How NJ Workplace Injury Lawyers Navigate a New Jersey Injury Case with a Missing Expert Witness
Episode 7 of Jersey Justice Podcast: How NJ Workplace Injury Lawyers Navigate a New Jersey Injury Case with a Missing Expert Witness
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Transcript
Welcome to Jersey Justice, a civil law podcast that shares
Speaker:practical tips and stories about personal and workplace injuries.
Speaker:Joined two of the brightest New Jersey injury attorneys, Gerald Clark
Speaker:and Mark Morris of Clark Law Firm.
Speaker:As they take you behind the scenes of.
Speaker:Justice and civil law.
Speaker:But first, a quick disclaimer.
Speaker:The information shared on this podcast is for general information purposes only.
Speaker:Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any
Speaker:individual case or situation.
Speaker:This information is not intended to create and does not constitute
Speaker:an attorney-client relationship.
Speaker:All right everyone.
Speaker:Welcome back to Jersey Justice, and today we're gonna continue the
Speaker:conversation on expert witnesses.
Speaker:And we're gonna dive in.
Speaker:We're gonna start the conversation off with Jerry and he's actually
Speaker:going to be sharing some information about a particular case.
Speaker:Thanks, dimple.
Speaker:Yeah, we've been talking about experts.
Speaker:And I remember in, I think it was the last episode, I said I would give like
Speaker:kind of an example of a case and how it actually, you know, translates to
Speaker:selecting experts and how experts play into proving a case and everything.
Speaker:So I'm gonna, I'm gonna see if I could share my screen here.
Speaker:What I'd like to do is I kind of want to talk about a case that we had.
Speaker:It was a trial that we did in Middle sixth County, New Jersey.
Speaker:Mark and I did it together and.
Speaker:Just to give people an idea about how experts can impact the
Speaker:case about selecting experts and how they fall into everything.
Speaker:So the case was called Silva Verse, Jacobs Engineering, and
Speaker:there was some other defendants.
Speaker:And basically the story of the case is that Silva was a worker
Speaker:who was resurfacing the turnpike.
Speaker:He was working on a turnpike resurfacing job in near Hackensack, New Jersey.
Speaker:And he had gotten backed up on by this truck, and the truck was driven
Speaker:by his boss on the job that day.
Speaker:And what happens is when you're working on the turnpike, the
Speaker:trucks have to go forward and then they have to back up backwards.
Speaker:They can't do a U-turn because then they would be shining the
Speaker:light into the oncoming traffic.
Speaker:So he gets backed up on by the truck and we, he came to us and we looked at
Speaker:the case and we consulted with experts.
Speaker:And the experts say that the safety rules require the back, the
Speaker:truck to have a backup alarm, and also preferably a backup camera.
Speaker:And the rules also say that the company in charge of the job,
Speaker:you know, the contractor, the engineering firm that's hiring.
Speaker:The people on the job and that can set the rules for the job and
Speaker:is supposed to enforce the safety rules is supposed to require this.
Speaker:And so the big defense in the case by the company that was running the job
Speaker:is that that truck did not need to have a backup alarm or backup camera on it.
Speaker:And it's funny in these cases because when you have these defense experts
Speaker:that get up and testify and often say the most ridiculous things, they're
Speaker:never advocating for like a safer world.
Speaker:Everything is okay as it is.
Speaker:They're never advocating for more safety.
Speaker:They're basically always advocating for less safety.
Speaker:So for example, and this is a perfect example of it.
Speaker:This card did not need a backup alarm.
Speaker:That's what the case was about.
Speaker:And under osha OSHA's the safety law for workers, OSHA requires backup
Speaker:alarms on work trucks if there's an obstructed view out the back.
Speaker:So the defense also hired this other expert.
Speaker:He's works almost exclusively for defendants and insurance companies.
Speaker:And he testified that there's no obstructed view at his deposition.
Speaker:And what's funny about this, like, so the obstructive view means the driver,
Speaker:his view looking out back is obstructed.
