Previous Success Stories

Personal injury

  • In 2019 we settled a bicycle collision case in our Madison office.  Our bicyclist suffered a fractured leg when the at fault driver turned into a driveway right in front of his bike, causing him to fly over the hood of the vehicle.  The negligent driver had only $25,000 of liability coverage, and that insurer promptly paid us the policy limits.  We got an additional $5000 from client’s auto medical payments coverage, and his Arizona medical carrier agreed to waive reimbursement for client’s surgery bills.  Finally, we received $150,000 from client’s underinsured motorist policy.  Total settlement $180,000 and all reimbursements waived.  Should allow this UW-Madison student to pay off most of his student loans!
  • Settled a car versus bike collision case from Appleton on 2-28-2017. A bike was on sidewalk due to heavy traffic on road, driver looking left for traffic to turn right, failed to notice bike coming in crosswalk from right. If you are on a bike, and a car hits you, you are going to get hurt-car moved forward just as bike was going in front of car. Yup, you know it — damaged teeth, wrecked bike, many scrapes and bruises for bike rider. Settled today for $70,000. At least he got a new bike, and can get his teeth repaired. Be careful out there!
  • Settled a soft tissue injury case on 1-24-2017 for $70,000. Client deserves every penny. Cases like this are sad — insurance companies focus on prior problems, and often fail to see that this was a productive person working two jobs, some prior chiropractic care, but fully functional.
    When an auto collision aggravated her prior problems and made client’s life miserable, insurance company said all we did was cause a temporary aggravation, and after 10 or 12 weeks she should be fine. Not so. Wish we could have made them pay more. We work hard to get the maximum money for our clients.
  • Another good settlement on 11-22-2016 for a deserving client — $130,000 for soft tissue and post concussion symptoms — client lost job due to inability to concentrate. When an accident or injury turns your life upside down, call us. WE CAN HELP!
  • Took over an injury case in October 2016 from a prominent local attorney. Managed to more than double the settlement offer that had previously been made, and then got the client’s own insurance company to reduce what it got back from the settlement by 80%. People not involved with these cases may not realize that when an injury settlement occurs, the person’s own health insurance has a right to be paid back for the bills paid — this is in every insurance contract. We work hard not only to get the best settlement possible from the at-fault company, but also to minimize what the client’s insurer gets back. That way our client keeps more of the money he or she deserves in compensation for having his/her life turned upside down.
  • Settled a lawsuit for $110,000 in December for a client who suffered soft tissue type injuries when she was rear ended in Walworth County by an uninsured motorist who then filed bankruptcy. Most of our cases are settled or won without the need for a jury trial.
  • We recently settled four slip/fall cases out of our Madison office. These cases are always difficult, and many lawyers don’t even want to discuss slip/fall cases with potential clients. We do quite well with them — one involved a tenant who fell on a defective step at her rental property, and was settled without filing a lawsuit for $45,000. Another involved a tenant who caught her foot on a broken stair, causing her to fall, and this one also settled without having to file suit for $17,500. A third injury was caused by a negligent car dealership when an employee moved a car from the showroom, but failed to remove the clear lexan pieces that were under the car tires to protect the floor — that case was in suit, but settled before trial for $41,000. The final slip/fall case we resolved in December for $100,000 — landlord failed to remove build up of snow and ice from the trash and recycle area he provided for tenants, and as could be predicted, a tenant fell, fracturing her leg. We told all these people the WE CAN HELP, and their cases were resolved with good results.
  • We just settled a bike/car collision case at Madison’s intersection with the City’s highest accident rate. A car turning right on red was looking left for oncoming traffic, and failed to notice a bike rider who had just started to cross with the walk light directly in front of the motorist. The injured bicyclist had recently obtained new employment, and his health insurance was scheduled to start in a couple of weeks. In addition to getting him money for his pain and suffering, we were able to resolve the outstanding medical bills for 50% of the original amount.
  • We recently settled a claim against a fast food restaurant involving a fall due to ice build up near their entry door. The cause? No, not a bad winter in Wisconsin. It was due to a bad roof design — to prevent water from dripping on customers as they entered, the store had a flat bar at an angle on the roof, which directed the water away from the entrance, and onto a portion of the sidewalk where customers walked. What happened? In winter, as ice and snow melted on the roof, it ran down until it hit the barricade, and was directed onto the sidewalk, where it promptly froze. It had to be a frequent problem, but no one bothered to put salt on it. After our claim, the restaurant reconstructed the roof to make it safe, so not only did our client receive compensation for his injury — he helped prevent injury to others by encouraging the restaurant to correct the problem. That is one of the goals of our personal injury system — to make places and products safer for consumers. It worked here!
  • We represented a tenant whose landlord was aware of a defective concrete step at her front entrance. Rather than repair it correctly, landlord stuck a board under the crumbling step. It worked for a while, but then the board started rotting out. One day, tenant caught her foot on the damaged concrete, and a fracture resulted. Landlord argued that tenant was aware of the problem. She was, but so was landlord, and it was his responsibility to maintain the property. Landlord’s insurer agreed, and the case settled for a significant amount. A word to those of you who rent — let your landlord know about problems with your apartment or home, and keep documentation of that — best to send a letter or email and print out a copy to put with your lease. Then, if something happens and landlord denies that he/she was aware of the problem, you will be able to prove differently. Also, you might just have a good landlord who will actually fix the problem before you or someone else is injured.
  • We recently handled a wrongful death case that was turned down by a large personal injury law firm that told the client there was no insurance available. We found insurance and obtained more than $400,000 for the family that lost its father.
  • We settled a soft tissue intersection collision case in Oshkosh for over $600,000 and greatly improved our client’s standard of living. Due to safer cars, most injury claims don’t involve fractures or lacerations, but do result in strains, sprains, bruises and other soft tissue injuries which cause arm, leg, back and neck pain. We settle dozens of these cases every year, and are experienced in working with your doctor or chiropractor to make sure your pain is documented and treated to maximize your recovery.

