Congratulations to Kate Llaurado, Michelle Hockers, and the team at Murphy Prachthauser, Attorneys at Law for the successful resolution of a case involving a disc bulge after a motor vehicle accident. Their $300,000 verdict was the result of lessons from Jesse Wilson’s Witness Preparation: How To Tell the Winning Story, Jim Perdue’s Courtroom Storytelling, and Keith Mitnik’s Don't Eat the Bruises.
County: Milwaukee County, WI
Final Offer: $8,300 pre-suit; $30,000 statutory offer month before trial
Verdict: $300,000
The Crash: Defendant Runs Red Light, Causes T-Bone Collision
Kate’s client was traveling through a green light when the defendant driver ran a red light and t-boned her in the intersection. The crash resulted in both cars being totaled, and a disc bulge in the plaintiff’s lower spine. The other driver carried only a minimum insurance policy, so the plaintiff team brought an underinsured motorist claim against their client’s insurance company.
Even though the event was caught on video, and showed that the defendant clearly sped through a red light, the defense did not admit full liability. Even at trial, they claimed that the plaintiff should be held 15 percent at fault for not being aware of her surroundings.
The Challenge: A Strong Recovery and a Stoic Plaintiff
“I didn't think this would even get to trial,” explains Kate. “The damages seemed obvious: our client had suffered a disc bulge in her back, and we had MRI evidence of the injury. The biggest challenge for us was that our client had made a good recovery, so she was still able to work and still able to live; she was just doing so in a great deal of pain.”
As a high-end chef, the plaintiff knew how to work hard without complaint. But, at just 33 years old, she would finish a shift and sometimes have to use a cane the next day. “I think [the defense] proceeded to go to trial because they were banking on the fact that she had made this good recovery, and that she shouldn't get a huge amount of damages because of that,” says Kate.
The Trial and Verdict
By the time the case went to trial, it had been almost five years since the accident.
The defense started out as though the plaintiff was the one on trial, with extended questioning about her recovery, her daily routine, and the intervening years between the accident and the trial. The plaintiff team stayed focused on their client’s ongoing mobility issues and the ongoing problems this caused in her life. In this case, the only two damages items on the Special Verdict were past pain and suffering and future pain and suffering.
After 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a $300,000 verdict.
“This was truly a case of vindicated justice,” says Kate, “This was not about the money; it was about her side of the story finally being taken seriously.”
Trial Guides Titles in Action
Kate used three Trial Guides titles to prepare her client and her case.
Jesse Wilson’s Witness Preparation: Tell the Winning Story
The plaintiff team retained Jesse to work with their client, who was accustomed to soldiering on without complaining. Kate also read Witness Preparation: How To Tell the Winning Story to prepare for the case.
“In many ways, this was the ideal client: she’s not a complainer or one to sit around saying, ‘Woe is me.’ The downshot is, it’s harder for this kind of person to explain to a jury how this has affected them.” Working with Jesse, and employing the lessons in his book, helped her client open up and tap into how this has affected her.
Kate also used Jesse’s proven “victim to victor” approach in showing that her client remained joyful and engaged in her life, in spite of her injury. “A big theme of our [case] was: This isn't just work for her. Being a chef is her passion. Once we got testimony from the doctor about what she can and can't do, the jury automatically understood what had been taken from her.”
Jesse Wilson’s Witness Preparation: How To Tell the Winning Story teaches attorneys how to tell a story instead of simply presenting evidence. Written by a Juilliard-trained communications specialist and jury trial consultant, Witness Preparation offers trial-tested methods to prepare your clients, experts, and lay witnesses to deliver effective testimony during both deposition and trial.
Jim Perdue’s Courtroom Storytelling
“I read Courtroom Storytelling a couple weeks before the trial,” says Kate, “and I found it really helpful. I think that sometimes, as lawyers, we can get so in our head with the facts, the procedure, and the presenting of evidence, that we forget that what we're really doing is just telling a story. When you overcomplicate things or make it too fact-driven, it takes the human piece out of it. I think people relate a lot more to just hearing a story, and it makes a lot more sense to the jury when you tell it like that. That's what I found really helpful about that book.”
After its publication in 2023, Courtroom Storytelling became an instant classic. Courtroom Storytelling draws from celebrated attorney Jim Perdue’s four decades of courtroom trial practice. With a focus on how to humanize your client through narrative–and with heartwarming personal stories threaded throughout–Courtroom Storytelling will leave an impression on attorneys at any stage in their careers.
Keith Mitnik’s Don’t Eat the Bruises: How to Spoil Their Plans to Ruin Your Case
“[The biggest challenge of our case was that] our client had made a good recovery,” explains Kate. “So how did we spin that to our benefit? We used lessons from Don’t Eat the Bruises and framed this fact to our advantage: [Our client] is a fighter. Even a serious injury will not stop her passion. This helped us structure her recovery into something positive for our verdict.”
Keith Mitnik, senior trial counsel at Morgan & Morgan, lays bare his proven methods for big verdicts in Don’t Eat the Bruises. Juror biases, decontextualized facts, and chasing small, specious assertions about your client are all bruises: cheap tricks the defense uses to distract the jury from delivering justice. Mitnik counters these common problems (and more) with an approachable, proven system for successful trial advocacy.
Special Thanks
Kate wishes to thank one of her law firm partners and co-counsel, Michelle Hockers for her help with this case.