Speaker:And if it's obstructed, there should be a backup alarm on the
Speaker:truck to warn people behind it.
Speaker:And also, as I said, preferably a backup camera.
Speaker:Remember I said, these defense experts, because they're being paid
Speaker:by the insurance company, will often say the most ridiculous things.
Speaker:So this expert said there's no obstructed view, you know, and
Speaker:we circled all the obstructions.
Speaker:So if you're sitting in there as the driver, this is a wheel.
Speaker:You can't see out the back.
Speaker:Now, an obstructive view doesn't mean you can't see anything out the back.
Speaker:It just means your, your view is blocked by, by anything.
Speaker:And he testified nothing's blocking his view, despite there being a tire
Speaker:there and despite there being work tools and these toolboxes on the
Speaker:side are clearly blocking the view.
Speaker:And you'll, there's reports in the case where they said, The reason he ran
Speaker:over the worker is because his view was obstructed, you know, and here's kind of
Speaker:the dash cam from the scene, and this is a report on the case by one of the companies
Speaker:on the job that said the immediate cause of what happened is equipment.
Speaker:Environment, and it said there was an operational light tower, 50 yards
Speaker:facing North was making difficult to see behind him, and there was light
Speaker:shining in the mirrors as he backed up making difficult to see behind.
Speaker:And it also said the vehicle contains toolboxes on either side, which may
Speaker:have added additional blind spots and.
Speaker:It also said the vehicle was not equipped with an audible rev reverse alarm, which
Speaker:may have given the worker an advanced warning the vehicle was approaching.
Speaker:So despite all this, the defense expert says there's no obstruction
Speaker:and a backup alarm wasn't needed.
Speaker:And then at the, in the opening statement for the lawyer hearing, Why?
Speaker:Why would the defense expert say that?
Speaker:I mean, cuz I know our audience is wondering.
Speaker:And also for the audience, if you're listening to the audio
Speaker:right now, we will link this video so you can watch it on YouTube.
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Why would they say that?
Speaker:Well, they would say that because they're hoping the jury believes
Speaker:it, and then the company that didn't manage safety on the job.
Speaker:And more importantly, it's insurance company.
Speaker:Doesn't have to pay out the claim.
Speaker:And, and so this worker who's like severely injured, doesn't get a recovery.
Speaker:And the worker wasn't doing anything wrong other than resurfacing the turnpike.
Speaker:So we don't have potholes to drive over and supporting his family in the process.
Speaker:So that's why they would say that we believe.
Speaker:And then in the opening statement for the, lawyer, for
Speaker:the defendant running the job.
Speaker:They said, you're gonna hear from this expert and he's gonna tell you
Speaker:that the view out the back of the window from where this photograph
Speaker:was taken was not obstructed.
Speaker:And that's what they said.
Speaker:That's what they said in their opening statement.
Speaker:So I wanna give you a little backstory.
Speaker:What happens is in these cases is we will often we'll take the
Speaker:deposition of the expert in the case.
Speaker:And I remember we were driving to the expert's office to take his deposition
Speaker:and I said, The guy's like, you want to get dropped off in the front or the back.
Speaker:I say, you know what, pull in the back.
Speaker:So, so I don't know if it was intuition or what I said pull in the back.
Speaker:I just want to see this place.
Speaker:So I pull in the back and, and I see in the parking lot.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We pull in the back of the expert's office and I see this parked
Speaker:in the back and he is like, oh.
Speaker:Well, that looks a lot like the truck that we're talking about.
Speaker:And I noticed these two little holes here, right here on the truck.
Speaker:I don't know if you can see them.
Speaker:So we snapped this picture and then we went to the office of the expert and
Speaker:I emailed the picture to his secretary and said, Hey, would you mind printing
Speaker:this out for me for the deposition?
Speaker:And she's like, sure.
Speaker:So we printed out for the deposition and I asked the expert, What's this truck?
Speaker:He goes, oh, that's my truck.
Speaker:And I said, what do you use that for?
Speaker:Oh, we go to accident sites and we use it on the highways and stuff.
