Results

Brian Wojtalewicz has over four decades of obtaining settlements and verdicts.

Medical Negligence

Verdict: $9,566,600 in Perseke v. Ortonville Area Health Services. Brian teamed up with fellow trial attorney Terry Wade to achieve a $9,566,500 verdict in rural western Minnesota for our client’s family, whose son was born with cerebral palsy. The first trial, in the small, rural home county of the doctor and hospital, resulted in a hung jury (jurors unable to agree). With mounting evidence of “hometown” favoritism toward the doctor and hospital, the trial judge moved the second trial to an adjoining small, rural county, where a new jury in the second trial had little trouble finding the doctor and hospital nurses negligent in monitoring a worsening oxygen deprivation of the baby in the hours before birth. Our clients were not able to collect the entire verdict set by the jury, and all of their recovery was paid by insurance coverages of the doctor and hospital, who the jury found 70% and 30% at fault, respectively.

Verdict $415,000, in Kulzer v. Dr. Shirleen Smook and St. Michael’s Hospital. Our client was a 20 year old first-time expectant mother. At an early checkup with the doctor on her pregnancy, a colpolscopy procedure was recommended. The cervix is coated with a 4% acidic solution, and certain infections will appear when viewed with a colpolscope by the doctor. We proved at trial that the doctor, the hospital lab and the registered nurse were all negligent, when they caused her to be coated with 100% acidic acid instead. They continued with the procedure through her crying and begging them to stop, thinking she was just hypersensitive. Then they sent her home, telling her to soak in the tub if her “sensitivity” continued. The jury in conservative Stearns County, Minnesota saw the photographs of the permanent scarring in her pelvic area, and where the acid had drained down onto her buttocks, photos that her grandmother insisted be taken a few days after the ordeal. All of the verdict was collected against the liability insurance carriers of the doctor and hospital, who had refused to offer more than $75,000 to settle.

Truck Crashes

Settlement: $2,958,585. Our client, a successful counselor, was driving on a well traveled two-lane rural highway, when a truck suddenly turned left right in front of her, causing a violent collision. Her internal injuries included a ruptured major artery, and she nearly died due to the delayed discovery. She suffered from permanent complications of the internal injuries, as well as a traumatic brain injury (TBI). While the TBI was contested (as it usually is) at the outset, valuable examinations and explanations by an expert neurologist and neuropsychologist demonstrated the TBI. Along with use of expert day-in-the-life videography, our team was able to achieve a settlement of $2,958,585, above the maximum collection of PIP benefits.

Settlement: $800,000. Client and spouse drove their flatbed semi as a tandem team. Client was in the sleeper when spouse stopped in a long line of backed up traffic on a freeway near Kansas City, when another semi and pickup smashed into their rig. Client suffered a broken nose and injured neck. She had surgery to repair her nose. While it did not require surgery, she was left with a permanently painful neck. Despite years of chiropractic, physical therapy and even radiofrequency ablations (nerve burnings) for her neck, and repeatedly trying to keep driving truck, she could never go back to truck driving. With the help of good local counsel in Missouri that Brian researched and selected to work with, we achieved an $800,000 liability settlement, and $40,000 of PIP coverage.

Settlement: $475,000. Our client had been a long distance truck driver with an unblemished record for decades on the road, when another semi truck driver, driving too fast for conditions, collided with his rig. The crash caused a permanently injured low back. Our team was able to achieve a settlement totaling $475,000 against the defendant trucking corporation and PIP insurance carrier.

Settlement: $300,000. A truck blew through a stop sign and smashed into the pickup driven by our client, a bookkeeper with years of dedicated work. She sustained neck and internal injuries. Our team’s thorough preparation and advocacy resulted in a $300,000 liability settlement, above her worker compensation benefits received.

Verdict: $155,415, in Balderas v. Bowser. Client was a passenger in the family pickup driven by her daughter, when a large truck pulled out from a stop sign right in front of them causing a collision. Our team worked carefully with client’s treating doctor to prepare large medical illustration charts to help the doctor explain the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (RSD) that the crash caused in her leg, and to defeat the insurance lawyer’s theory that her pain was just from her years of hard farm work.

