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

The following is reprinted from the King County Bar Bulletin, June 2012 issue.

"The Velvet Hammer" is a perfect moniker for Karen Koehler. Her disarmingly soft touch belies her tough-as-nails representation of wrongful death and catastrophically injured clients.

While raising three daughters (Cristina, Alysha and Noelle), Karen has managed to raise the bar as one of Washington's top trial lawyers. Her Oprah-style trial approach has earned her the recognition of her peers as a Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Washington State Association for Justice (WSAJ).

Most recently, her 1½-year-old blog (KarenKoehlerBlog.com) catapulted to the top of the charts as the American Bar Association's No. 1 Trial Practice blog.

Karen is as technical as she is creative. Her logical German father is a retired UW professor of biological structure. Her intuitive Chinese mother is a retired general practice lawyer. They taught her to be proud of her mixed race and that it wasn't necessary to fit within a stereotype. As a result, Karen takes delight in challenging trial lawyer "norms."

"You can be serious and do a good job without having to take yourself too seriously," she says. She is on a personal quest to show the general public that "lawyers are real people too." This is what makes her blog so appealing to a large cross section of society.

"We lawyers are our own worst PR enemies," Karen says. "Look at the awful ads on everything from television to taxi cabs. The Internet is clogged with lawyer garbage. Our best hope is to stop adding to the caricature and humanize ourselves."

Karen obliges through her website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, P'interest, and any other new social network device that her daughters learn and tell her about. She has changed the way the law firm of Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Coluccio (SKWC) portrays itself - from the ads she conceptualizes to the booklets she shepherds through completion.

For the past decade, Karen has been writing trial diaries that reflect her love of courtroom drama and her desire to have fun - from the time she lost a shoe and wore flip flops while cross-examining a witness to the time the entire jury panel, judge, defense counsel and everyone else in the courtroom applauded her witness on a spinning bike. Her stories enthrall as much as they inform.

Justice Steven González admits with a chuckle, "While not in trial, I enjoy reading her blog." About what makes her interesting in the courtroom, he explains, "Karen is not afraid to disagree - whether it's with opposing counsel or with the court. Her arguments are excellent and make a good record effectively."

Another judge who also enjoys Karen's blogs and trial diaries when not presiding over one of her cases is Judge Richard McDermott. "Her trial diaries are a refreshingly candid account," he says. "While self-effacing, they are poignant and accurate. What a great tool she's provided for young lawyers."

In commenting about her as a trial lawyer and her courtroom presence, Judge McDermott says, "Karen is very special. When she's in the courtroom she looks like she wants to be there. Unlike too many attorneys, she's always well prepared."

Judge Mary Yu describes Karen as "an extraordinary trial lawyer; she is intuitive with jurors and creative with her presentation. I truly appreciated her sense of humor, intensity and willingness to experiment with me as we took one of her cases (a jury trial) up to Seattle University School of Law. The one word that comes to mind when I think of Karen is 'courageous.'"

Karen's energy level (she calls it her hyperactivity disorder) has shown no signs of waning over the years. (Does she ever sleep?) And in case you are interested, she is not shy about being "51 years alive."

Karen runs more than an hour every day, usually with her dog Nala. "It's how I meditate," she says. She manages a demanding caseload with SKWC and did so even when she recently served as WSAJ president. She frequently speaks around the country for trial lawyer associations and the American Association for Justice where she is also a board member.

She has been an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at the UW where she has taught for seven years with Bill Bailey. And, in 2010, she started the Female Trial Advocacy Program that offers classes through WSAJ.

In 2011, Karen wanted to make a difference outside of the legal arena. She created (with SKWC's significant support) and now serves as the president of the Spinal Cord Injury Association of Washington (SCIAW.org). SCIAW is a partner of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

Karen's daughter Cristina organized SCIAW's first large event, the Green Lake Walk and Roll, which raised over $11,000. The second Walk and Roll will be October 6 and is expected to be at least twice as big.

Karen's high-profile cases include:

Kime v. City of Seattle: The Kime case is well known by Seattle residents who were around in the early 2000s. Young Kris Kime was trying to help an innocent victim, who was being attacked during the Mardi Gras riots of 2001, when he himself was then beaten to death. Despite Kris's friends pleas to the police, who stood nearby, the officers complied with the mayor's orders to do nothing. Suing the city was a way to hold it accountable for decisions that led to avoidable death and injuries.