Speaker:And I said, does that have a backup alarm on it?
Speaker:And he's like, yes, it has a backup alarm.
Speaker:And I said, does it have a backup camera?
Speaker:And he says, yes, it has a backup camera.
Speaker:So, And then we ask him, well, why does it have a backup alarm
Speaker:and a backup camera on that truck?
Speaker:He goes, well, it's safer so you don't run over anyone.
Speaker:Like, you can't make this stuff up.
Speaker:So in the opening statement for the defense lawyer, in that case, as I
Speaker:said, he said that you're gonna hear from this expert and the expert's
Speaker:gonna tell you that there was, that there was no obstructive view.
Speaker:So we go through this trial, and the trial was like two weeks or so.
Speaker:It was like two and a half to three weeks.
Speaker:And they ended up not calling the expert a trial.
Speaker:So they told the jury, they said, you know, you're gonna hear from
Speaker:this expert, but they actually never called the expert a trial.
Speaker:So as we're discussing this to the jury, we kind of put up this
Speaker:like, where's Waldo kind of thing.
Speaker:Like where's the expert?
Speaker:You know, why didn't they ever call him?
Speaker:Because the judge wouldn't let us show that he had the same truck.
Speaker:So, We had to just like imply to the jury like, they, you were gonna
Speaker:hear this and the guy was gonna say this most ridiculous thing.
Speaker:So that's an example of like experts and how it all swings into it.
Speaker:And it's certainly a behind the scenes thing because the jury never knew
Speaker:that he ha he was gonna get up there and say the truck didn't need it.
Speaker:I think in his report he even said that it would have made the truck
Speaker:more unsafe to have a backup alarm and a backup camera, but, You know,
Speaker:it's not like an isolated thing.
Speaker:Like we see this so much in cases.
Speaker:We especially see it in medical cases where these doctors will just
Speaker:say the most crazy absurd thing.
Speaker:I mean, that's absurd.
Speaker:Like how can they say that?
Speaker:I'm like sitting here as like a non-lawyer.
Speaker:Like that's absurd that they're saying that, and it's like, seems
Speaker:like they're gonna try to say whatever to see who's gonna buy into it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And that's what they're doing.
Speaker:They're gonna, they're trying to get some type of buy-in.
Speaker:So then in the same case, we can keep going.
Speaker:And so he was run over by the truck.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And they then hired damage experts.
Speaker:Real quick, mark.
Speaker:I didn't know where you're going.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker:I just don't wanna cut you off, but I just wanna, you know, we talked about
Speaker:marrying it to standards and, and things.
Speaker:I mean, the OSHA standard on that.
Speaker:Was it needs a backup alarm, if there's any like obstructions to the rear.
Speaker:And in their def, in their, I guess clarifying comment of
Speaker:what constitutes obstructions.
Speaker:They say like, you know, the body of the truck.
Speaker:And we circled that's what those circles were.
Speaker:We circled the tool boxes.
Speaker:Like the, the member, the toolboxes on the truck were an obstruction.
Speaker:The next thing they gave are any tools or things sticking up in the
Speaker:back that might cause, you know, difficulty seeing outta the rear.
Speaker:We circled those.
Speaker:It said any job site lighting that may also cause, you know,
Speaker:difficulty seeing out the back.
Speaker:We circled that and I think the defense guy, I'm trying to remember
Speaker:if you actually did this at the dapp or what, but I think his testimony
Speaker:was that unless the entire back of the truck was obstructed, it didn't need a
Speaker:backup camera and he took a sharpie and basically, Blacked out almost the entire
Speaker:thing, except for one little sliver.
Speaker:And then he was like, oh yeah, then it would need it.
Speaker:And it dimple.
Speaker:It doesn't end there.
Speaker:So then this is our guy after being run over by the truck in the hospital.
Speaker:I mean, it, it's crazy.
Speaker:And so then the insurance company looks like he had a
Speaker:ton of stitches on his head.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Go back to that photo for the audience one more time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So yeah, the injuries were bad.
