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August 19, 2025 32 mins

Reach Out Here

When tragedy strikes a family, especially one involving a child, the path forward can seem impossibly daunting. Enter Keri Nahama, a formidable personal injury attorney who specializes in representing society's most vulnerable victims – children who cannot speak for themselves.

With a philosophy she describes as "polite until provoked," Keri reveals the profound purpose behind personal injury law that goes far beyond monetary compensation. Through heartbreaking yet inspiring stories, she demonstrates how holding wrongdoers accountable not only provides justice for individual families but creates safer environments for all children.

One particularly moving case involves a disabled child who suffered a broken femur during a routine diaper change at daycare. Despite the child's inability to verbalize what happened, Keri fought through two trials to ensure justice was served. "This was truly about justice," she explains. "You can't break this kid's leg at school and then lie about it because he can't speak."

Keri dismantles common misconceptions about personal injury attorneys, addressing parents' concerns about appearing "greedy" when pursuing compensation for injured children. She offers practical wisdom about insurance coverage, the legal process of protecting children's settlements, and how to recognize red flags when dealing with defendants and insurance companies.

For anyone navigating the aftermath of an injury – especially to a child – Keri's expertise provides a roadmap through the complex legal landscape while her compassion offers reassurance that justice remains possible even in the most challenging circumstances. Her career stands as powerful testimony that advocacy for the vulnerable is both professionally fulfilling and socially essential.

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🎙️ Hosts: Ilona Antonyan & Mila Arutunian
📲 Follow us on IG: @glamorousgrindpodcast

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carree (00:00):
This was truly about justice.
This child is going to havelifelong issues and she should
still be compensated.

Ilona (00:06):
Welcome back to the Glamorous Grind.

Mila (00:08):
Today's guest is someone who turns devastation into
accountability.
When tragedy strikes the family, keri Nahama is the one you
want on your side.
A defense attorney tells thejury kids are resilient, they'll
bounce back.
Yeah, no red flag, oh yeah.

Carree (00:24):
Yeah, for sure, 100%.
Let them say that they're justdigging their own grave.

Ilona (00:29):
If you're in San Diego's legal circles, you know her name
, and if you're a woman tryingto do everything, you need to
know her story especially whenit involves children.

Carree (00:38):
What I say is is your child injured?
Is your child suffering?
What's your child going through?
That has a value.

Mila (00:45):
Do you agree?
She is proof that your purposedoesn't need to compete with
your personal life.
It just needs you to stopasking for permission.
Carrie, thank you so much forjoining us.

(01:05):
This is such a privilege tohave you on here.
You're a badass mom, a badassattorney.
Why don't you tell ourlisteners a little bit about
yourself?
I?

Carree (01:15):
have always wanted to be a lawyer.
I don't know why my parentsaren't lawyers.
We didn't run in circles wherethere were lawyers.
It was just something that Ialways wanted to do, and if you
looked back at my sixth gradeyearbook, it would say in there
that I wanted to be a corporatelawyer, which I had no idea what
that meant.

Mila (01:35):
But it was your calling innately, it seems like Innately
.

Carree (01:37):
The first internship that I had was with the city
attorney's office.
With the city attorney's officeand we had cases where the one
that really I remember andstands out is this woman was
getting married right and shepaid her photographer like
$5,000 upfront as a deposit andhe never showed up at their

(02:00):
wedding.
And so the city attorney it wasthe Consumer and Environmental
Protection Unit they took onthat case because you can't do
that to people and so just fromthat's not personal injury,
right, but from that I'm likethat does suck, like something
needs to happen.
I mean, it's your wedding day.
That is not cool to just notshow up.

Ilona (02:22):
So I don't know that cities take cases like that for
private individuals.
Yeah, consumer protection cases.

Carree (02:28):
So we also did a lot of grocery store cases where they
said the meat price was onething and then it was changed.
A little bait and switch action.

