Client Stories for the Law Offices of Julie Butcher, PLLC

Kentucky Truck Accident Case & Wrongful Death Lawsuit

When the client’s husband was run over and killed by a tractor trailer driver in broad daylight on the straightest stretch of road in Mercer County, Julie suspected the truck driver fell asleep at the wheel.

Julie followed her hunch and found an eyewitness who was another truck driver.  The eyewitness said he had been following the defendant for several miles and noticed how he sped up and slowed down with no reason.  He also drifted right and left over the fog line and the centerline.  But that wasn’t enough to prove Julie’s theory.  Julie got a court order to get the defendant truck driver’s medical records and to make him undergo a sleep study.

That data was then supplied to Julie’s expert on sleep and safety, a man who had worked with NASA doing research on that subject.  The expert was able to show that even though the driver was not technically past his allowable driving time under FMCSR rules, he was medically unsafe to drive his second shift due to his sleep apnea condition.

Truck Accident Case & Wrongful Death

In another motor vehicle accident case, the client’s husband ran into the back of a tractor trailer parked alongside the interstate in Louisville, Kentucky.  When others thought the husband was the only one at fault, Julie Butcher dug deeper.  She found out that the driver was stopped to use the portable urinal in his cab even though he was in a metropolitan area.  She also discovered that his truck was not completely off the merging ramp even though there was plenty of room for him to get off the road.

When Julie and her engineering expert did several road tests to determine the husband’s ability to see the truck they found that he did not have sufficient perception/reaction time and that the stopped truck was not conspicuous.

The truck driver stated that he was only stopped briefly because the rules require specific placement of warning devices (cones or flares) if a truck is stopped longer than 10 minutes for any reason.  Julie dug even deeper and got the satellite printout of the driver’s location by time, longitude and latitude and then compared it with the certified 911 tape log times.  That evidence showed the truck driver lied; he had been stopped for much longer than 10 minutes without putting out cones.  The driver also kept 2 sets of log books, a major rule violation!

In the nick of time

A client came to Julie just short of two years after his terrible wreck.  The insurance adjuster for the at-fault driver had been very nice.  He even visited him in the hospital.  The adjuster assured the client that he “was in good hands.”

Fortunately, the client called Julie just before the statute of limitations ran on his ability to file suit.

Hey watch it buddy!

Julie recently had a client who was an independent truck driver that was seriously hurt when a forklift driver dropped a heavy load on the back of the client’s flatbed without checking to see if it was clear and safe to do so.

Fortunately for the client, he was able to jump off the deck before being squished by the load.  Unfortunately, he landed on his back when he did.  The difference in getting the case resolved fairly for the client was comparing the video testimony of the supervisor with the video testimony of the forklift driver.