorneys defeated defense efforts aimed at placing fault on the mechanic.
A welder on an offshore semi-submersible drilling rig slipped and fell in hydraulic fluid leaking from a nearby valve. His spinal injury prevented him from returning to the offshore welding industry, and evidence showed that the hydraulic fluid presented an unreasonable risk of injury to workers on the rig.
An offshore wireline worker was struck in the back by a falling cable and knocked to the deck, resulting in injuries which have severely reduced his earning ability. The case is pending in the United States District Court in New Orleans.
Two doctors’ failure to diagnose pulmonary embolism as the potential cause of the patient’s symptoms resulted in her death 12 hours after discharge from the hospital. Only 20 years old, the patient left a minor son who was without other means of support. A pulmonary medicine expert explained to the court the absolute necessity for physicians to entertain all reasonably possible causes of a person’s symptoms. In this case, the doctors went through four diagnoses–none of them the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism–before discharging the young lady from their care. When the clot broke loose 12 hours later, it went straight to her lungs and caused her death. Even though a Medical Review Panel required by state statutes found that the doctors were negligent, the case was only resolved after the court, too, found the physicians at fault and awarded compensatory damages.
The minor son of a young mother who died right after child birth of septic shock prevailed in litigation with the Charity Hospital system of the State of Louisiana. A teaching institution, the Charity Hospital where the woman was admitted to give birth was staffed primarily by residents who failed to detect the critical nature of the septic bacteria which was assaulting this young woman’s body. The clear necessity for a second intravenous line to provide fluids and medicines was overlooked by the doctors. The internal medicine doctor who was supposed to be on call was in New Orleans and unable to attend to the patient. By the time a second intravenous line was placed, this patient’s condition had deteriorated to the point where she died.
