CVN screenshot of defense attorney Jeffrey Wolf delivering his closing argument
Dallas, TX - A Texas state court jury awarded $375,500 on Friday to a woman claiming she suffered a traumatic brain injury after being rear-ended by a truck as part of a six-car pileup in a trial worth potentially more than $26 million, and the proceedings were webcast by Courtroom View Network.
The Dallas County jury returned their verdict the same day they heard closing arguments in a four-day trial. Plaintiff Molly Bucek claimed the 2024 accident left her with a debilitating concussion and forced her to undergo invasive ablation treatments for worsening neck pain, however defendants Mica Corp. and driver Daniel Ramirez Jr. insisted Ramirez didn’t cause the pileup, and that the severity of Bucek’s supposed injuries was significantly overstated.
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Plaintiff attorney Kim Penepacker of Aulsbrook Car & Truck Wreck Injury Lawyers described to the jury how Bucek, then 28, was hit from behind by Ramirez at a speed of roughly 60 miles-per-hour as part of a six-car pileup in the express lane of State Loop 12, pushing her into cars ahead of her. Bucek was entirely stopped at the time, and Penepacker attributed the crash to Ramirez’ supposed lack of attention.
“Mr. Ramirez failed to see the traffic ahead of him,” she said. “He failed to timely apply the breaks and failed to do what everyone else in this lineup did by stopping.”
Only Bucek and Ramirez/Mica Corp. were active participants in the trial.
Penepacker argued that despite being released from an emergency room shortly after the accident symptoms from Bucek’s supposed traumatic brain injury began to gradually become apparent, which Penepacker argued is not uncommon.
In addition to detailing Bucek’s neck pain issues and ablation treatments, Penepacker relied heavily in her closing argument on a treatment journal Bucek began keeping with details about the psychological trauma of the accident which also spoke in detail about her cognitive issues.
CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Kim Penepacker delivering her closing argument
Penepacker, in asking for an award of up to $26 million, noted that Bucek’s scored noticeably lower on IQ tests after the accident than prior and argued this could impact her earning potential over 50 more years of life.
“This is significant,” she said. “This is how your brain thinks for the entire rest of your life.”
Representing the defense, attorney Jeffrey Wolf of The Wolf Law Firm PC largely devoted his closing argument to the alleged severity of Bucek’s injuries, suggesting that many of the diagnoses relied upon at trial came from “personal injury doctors” she was only referred to after deciding to file a lawsuit.
Wolf didn’t formally concede liability for the underlying accident, suggesting “there’s nothing else he could have done” after Ramirez came upon Bucek’s stopped car, but he also didn’t ask the jury to assign her any liability for the collision.
He argued the neck ablation treatments she received were not medically necessary and fell outside the standard of care, but he devoted the bulk of his closing to Bucek’s claimed TBI telling jurors emphatically that she did not sustain a brain injury in the collision.
“There’s no objective evidence in a scan of her brain that there was any sort of injury,” he insisted.
Wolf argued Bucek struggled with anxiety and ADHD before the accident, and that many of the behavioral issues she described were attributable to those pre-existing conditions. He argued Bucek largely recovered from the accident and can expect a mostly normal life, and suggested damages closely aligned with the jury’s eventual verdict.
Attorneys for the parties did not respond to requests for comment from CVN.
The trial took place before Judge Martin Hoffman.
The case is captioned Molly Bucek v. Mica Corporation and Daniel Ramirez Jr., case number DC-24-05323 in Dallas County’s 68th Civil District Court.
Email David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
