Our client was a 25-year-old gentleman who suffered a fall through a roof while working in an attic for an HVAC company. As a result of the fall through the roof, the claimant was rendered paralyzed from the waist down.
Claimant lived in a rural location by himself prior to the accident. At the time he hired attorney Stephen Harper, he had been in the Shepherd Center in Atlanta and was being discharged home approximately three days after he hired our firm. He was unable to get a wheelchair into his house because it was old and the doorways were not wide enough. He had no family with a house that he could get into and was being discharged by the Shepherd Center with nowhere to go.
Our office got involved, and we were able to get the workers’ compensation carrier to voluntarily pay for a handicap accessible room in a hotel located a short distance from his house and get him lined up with medical care in Virginia near where he was located. Because of the housing issue, the parties decided to attempt a settlement mediation to resolve the case. Ultimately, we were able to get the compensation carrier to agree to settle his case for a total of $2,373,861.83. After the settlement, the carrier agreed to fund an MSA with an upfront cost of $1,001,078.75 over his life expectancy. The total payout of the MSA would be $2,312,783. In addition, the carrier agreed to pay an additional sum of money in cash. Part of that was being used by the client to fund an annuity that would pay him $1,860 per month for the next 30 years guaranteed for a total payout of $669,600.
In addition, the client would receive $1,372,783.08 in cash. Finally, the carrier agreed to continue to pay for the client’s hotel room until the settlement was finalized by the Workers’ Compensation Commission. Lastly, there was an outstanding issue of a tracked wheelchair for the client because the client continued to be very active, despite his injuries, and his house had a gravel driveway and a grass lawn. The doctors at the Shepherd Center had prescribed the tracked wheelchair. It was denied by the carrier, and, ultimately, we were able to get that paid for as a condition of settlement.