Settlement: $216,500 above the worker compensation benefits. Our client had been a regional semi truck driver for years, with a clean driving record. One winter day on a two-lane highway, a negligent car driver in an oncoming line of cars, made a careless passing attempt, going too fast for the winter conditions. The careless driver collided into the back of a safely driven pickup, forcing that pickup suddenly directly in front of our client’s semi. Despite our client’s reduced speed for the conditions, he had no chance to avoid the bad crash. The crash killed the pickup driver and left our client with non-surgical, but permanent soft tissue injuries. Our client and his wife retained us after years of fruitless attempts to get the insurance carriers involved to treat him fairly.

Car and Motorcycle Crashes

Settlement: $860,000. Our client’s son was the five year old passenger in the family pickup driven by his dad, when a negligent driver suddenly pulled out from a stop sign, crashing into the pickup. Despite the best efforts of the doctors, our client’s son lost the use of one of his eyes, eventually necessitating a prosthetic eye. We prepared the case closely with his parents, treating doctors and an expert “day in the life” videographer to show the depth of negative effects on him, his future and his family, and achieved a settlement of $860,000, above the $20,000 of PIP medical expenses collected.

Settlement: $500,000. Our client was a medically retired farmer who suffered herniated discs in his neck, requiring surgery, and other internal injuries, from a single vehicle rollover. He was a passenger going home from a supper club, when the driver with too many drinks and going too fast, lost control of the car. Our team’s investigation and preparation achieved a settlement from the liability insurance carrier of $500,000, above the $100,000 of PIP medical expenses.

Verdict: $324,336, in Moritz v. State Farm Insurance. Brian and his team achieved this jury verdict totaling $324,336 for a young mother, a beauty salon employee, against the negligent driver who had collided with her car. Our client’s injuries caused her to endure a neck surgery and pain relief injections. As is nearly always the case, the verdict was collected only against the insurance carriers involved.

Verdict: $260,916. In Koenen v. Gerdes, we won a jury verdict totaling $260,916 for a young college student, whose car was hit by a negligent driver who suddenly turned right in front of him at a rural intersection. Our team investigated and prepared thoroughly to bring family and independent witnesses to the courtroom, along with two of our client’s treating doctors, and large, detailed medical illustration and procedure charts to help the jury understand the nature of his neck injury, the chiropractic and physical therapy, and the radiofrequency neurotomy ablations (nerve burnings) that he endured to deal with his permanent neck injury. The trial also featured a defense produced secret videotape of our young client playing town team baseball, as a relief pitcher for a few innings. They tried to sell the jury on the idea that he couldn’t really be hurt if he continued to play ball. We provided testimony from family members and a teammate about how his playing time and abilities were definitely negatively effected by the car crash injuries, and the jury did not like the sneak videotaping.

Settlements: $180,781. Our client was a high school student running an errand for a local small business that he worked part time for, when a drunk driver suddenly crossed the centerline and smashed into his car. He suffered an ankle fracture requiring surgery with a plate and screws. Our case preparation included a detailed medical illustration of his surgery, as part of the preparation leading to worker compensation, liability and underinsured motorist settlements totaling $180,781.17.

Settlements: $318,500. Our client was a pleasant, longtime resident of a small town in Minnesota, who was hit by a negligent driver as she was walking in the crosswalk of her main street. Our team’s investigation and preparation led to obtaining $40,000 of PIP medical expense and income loss benefits, and liability and underinsured motorist settlements totaling $318,500.

Verdict: $146,071, in Hanson v. Branstad. Our client was a young nursing home worker who struggled through daily neck and back pain to stay on her job after a probable drunk driver, who fled from the scene, crashed into the rear of her car at a stoplight in Alexandria, MN. Our team consulted with her treating doctors and prepared detailed medical illustration charts to show the multiple radiofrequency ablations (a/k/a neurotomies; “nerve burnings”) in her neck that the doctors had started giving her annually to substantially lessen her permanent neck pain. The jury was not impressed with the insurance lawyers’ attack based on her Facebook entries.