Ilona (02:37):
That's interesting because my mom was telling me
the other day she went to TraderJoe and the eggs were supposed
to be $5.99, but they were $6.99.
That's what she's been chargedon receipts every time she goes.
And my nephew now, all of asudden he wants to sue everybody
and they don't know where it'scoming from.
So he's like we're going to sueTrader Joe.
So we're laughing about thatyesterday because Maybe he wants

(03:00):
to be a city attorney.

Carree (03:01):
Yeah, funny story, that's one of the things I do,
so yeah, so I did that.
And then the next internship Ihad was with a personal injury
attorney and from then on I wasjust mesmerized.
I mean the cases and the peopleand just everything about it I
liked and it just felt like itjust fit with my personality and

(03:25):
my skill set.
Really.

Ilona (03:27):
And doing PI from day one From day one Awesome.
What kind of cases have?

Carree (03:31):
you handled Lots of children's cases, which is a
focus of my practice now, andlots of car accidents.
I did take a short kind ofdetour into wrongful removal,
CPS cases, civil rights cases.

Ilona (03:45):
You got a like $2.1 million.

Carree (03:48):
verdict Was that recently, that was a couple of
years ago.
But what that started out withwas an accident to a little girl
, an injury to a little girl ata daycare center.
And so what happened in thatone was she had mom picked her
up, she had broken blood vesselson her face that her mom was

(04:09):
just like that.
She thought it was a rash,maybe she ate a strawberry, you
know whatever.
So it didn't look right to mom.
Daycare provider didn't knowwhat happened.
So mom took the child to Rady'sand immediately that type of an
injury is from strangulation orsomething like that.

Mila (04:23):
Really yes.
Who was it?
Who did that?

Carree (04:23):
And immediately that type of an injury is from
strangulation or something likethat.

Ilona (04:26):
Really, really, yes, yes.

Carree (04:27):
Who was it?
Who did that the daycare?
Are you serious?
Yes, and because when momdropped her off she didn't have
the injury, and when mom pickedher up.

Ilona (04:34):
She had that.

Carree (04:35):
And so immediately, the doctors were like this is now
escalated.

Mila (04:40):
Gave me goosebumps.

Carree (04:41):
I know this is now escalated to being a you know
abuse case.

Ilona (04:45):
The child wouldn't tell her mom.

Carree (04:47):
That was one of the issues with small children who
are nonverbal.
If you have a child who'snonverbal and an injury happened
that nobody can explain how ithappened, then that poor child
has to go through the entiregamut of all of the abuse kind
of testing.

Mila (05:04):
They have to have, you know, cranial exams, they have
to have full body scans, theother day my daughter came back
from daycare and she had thishuge thing on her leg.
We had no idea what it was.
I was like did she get bitten?
No one knew.
No one knew.
And then we took her to the ERand she had like a bee bite that
went really bad.

Ilona (05:23):
She had to go on antibiotics.

Mila (05:24):
It got infected, but like I mean, something could have bit
her, they wouldn't even notice.
Yeah, in this case.

Carree (05:30):
Once that happened, then CPS got involved.
And once the parents went home,cps showed up at their door at
11 pm and they're like we wantto talk to you, we want to come
in.
They're not allowed to do thatunless they have a warrant,
right, you don't have to letthem into your house.
But people don't know andthey're like yeah, let's talk
about the daycare.
What the heck happened?

(05:50):
I want you to go over there andtalk to them.
So that's why they let them in.
But once they let them in, thenthey took their children both
of them.

Ilona (05:59):
They presume that the parents did it.

Carree (06:05):
Yes, because the child's nonverbal and they don't know
what happened and nobody canexplain it.
Wow, they shouldn't have takenthe children.
Yeah, they can only take thechildren if there is some kind
of an imminent harm, rightWithout a warrant.
They should have checked thedaycare first.

Ilona (06:16):
And nobody investigated daycare.
The police didn't go andquestion them.

Carree (06:20):
Eventually.

Ilona (06:20):
Yeah, but not before the children were taken away.

