Centuries-old cynicism holds that no good deed goes unpunished. When two sisters encountered a stalled vehicle in the middle of a dark highway, they had no idea that helping its intoxicated occupant would almost kill them. They slowed down, circumvented the obstacle, turned around, and parked on the left shoulder. They exited their vehicle but left its headlights on to warn any other drivers approaching. The younger sister, Serenity Skye Ramos, remained on the shoulder and called emergency services. Just then, a third driver sped into the scene, failing to leave himself enough time and space to avoid the obstacle in its way. He crashed into the disabled car. Like billiards, the impact sent the drunk driver’s vehicle flipping and tumbling toward the shoulder, the sisters' car, and Serenity. The catastrophic collision blasted Serenity six feet into the air. Her miraculous survival came at the cost of severe injuries to multiple organ systems.
Serenity was only seventeen years old when the full and promising life ahead of her changed forever. She had already been planning her college education. A shot-putter and opera singer, her extracurricular interests put to shame those of most other high school students. Serenity and her older sister had been visiting friends and were traveling home the night she nearly lost her life. Among her many injuries, she sustained a shoulder fracture, broken ribs, a ruptured spleen, and a collapsed lung. After a five-day hospitalization, she continued to suffer from back pain. Worse, the years of rehabilitation that followed failed to address the totality of her medical complaints.
Serenity's case had been stuck in limbo for approximately two years when it was assigned to Peter Williamson's litigation team at Rafii & Associates. A trial lawyer and civil rights advocate with more than four decades of experience helping underserved victims like Serenity, Peter was ready to bring her tragic story to an overdue conclusion. He was initially concerned that the drunk driver who Serenity had attempted to assist would be assigned most of the liability for the accident. Peter knew that the third driver, the Defendant, was the primary at-fault party and that recompense for Serenity's terrible injuries was his responsibility.
Peter learned early in the case that the drunk driver was a college student living with his parents and with essentially no assets. His automotive insurance policy had a coverage limit of $100,000. Peter swiftly excised him from the case by settling for the meager policy limit. Meanwhile, the Defense brought aggressive claims against the drunk driver. They insisted that the Defendant would never have added to the pileup or harmed Serenity had the drunk driver not blocked two lanes of the highway. The Defendant argued that, due to the speed limit of the dimly lit highway, he had not seen the drunk driver's vehicle until it was only 50 to 100 yards in front of him. Nevertheless, the Defense refused to accept liability for the accident and resisted all of Peter's attempts to settle Serenity's case.
Peter deposed the Defendant and found glaring inconsistencies in his testimony. The most notable and audacious of his claims was that he had not actually struck Serenity. Peter assembled a small team of experts to bolster the obviousness of his client's case. An accident reconstructionist determined that the Defendant had indeed impacted Serenity. An orthopedic surgeon was prepared to testify about Serenity's constellation of injuries and medical interventions. A life care planner itemized Serenity's future rehabilitative needs. A biomechanics expert elucidated how the Defendant had caused Serenity's injuries. Peter mounted a critical counterpoint to the Defense's allegation that the accident had been unavoidable: Serenity and her sister did avoid it. The accident reconstructionist proved that, had the Defendant not been driving so unsafely, he could have dodged the disabled car. Peter knew from prior experience that DK Global could illustrate the veracity of that simple fact to a jury.
DK Global's presentation opened with an overhead image of the area of highway where the accident had occurred. A concise animation of the collision played. A replay followed, emphasizing the moments of impact with additional graphics and pauses. Photographs of the area and the Plaintiff in the hospital were displayed in an interlude. Lastly, the presentation demonstrated an animated what-if scenario in which the accident could have been avoided had the driver slowed down.
As the case approached mediation, the DK Global presentation demonstrated that Peter was prepared for trial and had a strong theory as to the Defendant's liability. Before mediation began, the Defense increased their settlement offer from $350,000 to $650,000. Peter had demanded $1,200,000. Mediation ended without a settlement, but not long thereafter, a mediator's proposal arrived at $750,000. Peter countered with a statutory offer to compromise at $850,000, the minimum judgment he had planned to accept at trial. The day before the offer expired, the case resolved by way of judgment for the full $850,000 — with an additional $100,000 contributed by the drunk driver’s insurance carrier, bringing the total judgment to $950,000. Serenity was thrilled that, after several years of waiting, she could finally move on and pursue her dream of attending college.
Peter Williamson has been licensed to practice law in California since 1981 and has been a trial lawyer for 44 years. He currently works in that role for Rafii & Associates, a 15-member personal injury and employment law firm based in Beverly Hills, California. Peter has obtained multiple million-dollar verdicts and settlements, several of which were record-setting. In addition to his work with catastrophic personal injury cases, Peter also specializes in civil rights cases involving excessive force and wrongful arrests. He and his co-counsel were the first attorneys in history to obtain a product liability and wrongful death verdict against TASER International, Inc. Peter’s cases have been featured on CBS News and 60 Minutes. He has appeared in trial courts all over the United States, and has been named a Super Lawyer annually since 2010.
