FAVORABLE RESULTS

  • $275,000 for a young male driver involved in a two
    car head-on collision on a rural highway, where
    the defense initially contended that the drivers,
    who knew one another, had been “playing
    chicken.”

  • $250,000 for a bicyclist who was hit from the rear
    by an overtaking car on a highway.

  • $150,000 in settlements for the driver and
    passengers of a van struck head-on by a drunk  
    driver.

  • $100,000 for an elderly driver whose admittedly
    pre-existing heart condition was seriously
    aggravated by the trauma of involvement in a
    traffic accident, resulting in hospitalization and
    chronic lymphedema in his lower extremities

  • A significant but confidential settlement amount
    for a teenage girl who was sexually assaulted  by
    her uncle, a minister.

  • $62,500 for a bicyclist who was hit by a car on a
    residential street.

  • $72,500 in a Wrongful Death case for a teenage
    mother, whose 10 month old child died as the
    result of an in-bed “rollover asphyxiation” after she
    left him in the care of the teenage father following
    the conclusion of a New Years’ Eve party hosted
    by the child's grandparents.

  • $100,000 for a high school student who, in an
    attempt to stop his unlicensed girlfriend from
    driving his Mother's car around a parking lot
    without his permission,  climbed onto its trunk and
    then up onto its roof and was subsequently thrown
    head first onto the pavement, suffering a skull
    fracture as a result, when the girlfriend abruptly
    slammed on the brakes.

  • $100,000 (structured settlement) for an 8 year old
    boy whose legs were burned when, while playing
    with a neighbor’s 10 year old son around a pile of
    leaves being burnt in the neighbor’s yard, the 10
    year old “soccer kicked” a nearby cup containing
    a mixture of gasoline and 2 cycle engine oil for
    neighbor’s leaf blower, causing spray to flash-
    ignite and hit the 8 year old.

  • $140,000 for a woman, who was hit by a snowplow
    while walking through her apartment complex's
    parking lot on her way to work in pre-dawn
    darkness.

  • $145,000 for an outdoor music festival stage crew
    worker, who fell from the elevated superstructure
    of the large canopy-covered stage when it
    collapsed during a sudden windstorm due to poor
    design and inadequate anchoring.

  • $260,000 for a rural highway driver who was
    involved in a "T-bone" collision with a  delivery
    vehicle when it ran the stop sign at an intersecting
    road and pulled out across his path.

  • $300,000 for an HVAC subcontractor, who fell two
    floors on a home remodeling jobsite when the
    general-contractor-installed temporary stairway he
    was climbing collapsed.

                EXPERIENCE

I have been certified as a Civil Trial
Specialist by the National Board of Trial
Advocacy since 1999.  My experience in
representing seriously injured people began
while working for another Milwaukee firm in
the early 1990's.  There, I reviewed and
screened potential medical negligence
cases, performed medical and legal
research, recruited medical experts, and
took and defended depositions of experts in
medicine, nursing, vocational rehabilitation,
and economics.  I also "second-chaired"
medical negligence cases to jury verdict,
assisted in the handling of cases arising out
of construction accidents, defective
products, and sexual assaults, and tried
traffic accident injury cases before juries.

Since then, I have continued to handle
selected personal injury cases on behalf of
injured clients.  Over the years, I have
obtained favorable settlements for most
personal injury clients without the need for a
trial, sometimes in cases where proving
negligence and/or the applicability of
insurance coverage was very challenging
and other attorneys had declined or
terminated representation.  

       PROSECUTING CLAIMS

Obtaining maximum compensation for injured
clients requires a lot of experience, skill, and
hard work, including thorough investigation,
careful attention to detail, identification and
preservation of key evidence, gathering of health
care and associated cost records, gathering of
employment and related lost earnings
information,  analysis of facts and applicable law,  
maintaining good communication with the client,
aggressive negotiating, and the ability to try
cases when the defense won't settle for what the
client believes is a just and fair amount.  

The law places upon the plaintiff, i.e., the person
seeking money damages for injuries, the burden
of proving to a Jury, by the greater weight of the
credible evidence, that the defendant is legally
responsible for causing the injury.  To prove
legal responsibility for the payment of
damages at trial in a Wisconsin negligence
case, in summary, using legally permissible
evidence and closing argument the
plaintiff's attorney must persuade 10 out of
12 Jurors:

         1) That the defendant was negligent;

          2) That the defendant's negligence was
              a  substantial factor in causing the
              injury (and, in cases where there was
              also some contributing causal
              negligence on the part of the  
              plaintiff,  that the defendant's
              negligence was an equal or greater
              contributing cause of the injury); and

         3) That the plaintiff suffered damages
               for which money compensation
              should be awarded.

The difficulty, time, costs, and risks involved in
attempting to prove personal injury cases varies
substantially, depending on the individual case's
facts, the law applicable to such facts, and the
degree to which critical evidence can be
gathered and preserved.   Contrary to the
impression given by some of the lawyer ads seen
on TV, not every claim is a clearcut  "winner"
from the start and most do not instantly produce
large settlements.  

Not every attorney has the experience, skill, and  
perseverance necessary to successfully handle
the more difficult-to-prove personal injury cases.  
Many advertise heavily on TV, have a secretary
or paralegal screen resulting calls, and then
"cherry pick" only the easy-to-prove and most
profitable cases, leaving callers with more difficult
or smaller cases to fend for themselves.  While I
do not wind up accepting every PI case, I
personally take or return all calls from
injured people who wish to tell me about
their claim and I have accepted and
successfully handled many very challenging
cases that other firms turned away.  

Experience is a big plus in analyzing cases and
formulating strategies for gathering and
presenting evidence in a way which maximizes
the prospects for a favorable recovery.  I use my
experience to  personally evaluate potential
cases thoroughly and honestly.
                                                                                                                             FEES
I represent injured people on a contingency fee basis.  There is no fee unless I recover money damages for you.  The fee, a percentage of any gross
recovery later obtained, is agreed upon and stated in writing at the beginning of the representation.  The fee is usually set somewhere between 25% and
33 1/3%, depending on the difficulty, time, costs, size of potential recovery, and risks involved in the case.  Home and hospital visits can be arranged
where necessary.   There is no fee unless I recover money damages for you.  414-933-7174   
CONNOLLY LAW OFFICES, LLC

    Personal Injury
Attorney James J. Connolly
Connolly Law Offices, LLC
Pettibone Mansion
2051 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53233
414-933-7174