Carree (06:23):
The child was one and a half.
Oh yeah, she was a baby.
So, yeah, the children were atPolinsky, for I think they were
only there for like 48 hours.
But I did take a little detouron those types of cases because
it's not right.
Yes, CPS has an amazingly hardjob, no question about it.
Cps has an amazingly hard job,no question about it, and they

(06:44):
see a lot of really horriblethings.
But they have to understandpeople's constitutional rights
and parents' constitutionalrights before they just remove
children $4 billion verdict inLos Angeles County.

Ilona (06:56):
To now Polinsky Center is being sued here and even other
practitioners like yourselfbringing individual cases.
It would be so much cheaper forthem to hire right and follow
their procedures and invest thatmoney in training their people

(07:18):
instead of paying all theselawsuits.

Carree (07:20):
You would be amazed at, because I sat through so many
social workers' depositions onthese cases.
They don't know the law, theyhaven't been trained on it, they
don't understand it.
They don't know it.
It was shocking and eye-opening.
And what this family wentthrough to be accused of you

(07:45):
know, of abuse of your children,when this daycare provider had
done this is horrible.

Mila (07:53):
A lot of times people see attorneys fighting for other
people's rights and you know itseems badass and cool.
This is heavy work, especiallychildren.
And cool, this is heavy work,especially children.
Children literally cannot standout for themselves.
Even if they could, they don'thave formed enough brains to
understand their rights.
That must be very heavy for you.

(08:14):
And how do you separate thatfrom life If you follow?

Carree (08:19):
my Instagram.
You may have seen one of myposts recently where it was a
post that said I'm polite untilprovoked, and it had this like
little weird bear with like aknife, and I feel like that's
kind of my professional personaI am polite until I'm provoked.
But yeah, it is hard toseparate it.
But I don't know, I don't havea great thing to tell you other

(08:42):
than I think all of us who dothis work, we're really good at
compartmentalizing our emotionsand that's just.
I think you're conditioned overtime.
As a lawyer, maybe it starts inlaw school, right or no?
I was just a mess the entiretime in law school, but I mean,
I just I don't know at somepoint I think the same for

(09:02):
doctors or you know, any kind ofa profession Hospice nurses who
spend like all this time withyes.
You have to compartmentalizebecause it is too heavy you get
conditioned.

Mila (09:14):
It is.
So let me tell you somethingfunny Like when I was on the
defense side, I could notcompartmentalize,
compartmentalize and in fact thereason why I left PI defense
work and went into employmentdefense work was because of
working on cases against kids.
It was very hard for me.
I had two specific cases that Iremember just like.

(09:35):
I couldn't do it and I went andI was like I'm going to do
employment law through.
This.
One was a little girl who, likestuck her finger into a hand
dryer and got her finger slicedoff and my job in deposing her
was basically to establish thatshe understood it was wrong and
did it anyway, which was awful.
It was awful trying to, likemake that argument, but that was

(09:58):
my job.
I had to do it.
I could not compartmentalize.
I couldn't sleep at night.
I could not compartmentalize, Icouldn't sleep at night, I mean
.
Another case was a littlethree-year-old boy who hopped
onto an air conditioning unit onthe 14th floor of his building
and fell out of the unit and theonly reason he survived was
because a tree broke his falland I had to depose his mom.

(10:20):
At the time I had athree-year-old.
I had to depose his mom andshow that, like they should have
known not to let thethree-year-old climb on the A's
Negligent supervision.

Carree (10:29):
Oh my God, I mean that's really hard.
I don't know that if I weredoing defense against these
cases, I would be able tocompartmentalize.
I think that's really tough.
I think, though, on plaintiff'sside, the best job ever,
because we get to fight for them.
Right, like I'm going tofreaking.
Go down on this on any of mycases where I'm just fighting

(10:54):
for you.
I mean that's like how cool isthat?
And you just go all out.

Mila (10:59):
A lot of purpose in that, I'm sure.

Ilona (11:01):
Yes, it was satisfying to get the results for sure.
Yes, yeah, absolutely.
And although sometimes it'sonly money and you can't fix the
physical injuries that theyhave sustained or emotional pain
, money helps.