Speaker:And, and it was largely, it was like, it was a lot of head injuries.
Speaker:These, all these photos and everything were shown before the jury and everything.
Speaker:It was all , public information, but, The insurance company and the defendant
Speaker:in the case actually hired experts that said he had no real permanent injuries
Speaker:and that he was faking his injuries.
Speaker:Like, like they hired experts like this to give these like bogus psychological
Speaker:tests to say that he was malingering and faking his head injury and that he had no
Speaker:real, I mean, and, and the sad thing is, So what this is about is you say, well,
Speaker:it must be easy to be a plaintiff's lawyer because they make such crazy arguments.
Speaker:It's not easy because.
Speaker:To fight those arguments in the litigation, not even the trial, it
Speaker:costs tens of thousands of dollars to research 'em, to take their depositions.
Speaker:To have your expert respond to their crazy statements, it costs like a ton of money.
Speaker:And beyond that, you have to fight them in court because they'll make motions and
Speaker:they'll try to weigh you down in paper.
Speaker:The insurance companies do this like in.
Speaker:Almost every case I've seen, they delay.
Speaker:They don't follow the rules.
Speaker:They say crazy things and you have to fight all this stuff
Speaker:and then you go to trial.
Speaker:And they will still say crazy things and they'll make all kinds of legal
Speaker:maneuvering and jockeying and motions to, for one simple thing, which is to
Speaker:get away from paying and it's just crazy.
Speaker:But I guess if it was easy, anyone, anyone could do it.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:So that's a little vignette or a story of how experts fall into get, so then we have
Speaker:to get experts to say, no, that's crazy.
Speaker:And, and then we have to pay.
Speaker:Tens of thousands of dollars to have experts to come into court
Speaker:and say, oh no, he is injured.
Speaker:And no, it is a legitimate brain injury.
Speaker:And, and yes, he fractured all the ribs and he was basically, he crushed.
Speaker:And you have to go to a three week trial and you have to take up all
Speaker:the time of the judge and you have to take up all the time of the jurors and
Speaker:everything just because the insurance company doesn't want to pay the claim.
Speaker:So that's what it's about.
Speaker:So anyone that wants to be a lawyer or an expert, that's
Speaker:what you can look forward to.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For all the law students out there, you know, it is kind of an, an exciting
Speaker:world, but there's a lot involved and behind the scenes, you're getting to
Speaker:get a little bit of a glimpse at it.
Speaker:Mark, what are your thoughts on all this?
Speaker:Jerry said it.
Speaker:I, I remember obviously that case.
Speaker:Vividly.
Speaker:And just to add on to that, not only then do you have to fight all these forces and
Speaker:they make you go out and spend tens of thousands of dollars, but then when you're
Speaker:making your case, the defense attorneys sometimes will act in incredulous and
Speaker:shocked at the things you're saying.
Speaker:I remember, I think it was the orthopedic doctor, someone who's trial testimony.
Speaker:I, I took, we took his videotaped testimony and.
Speaker:The defense cross-examined him and said, well, isn't it true that the
Speaker:injured worker smoked cigarettes?
Speaker:And isn't it also true that he was, you know, in his fifties and the natural aging
Speaker:process results in degeneration to the.
Speaker:To the body and on redirect, I said, doctor, are the injured workers
Speaker:injuries from smoking cigarettes in the natural aging process?
Speaker:Or are they from being run over by the truck?
Speaker:And the defense attorney was like, objection, that, that's object.
Speaker:That's a mischaracter.
Speaker:And they were shocked.
Speaker:But what they're saying is that, oh, this guy's not hurt from getting backed over
Speaker:by a two ton vehicle, that his injuries are out from all these other things.
Speaker:I've had cases where, The client gets rear-ended, she's got neck pain,
Speaker:and they try and blame it on a deer tick bite she had when she was a
Speaker:kid, say, oh, one of the symptoms of Lyme's disease could be neck pain.
Speaker:It's, you know, it's, they'll do absolutely anything like Jerry said,
Speaker:to try and avoid paying a claim.
