An Old Client Found; An Old Problem Persists.

The other day a child fell from a sixth floor window in Seattle. It was a hot day.

In my book I briefly touch on three "window fall" cases we handled in the early 2000s. I mainly tell the story of how my sister Ann's creativity and persistence helped expose one defendant's dishonesty--something that had become a pattern with that defendant. It happened the day before mediation and probably had the result of doubling our recovery.

For several years all I could see were windows--sliding windows on the upper floors of mid-rise apartment buildings. I drove through town looking up, looking for better designs. That's autism for you. 

Also capitalism. The crap windows were cheap, and everywhere.

My mentor Paul Whelan is the one who made these cases feasible. He got the Washington State Supreme Court to recognize a product liability action against window manufacturers.

We then got a case in a nearby suburb where a toddler fell from an upper story window onto concrete and suffered horrible injuries. His family was in town briefly and were provided this apartment. In addition to a poor design, there was a known installation defect in the window that made it difficult to open or close. One hot day, our then four-year-old client stood on the window sill to wave to neighbors and fell through the screen.

Autistic perseverance brought me to the legendary Seattle pediatrician Abe Bergman, who kept track of all such cases that passed through Seattle's Harborview Medical Center. Dr. Bergman told us that it was a common problem when temperatures rose. Windows were opened, and toddlers, whose job is to explore the world, did so.

We asked our experts to design and build a "fix" that could be added to any such window. They came up with something any adult could operate but a toddler could not. It could be bolted on to any window sill.

Later we got another case involving the same property management company. They told us that second case was the first they had ever heard of. We told them about the other one. They kept lying until Ann got them into potentially deep trouble by finding another, right before mediation.

Anyway, yesterday, after reading the story of the recent tragedy in Seattle, I googled the name of the little boy who fell onto the concrete you see above--and rather remarkably I found a professor of mathematics at a famous university! He looked just like my client!

I wrote him an email, and this morning I woke to emails from both the professor and his dad. Both said that the money from the lawsuit allowed him to work his way to a brilliant recovery. It was one of the better mornings I've had.

Being autistic in a neurotypical world can be a pain. It's also a joy. 

But putting your autistic joy to work to help others--that's priceless.