Carree (11:14):
It does.
And how stoked are these kidswhen they're like you know, two
and a half, when this thinghappens.
And then when they turn like 18, they get all this money and
they're like, wow, where didthis come from?

Mila (11:25):
So and now it's time for let's Get Gritty our audience
Q&A.
Here's the listener question.
My sister's child was injuredin a daycare accident, but she's
afraid to sue.
She thinks it'll make her lookgreedy.
So what would you say to her?

Carree (11:40):
This is something that people worry about a lot.
When they call me and this is aquestion they don't want to
seem greedy, they don't want to.
You know, take the defendant'smoney.
You know they don't understandhow insurance works and all of
that kind of stuff, andespecially when it involves
children, what I say is is yourchild injured?
Is your child suffering?

(12:01):
I mean, what's your child goingthrough?
And I walk them through all ofthat and I say that has a value.
Do you agree?

Ilona (12:09):
The greed factor matters when there's insurance or
there's no insurance, right, ifit's small, if it's just a
person you're suing and you likethe person who owns the
business or someone you workwith, where the child was
injured or someone else wasinjured and you know that the
insurance is not going to coverit, then that person will

(12:30):
sustain financial stress anddamage as a result of what you
may be recovering, even if thecase is a lot that could turn
their life and their familyupside down.
But if there is insurance, thenthe business owner or whoever
has already paid the insurancecompany and they're supposed to
cover them if they do, and thenI think that's okay and you

(12:50):
shouldn't feel guilty if thereis insurance coverage and that's
a great explanation for sure,and I think they do have to
understand right the difference.

Carree (12:58):
But I mean, even in, I have a case.
I have a minor compromise inMurrieta tomorrow, if you guys
want to come real quick.
That involves a child who isbitten by a dog and the
defendant is paying out ofpocket a lot.
Her case is worth a lot morebut there's no insurance.
The insurance there was anexclusion on the policy.

(13:20):
This woman is paying out ofpocket and I understand that
that's a financial burden, but Imean you know when you're
trying to settle and whether ornot a lawsuit is filed.

Ilona (13:31):
That's relevant, I think, to a person when they're
deciding on a personal level ifthey're going to want to go
through with it, but when you'realready in the middle of the
trial, that's excludedinformation you don't get to

(13:54):
hear it.

Mila (13:54):
Yeah, here's what I would add to the daycare situation.
These laws are put in place notonly to compensate for injuries
, but also to prevent this fromhappening again.
If you don't bring a lawsuit,if you don't hold the daycare
accountable, it probably willhappen again.

Ilona (14:12):
To other kids, which is sad.
Things like that should nothappen, and people who cause
injuries shouldn't continue towork.
That's a great point.
People think we're justambulance chasers happen and
people who cause injuriesshouldn't continue to work.

Carree (14:20):
That's a great point.
People think we're justambulance chasers.
We're just out to get as muchmoney as we can and then blast
it all over Instagram and socialmedia right, but yes, there are
some attorneys who are likethat, but at the end of the day,
our job is to hold peopleaccountable, just like you're
saying.
That's what our job is and tomake things safer.

(14:42):
So that's where I find solace.

Ilona (14:49):
You know about ambulance chasing.
We restarted our personalinjury department in 2025, and I
get a call from someone in theRussian community and they refer
to personal injury client to me, like she's at the hospital,
she wants to meet you.
So I'm like, all right, I'll goto the hospital and meet her.
So I came to the hospital andin her room this lady just got

(15:09):
injured and had a serious, likeserious, serious car accident.
The day before.
She had 12 lawyers already cometo her at the hospital.
They were not referred to.
I don't know how they found outabout her accident.
Probably they have connectionsthrough the police or ambulance
people.
I don't know how, but shedidn't know those people.