Settlement: $200,000. Our client had been a locally trusted, successful used car salesman for years when he was suddenly struck from behind as a pedestrian by a negligent “jockey” of a car auction company in the parking area of the auction site. He was not only plagued with a permanent neck injury, but our team helped our client and his family understand the mild traumatic brain injury that was plaguing him. We worked with his treating neck doctor and a highly expert neurologist, who explained the nature of a mild traumatic brain injury, and that a mild traumatic brain injury is a serious injury. We achieved a settlement of $200,000, along with his full receipt of PIP medical expense benefits, which had initially been contested.

Settlements: $165,000. Our team achieved liability, underinsured and PIP medical expense benefits for our client, a busy young mother who worked as a corrections officer and college student. Her car was rear ended in a crash on the main street of a small town. Our investigation and preparation helped belie the claim of the negligent driver that the collision impact was extremely minimal. As always, we carefully spoke to her treating doctors, and learned that the crash caused a permanently injured neck, which surgery would not fix.

Verdict: $231,955, in Gades v. State Farm Insurance. Our client’s car was negligently struck by another driver, causing a permanent shoulder injury requiring surgery. The liability insurance carrier of the negligent driver rejected her request for a settlement, claiming her problems were from another bad car crash she had endured over a decade before as a teenager. We listened carefully to her treating orthopedic surgeon, and assisted his testimony in the courtroom with a large, detailed medical illustration of the surgery, resulting in a $231,955 verdict in Gades v. State Farm Insurance.

Settlement: $190,000. Our client had been a successful over-the-road trucker for many years, without any crashes, when he was shocked one day to have a young car driver pull out of a driveway directly into his path on the highway. Our client tried desperately to avoid the impact with his small pickup, but couldn’t make it. The impact left him, according to his treating doctor, with permanent soft tissue damage in his spinal area. The liability insurance carrier for the young driver at first tried to evade coverage by claiming that our client was driving over the speed limit on the highway. Our investigation work, including videotaping the scene with a pickup like our client was driving at various speeds, was key to achieving a settlement of $190,000 above the $40,000 of PIP coverages.

Settlement: $300,000. On an icy Minnesota two-lane highway, our client was helping a motorist get his rig out of the ditch when another car smashed into their vehicles, hitting his body, and causing a permanent shoulder injury. In the ensuing years, our client struggled through the pain to keep working at his vehicle repair and towing service in his small western Minnesota town. We worked closely with his treating doctor to get detailed explanations of why his shoulder would be an ongoing, permanent problem, and achieved a settlement of $300,000.

Verdict: $121,382, in Kveene v. Ward, et al. Our client, a young mother and small business bookkeeper, was on her way to church one wintery Sunday morning, when a negligent, speeding driver collided with the rear of her car. Settlement became impossible because the driver insisted that the impact was very minor, and the insurance adjusters, lawyer and hired doctor (one of the “usual suspects” doctors always hired by the insurance companies) insisted that her neck and back problems pre-existed the crash. The jury disagreed, and agreed with her family, co-workers and treating doctors, who carefully explained that surgery would not fix her neck and low back, and that she sustained permanent soft tissue injuries. As usual, with the help of the treating doctors, we obtained detailed, anatomical medical illustrations of her injured areas, to assist the doctors’ explanations to the jury.

Verdict: $156,293, in Piotter v. American Family Insurance. A well liked high school girl was traumatically pinned between two vehicles when a friend who was “horsing around” with his daddy’s pickup caused the injury. The liability insurance company refused to settle for anything reasonable on the theory that her pelvic fractures had healed, so she should have no ongoing problems. Our team carefully provided the medical records and the expert testimony of her treating doctor to explain why the trauma caused an ongoing, permanent condition of her low back pain.

