Yarborough Applegate attorney Liam Duffy was invited to present last week at the Louisiana Association for Justice’s “Winning with the Masters” CLE program. His talk, “Lessons Learned from a Louisiana Scaffold-Fall Case,” was around a workplace injury case he recently settled for $15.75 million for a Louisiana woman who was critically injured on the job near Baton Rouge.
The woman was tragically rendered a paraplegic after falling ~20 feet from an unsafe scaffold on an asbestos abatement jobsite. Two years into the case, Yarborough Applegate was brought in as lead trial counsel thanks to the significant verdicts and settlements we’ve secured for Hispanic immigrants and victims of spinal cord injuries.
The $15.75 million outcome was a resounding affirmation of the rights of immigrant workers who are needlessly injured at the hands of negligent employers and third parties in the construction industry.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM A LOUISIANA SCAFFOLD FALL CASE
Duffy’s presentation covered broader insights to be learned from our team’s strategic approaches that proved to be difference-makers in this case. Among them: the mindset required to set aside fears created by your case’s so-called “bad” facts—for example, a client’s immigration status—avenues to explore for additional claims to maximize your client’s recovery, and how to anticipate and avoid common traps in workplace injury and scaffolding cases.
Knowing that even the most well-built case is worthless if a judge or jury fails to process key information and its implications, Duffy also emphasized the importance of simplifying every case through easy-to-understand visual aids, testing and honing case theories using big-data surveys and focus groups, and embracing technology as part of everyday trial and deposition practice.
Duffy’s talk before the Louisiana Association for Justice was the latest in a series of workplace injury presentations he’s given this year before legal peers. Our attorneys are proud to be industry leaders, and every time we’re invited to share case-proven insights with colleagues in the legal community, we aid in building a stronger, more just legal profession for all.
If you have a case in need of co-counsel, contact Yarborough Applegate to see how we can help.
Duffy revisited several third-party injury and death cases in which he and the Yarborough Applegate team have sought and obtained significant recovery outside of the workers compensation system.
Duffy’s presentation detailed the ways workers compensation attorneys can push to obtain full justice for their clients by identifying workplace injury cases that involve the negligence of a third-party.
Yarborough Applegate is excited to welcome its newest attorney, Liam Duffy. The firm first met Liam when he came to work here in 2015 while studying at the Charleston School of Law. After graduating summa cum laude, Liam went on to work for one of Charleston’s top litigation firms where he represented both plaintiffs and […]
This month, join us as we commemorate some of our team’s incredible accomplishments in both their personal and professional lives.
His talk provided attendees with practical tips for spotting these kinds of cases, working them up aggressively to improve results, and ultimately trying them to a jury.
As we savor the final days of 2021, we wanted to take a moment and revisit some of the year’s defining movements for our team here at Yarborough Applegate, and extend our deepest gratitude to all those who we’ve had the honor of working with along the way.