(15:31):
But they showed up some at herhospital room and I saw a bunch
of retainers left.
She didn't sign any of them.
Ultimately, she signed up withour firm.
We're helping her currentlywith her brain injury case and a
serious car accident case.
But I was surprised that I meanto me that was ambulance
chasing.

(15:51):
Like if somebody doesn't callyou and ask you to come, then
it's almost like inappropriateto just show up this person is
injured and you're just showingup there.

Carree (15:59):
I'm pretty sure that's illegal.
Or at least a severe violationof our code of ethics.
Unfortunately, that happens.
There's always going to be badapples in every single
profession.

Mila (16:09):
Are you ready for this next segment?
It's called Red Flag, GreenFlag.
I'm just going to hold up thered one.
Probably smart.
They're glamorous flags, andtoday's theme is does this
policy protect the people or theinsurance companies?

Ilona (16:25):
A school installs a new playground equipment after a
head injury by a child but nevernotifies the parents.
Red flag- why.

Carree (16:35):
I mean a head injury is very serious and have long-term
effects for the child.
So parents have to be notifiedabout that immediately.

Ilona (16:44):
Other parents aside from the injured child's parents.

Carree (16:48):
Other parents too, because they have a right to
know at daycare centers whattypes of injuries and how many
injuries have happened.

Mila (16:54):
A term just came into my head from law school what
Subsequent remedial measures?
Yes, I love it.
Yes, I just signed a new casewhere that's an issue, so talk
about subsequent remedialmeasures.

Carree (17:07):
What does it mean?
Yeah, so it's favored, right,it's favored in society, for if
a person is injured somewhereand then a store or whatever
fixes that problem, that'sfavored because you don't want
somebody else to get hurt.
But as lawyers we can't talkabout it in court or in trial.

(17:29):
You can't say look, it was sonegligent, because, look, they
fixed it later.

Ilona (17:33):
You can't talk about it like that there's a jury
instruction called subsequentremedial measures that doesn't
permit you to talk about it.
That's right.

Mila (17:40):
Basically, if a company, after an injury happens, fixes
the injury after the fact, youcan't bring it up in court or in
trial to show that they musthave been guilty because they
fixed it later.
That's right.
You said it much better than Idid.

Carree (17:53):
Yeah, lots of ways around it.
Tell us the secrets to getaround it.
Yeah, so if you're just usingit to show control, right, it's
not to show negligence, it's toshow that that defendant painted
that curb stop.
So they're in charge of thatcurb stop.
That's all we're trying to show.
We're not trying to show.

Mila (18:10):
So all you need is like a little piece in their deposition
where they're like we had nocontrol over this place, and
then you're like oh huh, but youpainted it later.
Yeah, huh, yeah, but youpainted it later.

Carree (18:17):
Yeah, go to the jury instruction, go to the
annotations, find out what allthe exceptions are and ask all
of those questions in yourdeposition to try to like poke
it.
But yeah, there's a ton of waysaround it.
God, being a lawyer is so fun,it's so fun.

Mila (18:30):
It is fun, it's amazing.
And the reason that exists thesubsequent remedial measures,
jury instructions is toincentivize companies to fix
things so injuries don't keephappening again and again.

Ilona (18:44):
Public policy- I think that's the reason we have.
It is because if we didn't havethat jury instruction, then
people wouldn't fix things untillawsuits are over and then
there would be more injuries andmore payouts by insurance
companies and more people hurt.

Carree (18:56):
What's crazy is if they can fix it and it like is so
cheap to fix it and then theychoose not to because they're
worried about it looking bad.
That's crazy.

Mila (19:06):
They should fix it All right let's do the next one.
What's the next question?
An insurance company agrees topay out, but then delays
disbursement for 14 months.
Red flag.

Carree (19:16):
Very bad.
Yeah, I mean you know what I'vebeen doing in A time frame.
Part of what we agree to is atime frame for when the check
has to come in.
It's a little tricky sometimesif people, if you're dealing
with getting liens and stuffresolved, especially
governmental liens, right, theycan take a long time, but I
still put the provision in there.

Ilona (19:37):
How much time do you give them?