Verdict: $117,181, in Thompson v. Binder. Our client was a young dairy farmer, husband of a teacher, and father of two little kids. The family was almost finished with a weekend trip to the Twin Cities in Minnesota, when a negligent motorist collided with the rear of their car. Our client was an athletic young man, proud of his toughness, who refused to go for treatment until nearly a year after the crash. The liability insurance carrier and its retained lawyer for the negligent driver tried to exploit our client’s “toughing it out” long delayed treatment, and offered less than his treatment bills to settle. Liability carrier State Farm paid all of the verdict and our expenses of the trial.

Verdict: $162,777, in Jensen v. State Farm Insurance. Our elderly farmer client was driving in a small rural town when the rear of his vehicle was crashed into by another elderly driver. The liability insurance carrier of the defendant driver cited that the injury did not necessitate surgery, and refused to offer anything more than a minuscule settlement, claiming that our client’s neck and back pain was all due to pre-existing degenerative arthritis (wear and tear of the spine), and one of their “usual suspects” doctors so testified, as they invariably do and are highly paid for. The jury agreed with our client, his family and friends, and his treating doctors, who testified with good, detailed medical illustration charts.

Settlement: $250,000 from the uninsured motorist benefits insurance carrier, over the worker compensation benefits received. Our client was driving his company pickup en route between plumbing jobs when a negligent, uninsured driver blew through a red light and hit the back end of his pickup. It caused a permanent neck problem for our client, and he underwent surgery to remove the herniated disc, and later had a spinal column pain relief stimulator implanted.

Verdict: $155,810, in Gabrielson v. Moe. Our client, a young mother of three children and hotel clerk, was a passenger in a pickup scouting for deer during hunting season. Another pickup with deer hunters negligently failed to pay attention and violently collided with the rear of the Gabrielson pickup. The liability insurance carrier of the striking pickup insisted that because there was no surgery on her neck, and because, as usual, one of their “usual suspects” doctors testified that she should have healed completely from the impact within three months, they offered a settlement that was less than the medical expenses. We arranged for the testimony of her treating doctors, with detailed medical illustration charts, and arranged for testimony from co-workers and family members, to explain the effects of the injury on her life. The trial featured a secretly taken videotape of our client by insurance company paid investigators, which showed our client helping people check in at her hotel workplace, as if her helping customers belied her injury condition. The jurors didn’t believe that the videotape portrayed her in a negative light, contrary to the defense lawyers claims, and did not appreciate the deception.

Settlement: $95,000. Our client was a young college student in Mankato when a negligent driver tried to beat a red light and collided with her car. Our firm successfully fought for her receiving her full $40,000 of PIP medical expense and income loss benefits, and then forced a $95,000 settlement against the liability insurance carrier within a month of the looming trial date.

Product Liability

Settlement: Confidential. Our client was an ambitious young high schooler in a small western Minnesota town who operated his own solo lawn mowing business in the summer. He was mowing the wet grass in the lawn of a neighbor when the self-propelled MTD brand lawn mower plugged up in wet grass. As he had done hundreds of times, he released the lever at the handle, which had always shut off the blade, as it was designed to do. However, unknown to our client, this time the cable had snapped leading to the blade. The wet grass muffled or slowed the blade until he reached his hand in to clean out the wet grass again. He suffered amputations of two fingers. Our team found and retained an expert who testified about the defective design of the cable route. The lawyers and experts for MTD countered with the claim that our client’s father “jerryrigged” the cable and handle before the incident, which the family denied. They also of course claimed negligence against our client.

Settlement: $207,500. Our client was an experienced operator of a large concrete pump truck manufactured by the German corporation Schwing, G.M.B.H. He was working on a skyscraper construction in downtown Minneapolis. As he had done hundreds of times before, he was cleaning out the pump valves at the end of his shift when he was shocked to have a valve slam shut, badly smashing his hand. Schwing blamed our client for negligence and initially refused to offer any settlement. Our lawsuit document discovery and depositions revealed that Schwing had provided a safety mechanism on its concrete pumping rigs in Europe that they failed to provide on this rig being used by our client in Minnesota, leading to his settlement.

