Notable Cases

Accidents and Personal Injury:

We represented a claimant who was hit from behind while commuting home from work. After the accident he developed back pain and saw a doctor who explained it was probably a strain that would disappear with time. The insurance carrier for the other driver (American Family) promptly made a low-value settlement offer, which the claimant accepted without first consulting an attorney. Unfortunately his pain did not go away, and eventually he submitted to surgeries that produced only partial relief.

After settling with American Family the claimant retained our firm. American Family refused to make any further payment, so we filed suit and persuaded the circuit court to rescind that settlement, and to allow the claim to proceed. Shortly before trial the carrier increased its original offer by a factor of approximately 93, and our client accepted that. Whited v. Morrow, Dane County Case No. 2003 CV 1851.

Only in rare circumstances can a settlement be reopened. The particular circumstances of this case resulted in the reopening of the settlement, but only after considerable legal work.

Worker’s Compensation:

Under Wisconsin worker’s compensation law claimants whose injuries are permanently disfiguring may be entitled to additional benefits. Our client's case involves the question whether a work-related limp qualifies as a compensable disfigurement. In 2005 an administrative law judge ruled in our client's favor, and thereafter the employer (Dane County) appealed repeatedly and unsuccessfully. In January of 2009 the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the award ($15,000). County of Dane v. Labor & Industry Review Commission and Gloria Graham, 2006 AP 2695.

Civil Rights:

After convicting the claimant of drunk driving, the Dane County Circuit Court sentenced her to jail, with work-release privileges. As a condition of her exercise of those privileges the Dane County Sheriff’s Office required the claimant to submit urine samples, at random intervals, for drug testing. She did so without problem until one day two sheriff’s deputies appeared at her workplace and took her into custody. One of the deputies told the claimant that she had failed a drug test. Over the claimant’s protest the sheriff’s office kept her in custody for four days before holding a hearing to determine whether she had violated the terms of the work-release program. At that hearing the sheriff’s staff relied on the results of a positive drug test performed by a sheriff’s deputy (not a professional laboratory technician), but two days later the sheriff’s office conceded, on the basis of retesting, that the test on which it had relied – the first test - was faulty, and at that point the sheriff’s office released the claimant. She then retained our firm to pursue a due-process claim on her behalf. The federal District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin dismissed the case, and we appealed to the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. The case settled while that appeal was pending. Wells v. Dane County, Case # 06 C 0345 S.

Things Gone Wrong:

We devote this part of our site to commentary on what we view as irrationalities that produce unnecessary suffering for our clients and others with similar problems. The nation’s lack of universal health insurance probably tops the list. There is a consensus that more than 40,000,000 Americans now lack health coverage, and heavy medical bills have become a major cause of personal bankruptcies. In a case we are handling now our client has been forced to wait more than a year for shoulder surgery because his employer (Stoughton Trailers) resisted his worker’s-compensation claim, and because he had no health insurance. After two hearings the Worker’s Compensation Division ordered the payment of benefits, including the cost of future surgery, but in the meantime our client has narrowly avoided homelessness.

At this point in our history very few Americans question the wisdom of universal public education. Those of us who no longer have children in school continue nonetheless to support public school systems through taxes, and accept that obligation as an investment in the general welfare of our communities and of the nation. There is no means test for public education, just as there is no means test for police and fire protection, access to public streets, etc. Health care is no less fundamental.

Unfortunately even those with health insurance sometimes fall into a Catch 22 produced by competing exclusions. Worker’s-compensation benefits don’t apply to non-work-related medical problems, and most health insurance policies exclude coverage for injuries suffered on the job. Last year one of our self-employed clients got hurt at work, but his worker’s-compensation carrier refused to pay for his surgery because a doctor hired by that carrier opined that the injury was not work-related. At the same time our client’s health carrier also refused to pay - because it considered the surgery a work-related problem, for which it provided no coverage. This case of clashing bureaucracies, like the case mentioned in the previous paragraph, resolved in our client’s favor, but only after two hearings before the Worker’s Compensation Division.

And sometimes worker’s-compensation carriers refuse or fail to pay in circumstances where they have no legitimate excuse. In the spring of 2008 we resolved a case in which a company called Sedgwick Claims Management Services improperly delayed payment of benefits to our client despite a deadline set by order of the Worker’s Compensation Division. Sedgwick ultimately paid an additional $15,000 to compromise a penalty claim we brought on our client’s behalf in response to that delay. In a separate case Sedgwick improperly delayed payment of benefits to another client, and so we filed another penalty claim against this company. That claim recently settled for $17,000.