Carree (19:39):
Usually it's 30 days that I will be paid once they
receive the executed releasewithin 30 days, because it's not
fair.
I mean your clients, they don'tunderstand all this, and so-.
30 days is generous.
That is very generous.
Yeah, so that's what I do, yeah.
Okay, red or green flag, ahospital voluntarily discloses a

(20:00):
medical error to the family andoffers to cover long-term care
before a lawsuit is filed, thatis both, because maybe they're
agreeing to pay for thelong-term care, but they're not
giving you an opportunity tonegotiate what the fair amount
would be for that right.
So people, that person mightthink, oh well, they're paying,

(20:21):
they're taking responsibility,they're doing everything right,
but maybe they're paying 50% orless of what they really should
be paying.

Ilona (20:29):
So that's what I'm thinking yeah, and it's good to
speak with a lawyer, because alawyer may be able to cover
other damages aside fromlong-term care.
Special damage.
It's financial, but there'salso emotional damage.
There's pain and sufferingwhich is worth money that a
lawyer can negotiate.

Carree (20:45):
I mean, this happens all the time with clients who maybe
they have a case with their owninsurance company and the
insurance company is like, don'tworry, we'll take care of you
like a good neighbor and we'llgive you $1,000 on your brain
injury.
And the people think like, oh,they're giving me money.
I mean, why do I need a lawyer?
Well, because your case isprobably worth a million dollars

(21:06):
.
So, yeah, yeah, so yeah.

Ilona (21:09):
So the answer is don't trust the insurance company,
don't trust anyone.
Well, and when you have aninjury.

Mila (21:13):
You don't necessarily know what your long-term care may be
.
You don't know.

Carree (21:17):
And they try to do a settlement really quick before
you know kind of what's going onwith you.

Mila (21:22):
So yeah, agreed, okay.
A medical group issues a publicstatement of accountability but
denies all liability in court.

Carree (21:31):
Yeah, bad, very bad, yeah, I mean that just adds
insult to injury for the familyand the victims that have
suffered an injury at the handsof the defendant and then to get
to court and completely changetheir tune and fight you and
ridicule you.

Mila (21:49):
A defense attorney tells the jury kids are resilient,
they'll bounce back.
Yeah, no red flag, oh yeah yeahfor sure.

Carree (21:53):
100 kids are so not resilient.
Let them say that they're justdigging their own grave and
saying that because you will getup there and through your
experts and the testimony fromthe parents and teachers, that
you, this child, wasn't able tobe resilient in this type of a
situation and with this type ofan injury.
So while that's a cute littlephrase to use, that doesn't

(22:17):
apply to the case.

Mila (22:19):
Oh, I would not want to go against you in trial.

Ilona (22:21):
Yeah, I can see the fire.
I love it, I love it.
Polite until provoked.
Okay, red or green flag.
The hospital apologizes for asurgical error but forces a
family to sign a non-disclosureagreement.
Red flag All day, but theycan't really force anybody to
sign it without paying them.

(22:42):
Well, they can ask them to signit and people might not know,
right.
I mean, when you get presenteda whole bunch of documents that
are legalese and boilerplate,most people, especially at the
time of stress, that's not whattheir mind is.
They may just sign it withoutreading it.
I mean, I'm a lawyer and Isometimes don't want to read all
that.
I'm like done, here's thepaperwork, a hundred percent.

Mila (23:00):
Not okay, Especially when you're vulnerable and you're
dealing with an injured child.
I mean you're not going toreally be able to use your brain
to the full capacity.
Yeah, no.

Carree (23:10):
Super sneaky underhanded red flag.

Ilona (23:15):
On these cases you have to do minors compromise and the
funds are held in an interestbearing account until the child
turns 18.