Settlement: Very substantial and confidential. Client was a bubbly, athletic and musical high school student from a small town in Montana. She was driving the family’s compact car with her mother on a freeway in Minnesota en route to a relative’s home in Wisconsin for a visit. A tire accidently became detatched from a car on a freeway lane going the opposite direction from them. The tire crossed the center grass median, bounced and slammed down at the line of the roof and front windshield on their family’s compact car. The impact shattered client’s spine at her neck, plunging her into permanent paraplegia. The defendant had manufactured both cars, and denied any responsibility. Our investigations and lawsuit document and depositions discovery revealed that there was a safer design for the wheel tightening on the oncoming car that had lost the tire, at the time it was designed and manufactured, and a much stronger, safer design, that was still relatively inexpensive, for the roof of the compact car that our client was driving, which was manufactured in Germany.

Wrongful Death

Verdict: $357,500, in Lokken v. Rodeberg. A vivacious high school girl died on New Year’s Eve on the way home from a keg party when her drunk boyfriend lost control of his pickup on a curve on a rural two-lane highway. The liability insurance carrier for the pickup made a top offer of less than $100,000 to the family for the loss of their beloved daughter. Although her boyfriend was not obviously intoxicated when they left the party, the jury verdict amount was tempered by the fact that she had been drinking at the party as well, and willingly rode with him.

Settlement: $715,832. Our client was a beloved husband when he died in a construction crash in Texas. He and another young man plunged to their deaths when the scaffolding they were working on, applying stucco high up on a downtown hotel, fell out from under them. We first researched and found good local counsel in Texas. Our team’s investigations and depositions in the lawsuit revealed that the general contractor had incompetently secured the scaffolding on the roof of the building. The settlement for the widow was achieved just a week before trial was to begin in Texas.

Settlements: $425,000. Our clients were the spouse and little children of a passenger in a pickup that struck a large tree after the drunk driver of the pickup, his construction company co-worker, failed to make the curve on a rural road. Our team successfully investigated to belie the drunk driver’s attempt to claim that our client’s husband was the driver, and then carefully worked with the spouse on preparation of the case. We achieved settlements totaling $425,000.00 against the liability insurance carrier of the drunk driver, and the insurance carriers of two bars that had over served the two young men that night. The amount of the settlement was tempered by the fact that our family’s decedent had willingly drank and ridden with the defendant driver.

Settlements: $170,000. Client family’s son was a delightful, active high schooler, who loved sports, especially baseball. He and several friends accepted a ride from one home to another on a weekend night from a young man they knew who was several years older than them. Unbeknown to them, this driver had been drinking underage at a local bar. Their son died when the driver rolled the car on a rural highway. His parents did an excellent job through pictures and stories trying to do the impossible -- truly convey how much he meant to his family. With them, our team was able to obtain the maximum insurance coverages under the liability policies of the driver and the bar, along with an additional payment of thousands from the bar.

Construction Injuries

Settlement: $250,000. Our client worked on a road construction crew for years with an accident-free record until one day a co-worker negligently smashed his truck into the tar roller-compactor rig that our client was operating. The crash caused an injured neck requiring surgery for a herniated disc. While our client was eventually able to return to road construction, it knocked him out for that season, and left him with a permanently weak neck. Our team achieved a settlement of $250,000 above his worker compensation benefits.

Settlement: $715,832. Our client was a beloved husband when he died in a construction accident in Texas. He and another young man plunged to their deaths when the scaffolding they were working on, applying stucco high up on a downtown hotel, fell out from under them. We first researched and found good local counsel in Texas. Our team’s investigations and depositions in the lawsuit revealed that the general contractor had incompetently secured the scaffolding on the roof of the building. The settlement for the widow was achieved just a week before trial was to begin in Texas.