Speaker:See it's, it's funny because when I, like when I was in college, I was like
Speaker:really conservative and then I worked for Bob Dole in Washington as like
Speaker:an intern in college for a semester.
Speaker:And one of the reasons I went to law school is because I wanted
Speaker:to like end all these frivolous lawsuits, is the funniest thing.
Speaker:And then, and then I worked for a judge, judge damico in
Speaker:Monmouth County as a clerk.
Speaker:Kind of helping him decide cases and motions.
Speaker:And I thought my mission was to like throw cases outta court
Speaker:because they were all frivolous.
Speaker:And the more I worked with the judge and he showed the law and he
Speaker:showed the facts, I kind of learned.
Speaker:And then I did defense work after that working for insurance companies
Speaker:because I wanted to like do good in the world, which was to get
Speaker:rid of all the frivolous lawsuits.
Speaker:But I, as I realized and went through it, I'm like, I don't see
Speaker:any frivolous lawsuits, whatever.
Speaker:But that was me and that that wasn't that unusual.
Speaker:I mean, that kind of thinking, like we find that basically when you go to court
Speaker:and you have a jury, a pool of jurors, you know, they give you like a hundred jurors,
Speaker:and from that you gotta pick about.
Speaker:Seven or eight to decide your case in that pool of a hundred jurors.
Speaker:A third are gonna be like me the way I thought when I was in
Speaker:law school that all cases are frivolous and should be thrown out.
Speaker:A third are kind of like, don't really care either way, and a
Speaker:third are in your favor before they hear anything about the case.
Speaker:So, I think dimple, you asked why would the experts say that?
Speaker:They say it because a third of the jurors will believe it, like I
Speaker:probably would have back in college.
Speaker:So this is, this is the stuff that you have to, that you have to deal
Speaker:with, and they just want to give them something to hang their hat on to.
Speaker:Either decide for the defendant, you know, to decide for the defendant,
Speaker:even if they decide for the plaintiff to award a little bit of money.
Speaker:So that's how it works.
Speaker:That's fascinating.
Speaker:And these are the things like the general public doesn't know all of this happens,
Speaker:and this is exactly what happens behind the scenes that they don't, now they know.
Speaker:Thanks to, you know, Jersey Justice Podcast, but see, dimple trials
Speaker:are the funniest thing because as I said, at least for us, if we
Speaker:don't think the case is good, we're not gonna take the case to court.
Speaker:So like if this is, if this is your case, like this piece of paper is the whole
Speaker:case and everything about it, right?
Speaker:The juror is only gonna hear about about that much.
Speaker:You know, just, just this little part is what they're gonna hear.
Speaker:They're not gonna see the whole big picture.
Speaker:And we find the big picture is generally better for the plaintiff in our cases.
Speaker:And the defense is always trying to, no, don't tell the jury that.
Speaker:And Oh, you can't tell the jury that.
Speaker:And we need to, so the case, the jury actually sees, it's like
Speaker:this nice package, sterile thing.
Speaker:Because you don't want to award too much money, you know?
Speaker:So we have to, and then they'll object.
Speaker:I was at a trial one time and I think the objections were like 200
Speaker:to about four, where the defense objected 200 times throughout the
Speaker:course of like a two week trial.
Speaker:And I objected like four times and we ended up winning that trial and yeah,
Speaker:because they got a lot to hide, you know?
Speaker:So.
Speaker:That's the stuff that we have to deal with.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Anything else you guys wanna share today?
Speaker:No, I mean, I, I think we're good.
Speaker:We're talking about experts.
Speaker:There's a lot of experts really useful and it's a big fight on
Speaker:both sides, just how it's, yeah.
Speaker:And I think that was, yeah, thanks Mark.
Speaker:And I think that was a great example that Jerry, you know,
Speaker:you shared for our audience.
Speaker:So I guess we will see everyone on the next episode, unless you
Speaker:guys have any last thoughts.
Speaker:I'm good.
Speaker:Thanks Dimple.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:And there you have it, folks.
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