Ethel Adams v. Farmers Insurance Company: Michael Testa rammed his girlfriend's truck as he chased her down Aurora Avenue. The truck crossed the centerline where it flipped upside down on top of and head-on into Ethel Adams, almost killing her. Adams' insurance company, Farmers, decided not to pay the claim because road rage was not an "accident."

The public became outraged as media covered the lawsuit. The insurance commissioner threatened to shut Farmers down in Washington, at which point it changed its mind and paid on the policy. Adams then sued Farmers for bad faith. One year after Adams was hurt, the governor signed the "Ethel Adams Bill" into law - when an innocent person is injured in a car accident, the insurance company can no longer play the same word games.

Perez v. "Construction Company": SKWC, through Karen, Paul Stritmatter and Kevin Coluccio, brought a lawsuit on behalf of Candelario Perez and his three dependent children in the Eastern District of Washington in Spokane. In 2008, Perez was tightening barbed wire to a fence post when he fell backwards off a cliff in Eastern Washington, tumbling head over heels down a canyon wall. Perez became an instant quadriplegic.

For a year and a half the SKWC team battled with the general contractor, which had failed to provide any fall-protection safety. SKWC even went with all five of its experts to the cliff with proper safety gear. Exactly two years after Perez's tragic injury, the case settled for $7 million - the available policy limits.

Both the general and subcontractor are still in business and working together. But there is now a difference. Today, their workers attend regular safety meetings, minutes are kept, fall-protection gear is provided, and there is a fall-protection system in place.

Karen will be the first to say that she's not an island. She is still best friends with her former law partner Pat LePley. She credits the strength of the Stritmatter firm for helping her to blossom these past eight years. She has a picture of her paralegals Anne Roberson and John Meyers front and center on her desk because they "get it all done."

Her network of extended family and dear friends grounds her. Cristina, her eldest daughter, is on her way to Gonzaga University School of Law. Alysha, a junior at the UW, created and is president of UW Yogis - a 200-member group. Noelle has completed her freshman year and is heading to school in Nashville for a music business degree.

Karen Koehler personifies the new-era trial lawyer. She improves the image of our entire profession, while obtaining significant results for her clients as only "The Velvet Hammer" can.

Paul Stritmatter, a former Trial Lawyer of the Year and Champion of Justice, is a partner at Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Coluccio. Stritmatter's blog, FightSubro.com, is also quickly catching up with Koehler's personal blog in terms of readers. Catherine Fleming is an attorney at SKWC. She contributes regularly to the firm blog at pnwinjurylawadvocate.com.

Firefighter Mark Jones fell 15 feet down the hole in the middle of a night in December 2003. He suffered traumatic brain injuries and a shattered pelvis. Many of his vertebrae were broken as were nearly all of his right ribs.

In 2010, a verdict awarded Jones almost $13 million for his disabilities, along with pain and suffering. 

As the Seattle Times reported, today the City of Seattle appealed, saying among other things that it should have been allowed to present evidence at trial of Jones' prior alcohol use, even though he had not been drinking the night of the fall. An expert for the city speculated that Jones could have been disoriented by alcohol withdrawal symptoms, but the appeals court found that the trial judge was correct to bar that testimony from the trial.

The city's insurer secretly videotaped Jones allegedly dancing and chopping wood. Even had Jones been doing such things, the sad truth is that even disabled people can occasionally dance and chop wood. While virtually $13 million seems like a significant amount, constant medical treatment and daily living assistance can quickly add up over the course of several decads. Jones is now in his late 40's.

New report shows hypocrisy of Institute for Legal Reform's corporate board members that aggressively litigate while blocking justice for everyday Americans

Washington, D.C. --As the U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) holds its annual summit - a strategy session on eliminating Americans' access to the civil justice system - a new report exposes ILR's corporate board members that hypocritically use the courts for their own gain against competitors, customers and even each other.

In its newest report, Do As I Say, Not As I Sue, the American Association for Justice (AAJ) exposes the hypocrisy of 10 ILR board members that regularly use the legal system to advance their own agendas, while at the same time advocating legislation that would close the courthouse doors to anyone who would hold them accountable for their own wrongdoing.

"These corporations, like all Americans, have a right to seek justice through the legal system," said AAJ President Gary M. Paul. "What makes their actions shameful and hypocritical is that these companies are members of ILR's board for the sole purpose of denying American workers and consumers this same right."