Carree (23:24):
But you can petition the court to get the money sooner
In every single minor's case,the money either has to go into
a blocked account and typicallyfor kind of lower settlements.
So if a child's net is anywherefrom maybe $5,000 to $20,000,
that money would generally gointo a blocked account and you

(23:46):
petition the court if you needto get it out sooner and
whatever.
If the money that they'regetting in their net is more
than twenty thousand dollars,then you would put it into an
annuity, which is a much betteroption because you get a nice
interest rate that they'reearning.
The younger they are, the morethat it compounds until the time
that it starts to pay out.
It's nice in an annuitysituation because the parents
can decide when the paymentshappen and you could have those
that it compounds until the timethat it starts to pay out.
It's nice in an annuitysituation because the parents

(24:08):
can decide when the paymentshappen and you could have those
stretched out where you're onlygetting a certain lump sum
payment every year for 10 yearsor whatever, but in every case
there has to be a judgeoverseeing to make sure that the
settlement is fair, and most ofthe time it's fine.
I did have a situation last yearwhere the judge did have some

(24:33):
questions because it wasinvolved a child and a mom, and
so the judge really wanted tomake sure that the settlement to
the child was fair in thatsituation.
So that one there wasdefinitely some back and forth
in terms of explaining thebreakdown of the settlement and
how it was fair to both of them.

Ilona (24:54):
Yeah, I mean the purpose of minors.
Compromise is to preserve themoney for the children, for them
to have it when they're of age,versus parents spending it now
on other things.

Carree (25:05):
So sometimes you know the judge will say, okay, you
know this, thousand dollars orwhatever can go to the parents
directly now and if they needmore later they can petition
later.
But that just I don't know.
That is not happened for me inmy cases.
But more often than not we willbe able to carve out an amount

(25:25):
for the parents.
More often than not we will beable to carve out an amount for
the parents out of thechildren's settlement.
But the courts are veryparticular in terms of what they
will give for that right.
So it has to be for schoolclothes.
Sometimes they'll do it.
Laptops I've seen them do it.
But one time I had a caseinvolving a child and he's a

(25:46):
spastic quadriplegic who wasinjured in a school incident but
he needed transportation andthe mom needed a van and so out
of the settlement.
She asked the court if shecould have a van for
transporting the child in.
The court said no.
I mean, that's something thatas a parent you would just need
to provide for this child.

(26:07):
The injury of a spasticquadriplegic did not happen from
this case.
That was a condition that thechild had from very little, so
of course I know.

Ilona (26:20):
So what you're saying is that if it was specific to the
injury for which the child isbeing compensated, then the
court would be more flexible andaccommodating a request like
buying a van versus being apre-existing condition.

Carree (26:31):
I think I could have made a stronger argument for
sure if it had arisen out of theactual injury.
The best thing aboutrepresenting children, too, is
they haven't done anything wrongright.
Like they're completely innocent.
It's these things have happenedto them, so I think any defense
attorney would be crazy toreally like want to take that to

(26:53):
trial and to try to fight it inthat way in front of a jury.
In a case that I had involvingthat child, who was spastic
quadriplegic, he had a brokenfemur at a daycare center during
a diaper change but why?
How old, was he 10.
But like, how do you think ajury is going to be so

(27:15):
sympathetic to that poor child?
He did absolutely nothing wrong.
This was done to him.
But once you met this child andhis mom and she was a single
mom and she was trying to takecare of her child, I mean, and
he had to be lifted there was hehad absolutely no mobility,
could not eat on his own,couldn't do anything on his own.

(27:35):
Um, so it's just like, yes, I'mgonna help you, I don't care
what the outcome is like.
Wait, did he become a?
No, he.
That happened earlier in hischildhood.
And then what happened?
So he was at a daycare centerand he had to be lifted up.
The teacher took him into aback area to change his diaper.

(27:56):
And while he was back therewith the teacher, the aid, who
was in the front of the daycarecenter, heard this child scream,
which is not a normal thing forthis child.
He doesn't have.
He has sounds, he can do sounds, but that's not a normal one
for this child.
He doesn't have, he has sounds,he can do sounds, but that's
not a normal one.
You know your kids, like youknow.
There's like 12 different criesand you know what they all mean
right, like exactly you know.

