We have four new attorneys here at Siegfried & Jensen. Here is one of the new faces here at our law firm.

STEVE JENSEN

Steven K .Jensen graduated from Brigham Young University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. In 2010, he earned his Juris Doctorate from Texas Tech University School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude. Jensen served as an Articles Editor on Texas Tech Law Review and as an intern for the Supreme Court of Texas.

When he is not at the office, Jensen enjoys fishing, golfing, reading, waterskiing and spending time with his wife and daughter.

We have several new attorneys here at Siegfried & Jensen. Here is another new face in our office.

ALEX EVANS

W. Alexander Evans graduated from the University of Utah in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Anthropology.  In 2008, he earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Nevada , Las Vegas , where he graduated cum laude and served as the Articles Editor of the Nevada Law Journal. 

Alex is currently a member of the Utah State Bar and is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the District of Utah. 

Outside of work, Alex is an avid collector of gems and minerals and he enjoys surfing, snowboarding and live music.

We have several new attorneys here at Siegfried & Jensen. Here is one of the new faces in our office.

ANDREW DRAXTON

Andrew Erickson Draxton graduated from the University of Utah in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.  In December of 2009, he earned his Juris Doctorate from the S.J. Quinney College of Law, where he was a semi-finalist in the Traynor Moot Court Competition in which he won the Third-Place Brief Award and where he also served as a Note and Comment Editor for the Journal of Law and Family Studies. 

Prior to joining Siegfried and Jensen as an attorney, Andrew served as a law clerk at Siegfried and Jensen under Kenneth Lougee, where he honed his motions drafting skills and was exposed to a variety of litigation. 

Andrew is currently a member of the Utah State Bar and is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the District of Utah.  

Outside of work, Andrew is an accomplished trumpet player and he enjoys skiing and spending time with his family and friends.

One of our clients is a ten-year old girl. I’ve been involved with her videos, photos and interviews. She was involved in a roll-over accident when she was seven years old. She and her cousin were seriously injured. Another family member was killed.

There have been way too many doctors’ appointments in her young life. She has spent way too much time listening to attorneys. The legal talk makes her sleepy, it makes her tired and she wants to get away from it. She should be outside playing but she is here with us as we defend her legal rights and attempt to make justice out of what has happened. I get her a toy and a children’s book to distract her. But there is no getting away from her disfigurement and the permanent disability it has created.

She remembers the screaming, some of it her own, as she looked down and saw that four of her fingers had been sliced off in the accident. Where were they? All she saw was blood. How could you lose your fingers? All this went through the mind of a seven year old. It must have been horrifying. She wanted her mother to make everything okay. But her mother was back at the camp ground and didn’t know. For our client, the wait for her mother to get there, and the emergency responders must have seemed like an eternity.

Her hand looks strange. The pictures I took show the angle of the sharp slice that took off her fingers. It’s disturbing. I won’t show them here.

Rescuers and family members searched through the sand for her fingers. Think about that for a moment. They found one; her middle finger. The amazing doctors at Primary Children’s Hospital reattached that finger to her index finger. They decided that was more useful to her long term. They grafted skin onto her baby finger hoping it would function better and look less disfigured.

My little friend does her best. She has worked very hard to perfect her handwriting. (Her grades suffered after the accident when the teacher couldn’t read her homework). Her nubbed fingertip pads have calluses from school work. I asked her to write her name out on a piece of white paper for me. It was slow-going, but she was proud of her progress.

She is ten now. In school, everyone knows about her fingers. Kids never miss an opportunity to taunt and tease her. She hides her hurt from everyone, even her mother. This troubles her mother who wants to be there for her and shield her from this pain.

There are dozens of stories like hers, or worse, terrible deaths that have resulted from Yamaha’s insistence on profits over safety.   CBS News estimates there have been 59 deaths and hundreds of accidents resulting from this machine.

We believe that Yamaha be held accountable for manufacturing and selling a vehicle they knew was unreliable, top heavy and readily prone to roll-overs. Her attorney here is a warrior on her behalf. We can’t restore her fingers, but we can make sure she has a little financial security as an adult. Her job choices are limited. She deserves compensation. I want all that for her too. Mostly though, I wish we had the science to grow fingers back, especially hers.

Why are the letters of our name scrambled on the lawn in front of our building?

Along with remodeling the third floor of our building, we thought we would change out the building sign.  We want it to be easy for folks to spot our location from the freeway. The guys from Impact Signs are here this afternoon. They placed all the letters from our name on the grass in front of the building. Soon, the letters will be lifted into position on the building. 

She was carrying her young grand-daughter in her arms. It was evening and dark.  Donna cut across the parking strip to save a few steps getting to her car with the sleepy girl. The little girl loved sleepovers at her grandma’s house.

Donna thought she was stepping on a water main cover, large and round. But then it slipped out from underneath her foot. She quickly put out her other foot so as not to fall with the child. She couldn’t have known in the dark that what she stepped on was really a large saw blade. A concrete cutting saw blade with teeth sharp and curved waiting to slice deep into her leg. Changing in an instant, her ability to walk normally for the rest of her life.

A construction company, a local company you would know by name, had carelessly discarded one of their concrete blades. It was no longer useful to them and they left it in front of this home, in this neighborhood, where her granddaughter lived. It could have been in your neighborhood. Think about that.

We’re talking about a 14” blade, steel and still very sharp. Sharp enough to slice through her Achilles heel without hesitation as she tried to regain her footing. It sliced deep across her heel. It felt as though a 220 volt ripped through her body. She immediately fell to the ground, not knowing what had happened.

She would have bled to death right there but for the quick thinking of a family member who grabbed a bandana and fashioned a tourniquet to slow down the bleed-out. 

A fourteen inch blade, go measure that and then try to figure out how a road crew left that behind? Not on a building site, not on a freeway job, but in a neighborhood where children play. Of all things irresponsible, this would be one.

Look again at the picture above. It is very similar to the one that caused so much physical damage to our client.  Pictures of her wound would be too disturbing and in poor taste to show you here. A jury will see the photos though.

Donna has missed months of work because of this serious injury. It’s work she loves and which has defined her life for many years. Not to mention the second paycheck her family desperately needs. She has always worked, and been proud of it. She can no longer do that job. It’s been taken from her, possibly forever. I know her self-esteem has suffered.

Donna lost her truck when she and her husband couldn’t make the payments. Food and a roof over their heads became this family’s priority. There were difficult decisions they had to make.

She’ll never be able to walk properly again-her job requires a lot of walking. I question what her future holds with an injury this severe.

This is a lively woman who loved to dance Salsa with her husband on the weekends. She’ll never wear heels again. She loved to swim and taught all her grand children how to swim. She can’t do any of that now. This is a mother who loved camping and hiking visiting different areas around the state every weekend, every summer with her family. All of that and more have been taken away from her. How do you calculate the damages to this person? If you were on a jury what would you decide?

We hold the construction company responsible for their blatant neglect. Their initial offer to Donna barely covers her hospital bills; the multiple surgeries, the skin grafts, the hyperbaric chamber and the painful, difficult physical therapy. Their offer is an insult to this kind woman. Her present circumstances were caused by this company’s negligence. 

Money is a poor exchange for her injury. But it will help restore her life to more like it was. They need to get current on their  house payments. She could get her truck back so she has transportation. Her suffering is real and she deserves compensation for all that has happened.

A large judgment against this irresponsible construction company would send a message to all construction companies in Utah; make safety to your community a priority over profits. What do you think? Do you agree?