The Wall Came Tumbling Down: $15 Million Wrongful Death Verdict

“Walking into Ozaukee County and telling the jury that it was worth $40 million was completely unheard of. I mean, people thought I was crazy.” In this conversation with host Dan Ambrose, Al Foeckler sets the stage for his wrongful death case on behalf of the family of a woman who was buried alive when a retaining wall collapsed on her. In addition to the conservative nature of the jurisdiction, Al also faced Wisconsin’s rules on damages in wrongful death cases: They are capped at $350,000 for adults and $500,000 for children, so value comes through showing pain and suffering. The case turned on a counterintuitive pre-trial decision: dropping the adult children's wrongful death claims after Big Data studies predicted doing so would nearly double the pain and suffering damages. Tune in to hear how Al won $15 million.

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Episode Snapshot

• In Wisconsin, wrongful death damages for adults are capped at $350,000 and for children at $500,000, so case value is built on establishing non-economic pain and suffering damages.
• Al’s wrongful death case centered on a woman who died from injuries sustained after a retaining wall at the senior community where she lived collapsed on her.
• Six weeks before trial, the defense offered $176,000 each to the decedent’s two adult children — just over the $350,000 wrongful death cap. But if accepted, the children couldn’t testify about their loss. Rejecting it meant risking paying the defense's costs if the jury didn't beat the offer.
• A Big Data study showed that dropping the children's wrongful death claims would nearly double the predicted pain and suffering verdict, so Al restructured the case.
• When the judge barred Al's large-scale recreation of the retaining wall as a demonstrative exhibit, he relied on building the scene spatially in the courtroom instead.
• Al is launching lawyersinthearena.com, a plaintiffs-only newsletter featuring trial skills and war stories, and will present three workshops at TLU Beach – including a deep dive into this wall collapse case.

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