Pacific Northwest Injury Law Advocate - News & Updates on Personal Injury Law with a Focus on the Northwest & Seattle-Tacoma Metro Area

On December 21, 2012, the Owen family were returning from a family trip. While they traveled on Highway 2 toward Leavenworth, a tree fell onto their SUV. Tim Owen and his wife, Cheryl, did not survive. Jessie, Jaime, and Steven (Jaime's husband) sustained serious injuries, although Jeremy Owen was fortunate to walk away from the accident.

Learn more about the heroism and strength of Jessie Owen and the rest of the Owen family at King5.com.

If you or someone you know witnessed the incident, please contact Karen Koehler, the attorney for Tim/Cheryl Owen at KarenK@stritmatter.com. 

The day care should have been shut down long before this tragedy.  

Day cares can only stay in business if the government decides they are safe. 

Laws require day cares to use proper diapering and cleaning procedures and report outbreaks of illnesses.  Laws require public health departments to act to prevent the spread of disease.  Laws require the Department of Early Learning to revoke the license of day cares that chronically violate the laws that are meant to protect children.

The young parents who entrusted 4 year old Ronan Wilson to Fletch Family Day Care, had no idea that the County and State should have shut that facility down.  The parents had no idea of the number of health and safety violations found over and over again.  But the government knew and took no action.

Fletch Family Day Care was a public safety hazard.  It posed a threat to the health and safety of those it was supposed to care for.  Ultimately the long line of violations and failures lead to the death of Ronan from complications associated with E. Coli.  The preventable outbreak  injured a total 18 children and 3 adults at the Fletch Family Day Care.

After Ronan’s death, the government decided that this last violation should be Fletch Family Day Care’s final one.  It shut down the Day Care.  One child too late.

This lawsuit (PDF to complaint), discussed in The Columbian, seeks to change such conduct in the future to prevent further tragedies, and to compensate for the damage done to the Wilson family.

Paul Stritmatter of SKWC is the attorney for the parents. 

Check out the updated SKWC Bike Law site, which focuses on our work specific to bicycle-related injuries.

For decades, SKWC attorneys have represented injured bicyclists with great success. In fact, about 40 years ago, SKWC obtained the largest personal injury jury award in Grays Harbor County's history at that time. This history-making verdict was for Foster v. Bylund for $60,000 in Grays Harbor County Superior Court (1971). A 12-year-old bicyclist had seriously injured her leg.

Bicycle injuries are often much more serious than accidents where only cars are involved. SKWC bicycle accident lawyers are sought after because of their long string of successes. Most recently the case involving a cyclist, Mickey Gendler, who was catastrophically injured on the Montlake Bridge, has garnered much attention from the media. The $8 million settlement was the highest payout since 2003 by the State of Washington.

This Monday marks a decade since our client Kris Kime was beaten to death during the Mardi Gras Riots.

I had the privilege of representing the family.  They came together to my office.  Ken the father, Kim the mother.  And even though they had long since been divorced, they came united as a family.  I came to know Kimberlee, Kris' step mom.  His brother Keith.  His sister Kirsten.  His brother Cameron.  His grandparents.  Through them, I learned who Kris was and how much he was loved.  I wept with them when his killer Jerrell Thomas was convicted and sentenced to present.  I wept with them when his conviction was overturned for legal reasons and his sentence plea bargained down.  I went to Kirsten's wedding and met some of the people who had received Kris' organs.  I'm thankful for facebook so I can see what they are up to.  And my breakfasts with Kim who is one of the most caring people I've ever known.

Kris Kime would have been 30 years old on Monday.  His life was too short.  But it was not in vain.

King5 did a show in memory of one of the most shameful incidents in our city's history.   A moment when police were ordered not to help citizens in need.  They did a 2nd story on the killer.  If you are in pioneer square visit Kris' memorial by the pergola.  Light a candle.  And think of the greater humanity that this young man and his family stand for.

Despite the historic recession, health insurance rates are sky rocketing.  Our small group has seen our Regence premiums grow 150 percent over the past decade.  As bad as that is, it is less than the 201 percent increase by Premera.

Mike Kreidler, our Insurance Commissioner is one of the best public officials our state has ever had.  He is requesting the legislature to enact HB 1301 (SB 5247).  This would allow him to consider a not-for-profit health insurer's surplus when regulating its rates.

The insurers are up in arms.  They say consumers need "strong muscular companies."  They use scare tactics by alluding to possible earthquakes, epidemics, and President Obama's health reform.  But according to The Seattle Times they have piled up $2.4 Billion in surplus - triple what it was ten years ago.

No one can afford to send more lobbyists to the halls of our government than insurance corporations.  But we the people can join together to support Kreidler and the legislators who will vote for this bill. 

We need to stop the madness.  Insurers need to be regulated.  Enough is enough.

In case you missed it, an insightful editorial appeared in this Sunday's The Columbian, "Courts keep failures by state agencies in check." Magana and Wieland point out the serous problems with endorsing special legal protections for state government agencies whose negligent actions or inactions cause harm to citizens. 

Importantly, Magana and Wieland explain that "government is never responsible for anyone’s actions but its own, and is never judged on any failures or bad choices except for its own." Only if "but for" the government's failures did an injury arise, then it could it then be held liable.

Please read the piece in its entirety for a thoughtful and accurate explanation to understand why we must continue to hold the government accountable via lawsuits in Washington state.

In the interest of full disclosure, one of the authors of this editorial is Jesse Magana, a client of Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Coluccio.

As we head into this year's first legislative session, the law firm of Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Coluccio (SKWC) wants to provide an informational resources via a new website, KeepWASafe.com. As the days and weeks progress, please visit it frequently for more information, which will help you understand why the agenda to bar lawsuits against the state for tort cases will make Washington less safer for all of us.  

We welcome your comments and questions.  

The new nonprofit organization, the Spinal Cord Injury Association of Washington (SCIAW) is pleased to announce its launch of its new site, SCIAW.org.  SCIAW.org provides resources for those surviving or supporting spinal cord injuries (SCI) with focus of those in Washington State. SCIAW's parent organization is the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. 

In the fall of 2010, SKWC partner Karen Koehler created SCIAW in association with Dr. Charles Bombardier, Ph.D, Project Director for the Northwest Regional Spinal Cord Injury System; Vivian Moise, MD, the Medical Adviser/Director for the SCI Program at St. Luke's Rehabilitation Hospital (Spokane, WA); Anthony Choppa, M.Ed, Owner of OSC Vocational Systems, Inc.; and Jesse Magana, spinal cord injury advocate.

SCIAW is a Washington State nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that supports all of the interests of SCI survivors, regardless of the cause of the injury or the severity of the impairment.

For more information and to donate, please visit SCIAW.org today!