(28:16):
So when you hear that one that'slike, oh, no, something's wrong
here like they don't have tosay anything.
And that's what she heard.
And so she went back there andthis child was completely pale
white, he was sweating, he wassuper uncomfortable, he was
moaning and how did his tumorget broken?
Somebody punch him, throw himdown, I mean you know our burden

(28:39):
of proof is 51% right, Morelikely than not, and that's what
a jury decides on.
And so our expert, who was apediatric orthopedic surgeon, he
testified that most likely whathappened, and based on the
teacher's testimony, is that sheonly pulled his pants to

(29:00):
mid-thigh, right.
On a normal, able-bodied childwho doesn't have an atrophied
body and weak bones, that's okay, right, I changed my kids'
diapers like that a milliontimes.
You put it at mid-thigh, youlift up their legs like you
clean it, right, it's fine, noton children like this, you have
to take their pants all the waydown.
So when she only took it tomid-thigh, when she tried to

(29:31):
open up his legs, the pantsacted as a fulcrum and just
snapped, oh my, snap his leg andso that's.
And then I think she saw ithappen and quickly tried to like
, fix it and put everything up.
But all the standard of careexperts, everybody was like you
cannot change a diaper like thatin this type of a child, even
the other aides who had changedhis diaper they're like no to
doing that no, she neveradmitted.
She never admitted, Neveradmitted.
Had to take a jury two timesbecause the first time in that

(29:52):
case there was a hung jury.
Oh wow.

Ilona (29:54):
So, you did it twice yes.

Carree (29:58):
So two times a jury did, literally did God's work, oh,
my God, you have no idea thatcase was so, so stressful
because you want to just likeget justice right.
Yeah, you want them to see ityour way and you hope that
you're communicating it to themto see it.
But we knew that, you know itwas going to go okay when all

(30:21):
the jurors started crying andpassing the tissue box, like you
know, across the way, and thenyou know that okay, we're
getting somewhere we'reunderstanding, so screwed up
that she just wouldn't takeresponsibility and putting that
family on top of it throughtrial and another trial.
That was their theory, mom, mom, probably it probably happened
when mom was putting him in thecar.

(30:42):
His bones are so unfair liketake responsibility.

Ilona (30:45):
You Like take responsibility, you did it.
Like make people's life easier,super unfair, what did the jury
find for that?

Carree (30:52):
case.
I believe that their verdictwas 163,000, which you know.
Honestly, in the first trial weasked for a lot more.
When welled the juriesafterwards, they weren't because
this child had such severeinjuries, like you know from his

(31:12):
condition.

Ilona (31:13):
He didn't think quality of life would change as much.
Exactly.

Carree (31:15):
So, even though you know we really worked a lot on
showing how his quality of lifedid suffer and it really did I
mean, he has such a limited wayto find joy and then he was
confined to like a spike.
But but right Like it, just hismedical bills were super, super
low, negligible.

Mila (31:34):
I'm sure he already had so many medical bills that this
was just like a drop in a bucketof water.

Carree (31:39):
This was truly about justice.
Like you can't freaking breakthis kid's leg at school and
then lie about it.
And because he can't speak,just act like you didn't do it.
That's not okay for our society, absolutely.

Ilona (31:53):
To have people who would be willing to do that.
It's nice to know thatsomebody's taken those cases.
It's true, not everybody wouldwant to take this case yeah.

Carree (32:02):
Injuries at school.
I mean, you know, they happenmore than you think.

Ilona (32:07):
Glam tip of the week.
Today's glam tip Find a smallthing to help you feel grounded
and glamorous.

Mila (32:13):
Maybe it's a special face mask.
With a glass of wine on aFriday night, find your thing
that gives you a bubble of youtime in a sea of career and
family obligations.
This is the glamorous grind andtoday's takeaway Empathy makes
you strong.

Ilona (32:30):
To our listeners if your child, your family and your
peace is disturbed, don't shrinkback.
Fight smart and find someonelike Carrie to help you.
See you next week.
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