One ILR board member highlighted in the report is Honeywell International, which has regularly taken competitors to court, but would prefer not to be held accountable for distributing defective body armor to law enforcement personnel across the country, or downplaying the dangers of asbestos exposure.

In return for its financial contributions to ILR, Honeywell has received policy and public relations help when its negligence has been uncovered. Four days after an Illinois jury delivered a multi-million dollar verdict against Honeywell for conspiring to hide the dangers of asbestos, ILR issued a press release stating that the decision "confirms a troubling trend in the State of Illinois where there is a hostile ligation environment." Additionally, the Madison County Record, an Illinois-based propaganda-as-news outlet fully owned by ILR, featured an article headlined, "McLean County Continues Inching Closer to Becoming a 'Judicial Hellhole.'"

The irony does not stop with Honeywell - AAJ's report also highlights the litigation hypocrisy of ILR board members FedEx, Dow Chemical Company, General Motors Corporation, Caterpillar, State Farm, Koch Industries, Abbott Laboratories, Prudential and Johnson & Johnson.

Online ads will run this week on major news sites and blogs to promote the report, Do As I Say, Not As I Sue: Exposing the Lawsuit-Happy Hypocrites of U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform, which can be found at www.justice.org/USChamber.

This weekend I got to see my last movie at the Seattle International Film Festival. It was "Hot Coffee," a documentary by Susan Saladoff. It made me incredibly proud to be in this profession and to work with some of the best trial lawyers in the country.

The movie is an absolute must-see. Period. Full stop. When the DVD comes out (later this summer), run, don't walk to buy it. Better yet, you can see it if you have HBO later this month. It is not a dry, boring documentary: Al Franken and Paul Grisham keep things lively.

Although I work for a plaintiffs law firm, even I had misconceptions about the infamous "hot coffee" lawsuit against McDonalds. This documentary, however, is not just about opening everyone's eyes to the jaw dropping injuries that Stella Liebeck, the then 79-year old woman sustained from spilling some scalding hot coffee on herself. It reveals how McDonalds had previously received 700 complaints about the ridiculously hot coffee.

Moreover, the film shows how corporations have spent many hundreds of million dollars on distorting the truth about tort claims -- from "tort reform" to caps on damages. Trial lawyers are conveniently pegged as the villains, while insurance companies are portrayed as the victims: a comedy and utter tragedy at the same time.

A doctor specializing in burn injuries explains in "Hot Coffee," that the holding temperature for coffee was so hot that at best, if the coffee touched one's skin for a few seconds, one would suffer 3rd degree burns. Regardless, McDonalds chose to ignore the obvious threat to its customers' safety until brave Ms. Liebeck attempted to hold them accountable. 

The film also features a couple of other poignant stories: One, about an ex-Halliburton worker who was brutally raped by her coworkers in Iraq; but denied the ability to sue her employer/employees thanks to a mandatory arbitration clause. The other story is a needlessly tragic situation, where one twin boy was brain damaged in utero, because of a negligent doctor. That family was essentially robbed of the jury verdict due to the state's cap on damages.

Buy this DVD for all of your friends, family, neighbors, etc., so that they learn how corporations are attempting to dismantle the civil justice system. 

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.  

These restaurants that cater to children with play areas and equipment need to make them safe.  They encourage these kids to play and climb, but then sometimes leave them exposed.

We had a case against Carl’s Jr. Restaurants.  Our 4 year old client was on the play equipment.  Mom was sitting nearby.  There was a gap between the wall and the netting that allowed entry behind the equipment. Our inquisitive youngster, like most kids, was able to find this gap and used it to gain entry to the area behind the equipment.   The youngster then had crawled up the back of one the tubes, lost his grip and fell about 10 feet to the solid floor below.  Unlike the floor that is padded inside the equipment, in this area the floor was solid concrete.  The boy suffered a significant traumatic brain injury that will impact the rest of his life.

As unbelievable as it seems, store personnel had seem other kids gain access to the back of the equipment on prior occasions, but the manager was concerned about overhead, and refused to have the gap plugged of otherwise covered.

Experts were quick to criticize this design that would leave such a gap.  These kids are encouraged to be climbing all over this enticing equipment; these restaurants need to make sure they are safe.

We secured a $2 million settlement for this youngster, and have the money tucked away in a structure to assist him for life.  Too bad they didn’t fix this before he had his fall.