Criminal/Traffic

Stopped for OWI? Stopped for a burned out tail light and stopped for OWI? Stopped by a cop operating outside of his/her jurisdiction? Some recent cases may give you a way to challenge your traffic stop and subsequent arrest. We’ve gotten dismissals recently for our clients. We know the law and put it to use defending you.

  • Our success defending OWI and Prohibited Alcohol Concentration cases continues. Last week we were able to persuade prosecutor and court to amend and OWI citation to a failure to maintain required auto insurance. This was an admittedly weak case for the prosecutor, but judges have become very difficult to convince to amend or dismiss OWI/PAC citations in the past 10 or so years, so a great result for our client.
  • Today we obtained a judge’s ruling on our motion to amend an OWI charge to that of reckless driving, having challenged the credibility of the police officer due to discrepancies between video and the officer’s report. I had to spend many hours reviewing video footage and comparing to written police reports. Another good result for our client.
  • Task Force: If you’ve been arrested in Fond du Lac or Winnebago County as part of a police Task Force, we can help! We recently challenged the arrest of a young man pulled over for speeding in the City of Oshkosh. There was no question that he was speeding and the stop looked valid. However, when we looked further, we found that the arresting officer was not from the City of Oshkosh, but was from a nearby TOWN. He claimed to have been deputized by the Sheriff. When we looked into the rules regarding deputizing out of jurisdiction law enforcement officers, we found that the rules may not have been followed and the law enforcement officer may not have been properly deputized. After Court Hearing, the speeding and drunk driving charges were all dismissed.
  • We represented a gentleman recently who was charged with operating under the influence after he was stopped for allegedly going through a yellow light which changed to red as he exited the intersection. As you may know, it doesn’t take much of a reason for traffic officers to pull you over nowadays. Fortunately for the client, he had been dining with a local attorney who was available to testify on his behalf. Client explained to the officer that the light was green when he looked his rearview mirror because he was concerned about another car rapidly approaching his own, and when he looked forward again just as he entered the intersection, the light switched to yellow. What client described is permissible under Wisconsin law. However, the traffic officer accused client of lying, and said there were no other vehicles nearby. The attorney/witness confirmed that there were multiple cars behind client, as attorney himself had to wait for them as he left the restaurant. The traffic officer lost all credibility with the Court, and the case was dismissed.
  • OWI Task Forces — a new way to get in trouble! In another recent case, the client was clearly speeding and the officer was entitled to pull him over. The officer was not a local officer, but was working some overtime hours for our local sheriff as part of an OWI Task Force. We investigated the law, and found that there are some requirements when an out of jurisdiction officer is temporarily working for a department in another city. After a number of court hearings, the court found that the officer had not been properly appointed to do this work, was out of his jurisdiction, so the traffic stop was not proper and all evidence obtained had to be suppressed. With no possible way for the prosecutor to prove the case, the court granted our motion to dismiss.
  • Defective taillights: A common reason for our clients being stopped by police is defective equipment — a headlight out, a taillight broken or not working — that sort of thing. These traffic stops seldom occur in daylight hours. Most occur after 10 p.m. when there are fewer cars on the road for officers to watch, and, one might guess, police officers would be more likely to want to make a traffic stop to see if the drivers have been drinking. In our recent case, client had one bulb out in her taillight, but did have a working taillight on both the passenger and driver sides of her vehicle. There was no bad driving involved — just the taillight, according to the police report. A recent Court of Appeals case determined that these lights don’t have to be perfect — a driver just has to have a working taillight on each side of the vehicle to warn those coming up from behind. At our law office, we read the law, and we were aware of this new case. We brought it to the attention of the court, and after some in-court discussion and argument, the court found that we were right, the traffic stop was improper, and therefore all evidence obtained from the traffic stop was suppressed. With no evidence to present, the city attorney did not contest our motion to dismiss the case.
