Press Release
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Paul Stritmatter Recognized with Lifetime Achievement Award.
SEATTLE, WA - With the flailing economy and the current state of the insurance system, many find the prospect of a major injury worse than death itself. Hoquiam attorney, Paul Stritmatter, understands this better than most.
Known best for helping bring justice to clients against the insurance industry and corporate giants, Stritmatter was recognized on Dec. 4th with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Washington State Association for Justice.
Stritmatter is a founding partner of the eleven-attorney firm that represented Jesse Magana against Hyundia Motor Co before the state Supreme Court. On Nov. 25, 2009, the court reinstated an $8 million default judgment against Hyundia Motor Co., in a lawsuit over the backward collapse of a front seat in a 1997 crash, paralyzing Magana.
“My biggest reward is seeing the results that I bring for people whose lives have been decimated by injury and financial strife,” Stritmatter explains, “I help those people, who are most vulnerable, when they have mounting medical bills, unanswered calls, and no more job, because of their serious injuries.”
But when these people call Stritmatter, their lives along with many policyholders or consumers in the state, often find a much better result. Stritmatter fought vigorously on behalf of Ethel Adams against Farmers Insurance, which ultimately brought about the Ethel Adams Bill. Ms. Adams was driving lawfully on Highway 99, but was hit as the result of a man who was attempting to run his girlfriend off the road. He rammed the girlfriend’s truck across the centerline and into the southbound lanes. The girlfriend’s pickup truck was forced into Ms. Adam’s lane and slammed directly into her, crashing her car and knocking it backward into another truck.
Ms. Adams had to be cut from her crumpled Hyundai, and was in a coma for nine days, suffered collapsed lungs and 17 broken bones, spent a month in the hospital and another five months in a nursing home. Though Ms. Adams had $2 million worth of coverage, Truck Insurance, a part of Farmers Insurance, refused to pay her medical expenses for massive injuries, claiming the wreck was the result of an intentional act, not an accident.
The Ethel Adams bill, which passed in 2006 in Washington, changed the definition of an “accident,” as any occurrence that is unexpected and unintended from the perspective of the insured.
Recognized for this among many other achievements as a personal injury attorney, Stritmatter served as President of the Washington State Bar Association from 1993-1994. Additionally, he served as President of the national public interest law firm Public Justice from 2001-2002, as one of its founders. He served as the first chairman of the Northwest Justice project, a law firm dedicated to serving the interests of low-income citizens of the state of Washington in 1996-1997. He was the first chairman of the Access to Justice Board created by the Washington State Supreme Court in 1994, and served in that capacity for the first three years of the existence of the Board. He received the prestigious Pursuit of Justice Award from the American Bar Association in 2003. He has been honored in the past by various legal organizations for his skills as an outstanding trial lawyer, including the Willamette Law School from which he graduated with honors in 1969.
The current President of WSAJ, Brad Fulton, stated “Paul has spent his career giving back to the justice system and this association. Whenever we needed a leader, no matter what the agenda, Paul has been there, with money to fund various programs, energy for leadership and organization, and passion for justice and its cause. We are in his debt and this award is but a small way that we hope to show how high our esteem is for him.”
About the Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Coluccio (SKWC) Law Firm
SKWC handles tough, complex cases including defective products, claims against the government, medical negligence, nursing home abuse, highway design, class actions, defective vehicles, major vehicle crashes, dangerous construction sites, defective premises, and maritime claims. Most recently, SKWC attorney, Paul Whelan, represented Jesse Magana before the state Supreme Court. On Nov. 25, 2009, the court reinstated an $8 million default judgment against Hyundia Motor Co., in a lawsuit over the backward collapse of a front seat in a 1997 crash, paralyzing Magana.