Case Studies

During the pendency of this matter, the plaintiff's lawyers had "warned" us at every opportunity that they were certain to secure a Judgment well in excess of one million dollars in this allegedly plaintiff-friendly venue. The lesson of this matter is that, even in a plaintiff-friendly venue, with the logical and persuasive presentation of evidence gathered proactively during the entire course of the litigation, the jury will be disinclined to reward a plaintiff who is clearly dishonest—regardless of how that dishonesty manifests itself.

Our client was the painting contractor under a multi-prime delivery system for the construction of an athletic facility at a large Midwestern university. The client was owed several hundred thousand dollars in contract money and extras, and after negotiations failed, filed suit. The university contended that there were significant paint failures, and asserted a multi-million dollar counterclaim. Although we were reasonably confident about our position, we also recognized that the cost of proceeding to trial, when combined with the risk of an adverse judgment, made this case an obvious candidate for settlement. But we needed to decide how to position the case for settlement, particularly in light of the fact that some of the paint was in fact failing. So we decided to take a very aggressive posture in discovery, hoping that we could quickly and efficiently move to settlement discussions.

Not every dispute needs to be resolved through an extended arbitration or trial. That's not a very "deep thought", and shame on us as your attorneys if we didn't recognize that fact. But figuring out how and when to resolve a case short of a full blown trial often requires out of the box thinking. Here is an example of how we handled one such engagement.

Sometimes an effective prelitigation presentation of the strength of your case will bring opponents to the bargaining table where litigation otherwise appears inevitable. Read about how the combination of a well-developed claim and a clearly delivered message had the desired effect of facilitating a successful settlement of a complex multi-party contractor dispute.

True representation of a client means knowing more than the law – it means knowing their business and having an intimate knowledge of their specific work at issue in the case. Read a case study that illustrates the complexities of construction litigation, and the legal strategies that led to a successful defense of our client against a claim of engineering malpractice filed during the construction of a prominent community college.

Is your plan's bundled service provider doing their job to ensure that the plan satisfies required tests? Here's a case study of one that didn't and the steps that Chamberlain Hrdlicka undertook to provide a solution.

Mixing pleasure and profit and being able to claim losses at tax time is tricky business, especially if you are involved in the thoroughbred horse industry. This case study examines a precedent-setting matter in the U.S. Tax Court that did precisely that, by proving that our client’s equestrian and related activities were part of a strategy to build a design business. Read about our attorneys’ successful strategy in this case, that was also reported in The Wall Street Journal (link here).

Two important legal issues were resolved in this lawsuit against a city in Galveston County brought by an arrestee who was injured while seated in the back seat of a police vehicle that was struck by a private vehicle. The following case study examines the successful strategies utilized in this case and discusses the broader implications of the decision as it impacts governmental immunity jurisprudence.