  • Collateral Attacks: What? Yes, the latest thing for those who did not learn from their first couple of OWI convictions, and now have a 3rd, 4th, 5th offense OWI charge. Yes, we tell those clients of ours that it would be a lot less expensive for them to drink at home and not drive, but everyone makes mistakes. Some make them more frequently than others. So, what is a collateral attack? Simply put, we look at client’s prior convictions to see whether it appears that they were advised of their right to have an attorney, and of their right to trial. If it appears the prior Court took some shortcuts, or did not document client’s proper waiver of these rights, we can challenge the right of the Court in the new case to count one or more of the prior convictions. That is a collateral attack. We have been successful 50% of the time when we have brought these challenges. When successful, the clients get much less jail time, less revocation time, and smaller fines. In one recent 5th offense felony case, we successfully challenged one prior conviction, and that resulted in client being convicted of a 4th offense misdemeanor rather than a felony. Saved him money for fines, avoided many months of jail time and avoided him becoming a felon. Your attorney should be aware the benefits of a collateral attack in the appropriate case. We are.
  • In Fond du Lac, we were successful in getting an OWI charge reduced to inattentive driving when we discovered the arresting officer failed to follow the rules for conducting a breath test, along with other errors he made in procedure.
  • We recently were able to resolve a criminal “Cause Injury by Operating While Intoxicated” case by proving that the persons who claimed injury were not really injured, so instead of going to jail for this charge, our client received a fine and short loss of license, and had the rest of her tickets dismissed. She was also able to get an immediate occupational license.
  • We recently had a client charged with a criminal misdemeanor bail jump charge, along with an OAR (operating after revocation) 4th offense charge, both of which involved many months of jail, loss of license and fines exceeding $10,000. We were able to resolve his claim for a $50 fine, and avoided a traffic conviction as well, which would have resulted in HTO status and a 5-year revocation for him.
  • We have helped many clients who were convicted of OWI and who were subject to Wisconsin’s requirement for ignition interlock devices. In one case, our client had 6 vehicles, and we were able to exempt all but one from the requirement. In another, the judge refused to sign an exemption for the wife and son’s vehicles, so we found another way so the client did not have to install interlocks in 3 different vehicles.
  • In Oshkosh, we obtained dismissal of an OWI charge when we proved the arresting police officer was not in the location he claimed to have been in when he saw the defendant’s car fail to stop for a red light, and proved with aerial photos the officer could not even have seen defendant’s car from his actual location.
  • We were recently successful in reopening an old traffic conviction for a woman who became a habitual traffic offender — our work allowed her to void her 5-year revocation and get her regular driver’s license back.

Every year we keep many people out of jail or prison by exploring alternatives to conviction, including the Safe Streets Options Program, informal counseling programs, Volunteers in Probation, deferred prosecution agreements and the Community Justice Program. Our clients who participate in these usually avoid jail time and avoid having convictions on their record.

We have been able to help dozens of Wisconsin drivers get their licenses restored after they reached habitual offender status (HTO) and were revoked for 5 years. In most of these cases, we were able to reopen older traffic convictions, eliminating the basis for the HTO status, and allowing them to legally drive again.