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CASE STUDIES — Brain Injury #172
VOCATIONAL ISSUES A KEY PART OF
RODNEY KING DAMAGES
NATURE OF CASE:
Rodney King sued the City of Los Angeles for a beating he suffered while being apprehended by LAPD officers. They retained Richard Andersen who rendered an opinion about Mr. King's future loss of earning capacity in the damages portion of the personal injury trial. Andersen demonstrated Mr. King could not perform the jobs proposed by the defense expert because of his physical and cognitive disabilities.
OUTCOME:
The jury awarded Mr. King $3.8 million.
ATTORNEY:
Milton Grimes, Esq., of Santa Ana Heights; Frederico Castelan Sayre, Esq., of Newport Beach, and John Burris, Esq., of Oakland, represented Mr. King.
SITUATION:
The details of Mr. King's incident are known worldwide. He was severely beaten and suffered multiple body contusions, including 19 broken bones in his face. This resulted in permanent neurological damage. He was left with memory and attention deficits, facial pain, vertigo, headaches, speech difficulties and depression from his injuries. The severity of his neurological symptoms was demonstrated to have a profound impact on his ability to be gainfully employed.
At first, it would appear Mr. King would have little or no loss of income. He was unemployed at the time of injury, was a felon and had a history of learning problems in school. However, he was to return to work on March 4, 1991 (1 day after his incident) for his former employer, doing construction work at $16.61 per hour plus a $9.01 per hour benefits package. In the spring of 1991, Mr. King was scheduled to begin a two year vocational training program at night. The Los Angeles Trade & Technical program would have prepared him to become a diesel mechanic by June 1993.
The opposing vocational expert presented a number of jobs Mr. King should be able to perform, post-injury, such as bill collector, dog groomer or gate tender/security guard.
Andersen pellucidly demonstrated Mr. King could not perform the jobs proposed by the defense expert because of his physical and cognitive disabilities. Andersen opined Mr. King could only work part-time work, but these jobs paid only a third of his construction compensation. The jury accepted Andersen's opinion and Robert W. Johnson, of Robert W. Johnson & Associates, plaintiff economist's testimony, regarding the degree of economic damages
ABOUT RICHARD ANDERSEN:
Richard Andersen is certified as both a Rehabilitation Counselor and Vocational Evaluator, with 35 years experience in vocational rehabilitation.
VECTOR, Inc., specializes in vocational expert testimony on personal injury, wrongful death, divorce and social security matters. The firm, founded in 1975, serves both plaintiff and defense attorneys, providing the link between the physician and the economist to precisely determine damages.
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