Using Forensic Animation to Prove Negligence

Jason Argos: My name is Jason Argos. I'm an associate at the Law Offices of Sean M. Burke. Sean Burke: Sean Burke from the Law Offices of Sean Burke. Jason Argos: The Bravo family was essentially . . . the surviving family members were our clients. So the case involved an apartment fire. A 47-year old mom and her 4-year old daughter died in their bed as a result of smoke detectors not working in the apartment unit. Sean Burke: A very, very sad case, very disastrous case for this family. We represented the children, the son and daughter of the woman who died — she was 47 when she passed away —after this fire and represented the father of the little girl, the little 4-year old girl that passed away in the fire also. Jason Argos: We pursued ultimately a case against the landlord of the building as well as the property management company and a third party who was charged with servicing the building's fire alarm system, which we determined was also inoperable at the time of the fire. Sean Burke: Part of the strength of the case was just the closeness that this family brought. When they were all deposed, it was just very apparent the loss that they'd suffered. Jason Argos: At that initial mediation, we essentially got nowhere and walked away from that first session. That first session of mediation was followed by three consecutive motions for summary judgment from all three defendants. Once all three motions for summary judgment were addressed and/or adjudicated, we teed ourselves up for a second session of mediation with a legit claim for punitive damages on the table. We used DK Global to help put together an animation for us that showed essentially what happened, the result or the basis for the case, which was mom and daughter don't wake up because the smoke detectors don't go off. Sean Burke: And then we also hired a PhD fire engineer who helped us put together the mechanics of the fire, how the fire started, how the fire spread. And he worked very closely with the people at DK Global to help us develop the animation, which reenacted the fire, reenacted the buildup of smoke and how the smoke built up, when it would have activated the smoke alarms, had they worked. Jason Argos: And then we also had them parse together a second animation of what it would have looked like had the smoke detectors gone off and watching both the mom and daughter safely exit their bedroom. DK Global worked with our experts in putting that together, which was tremendous because without the expert support and input on the preparation of those animations, we wouldn't be able to use them at trial. So DK Global was instrumental in making that happen for us. Sean Burke: DK Global was great to work with. They really did put together a very, very nice product, and it illustrated the whole story we wanted to tell about what happened to these people. Jason Argos: We ultimately agreed upon a settlement number of $5.685 million for the surviving family members.