The Law Group - An Affiliation of Trial Lawyers Serving Clients Seriously Injured in Bicycle Accidents. Our Bicycle Accident Lawyers Will Consider Representing the Seriously Injured in Most States, from New York to California, from Texas, Georgia and Florida to Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, from Alaska to Hawaii, and in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Our Law Group was first conceived in the 1990's when Attorney Henke was serving as a Governor of the 5th largest trial lawyer association in the United States and regularly meeting with the officers and Governors of most of the state trial lawyers associations, including to develop strategies to defeat insurance industry efforts to obtain "tort reform laws" -- laws which would have significantly curtailed the rights of the injured to be fully compensated, for example "caps" on general damages. Many of us came to gain high regard for the professionalism of others of the trial lawyers from across the county. And where it was common that we would be contacted by potential clients from other states we would often recommend or refer the potential clients to lawyers in our loosely affiliated group or to other attorneys who we considered best situated or qualified to consider the cases. In personal injury litigation where a particular lawyer already had a "leg up" on a particular type of case, for example an auto defect case, with his experts already developed, we might recommend that the potential client might save substantial litigation costs or otherwise be best served by the other trial attorney. We also will sometimes cooperate with others of our serious injury trial lawyers, either in sharing documents and other evidence developed in previous cases against the same defendant, as in product liability cases, or sometimes by helping to identify and prepare an expert for another Group lawyer in another state. Sometimes we may offer to serve as local counsel where an out of state attorney appears as trial counsel pro hac vice, or we may assist with appeals in our states for another trial lawyer where we may be more familiar with the issues or appellate litigation. This is the way our informal affiliation of lawyers grew with experienced trial lawyers in most of the states. Our bicycle accident lawyers will consider representing potential clients who have suffered serious or catastrophic injuries in most states of the nation, from California to New York, from Texas, Georgia and Florida to Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, from Alaska and Hawaii to Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

It is every potential litigant's right to ask about the credentials of any lawyer whom he would consider to represent him. Decisions with regard to the best lawyer for you should not be made on the basis of attorney advertisements. Rather such decisions should be made on the basis of a comparison of the credentials of the lawyers whom the potential client would consider to represent him. Our Law Group attorneys provide free consultations and we welcome your inquiries with regard to our credentials as serious injury trial lawyers and as experienced in our practice areas specificly relevant to your case, including as bicycle accident lawyers, and we invite you also to ask any additional questions about our qualifications that you may deem important in the attorney you will choose to represent you.

It is beyond the scope of this web site and page to attempt to do justice to the credentials of all of our Law Group lawyers, and so on the web site subject matter pages and here we have limited our discussion of specific credentials to those of Group attorney Henke, as was most convenient, given that he is the author of most of the practice areas pages, which we hope will provide greater information with regard to the sophisticated trial strategy that qualified and experienced lawyers bring to the prosecution of the broad description of cases discussed. In addition, because it would be beyond the scope of our page limits to discuss the significant trial victories and settlements of all our group members, in the left column of this page it is discussed only the jury verdicts of this one Group lawyer, except that, given that he doesn't practice food poisoning law, a recent E. coli HUS case and settlement obtained by another of the Group members, Nick Allis, is discussed. The cases cited are furthermore intended to describe the type of trial advocacy that can be brought to bare in the various auto and bicycle accident cases, medical malpractice, drug product liability and food poisoning cases described, not to stress the amounts of the settlements and jury verdicts, because as noted in the left column, the damages recovered in any particular case are dependent upon the facts of each case, including the nature and extent of the client's injury, and his general and special economic damages.

So that the reader may consider some of the types of credentials that trial attorneys, including bicycle accident lawyers, may have, among others, in determining a lawyer's suitability for a particular case - from lawyer directory legal ability and ethics ratings to elected office in state trial lawyers associations, awards and recognition by the attorney's peers, such as trial lawyer awards, education, training and experience in the particular practice areas, such as bicycle accident cases or medical malpractice or pharmaceutical product liability or food poisoning or premises liability or elder abuse litigation, as examples; articles published on specific legal subject matter, or experience serving as class action lawyers, as might pertinent in some cases, or examples of the attorney's appellate advocacy, we provide the specific credentials of attorney Henke, however only by way of example of one Group member's qualifications. By providing his credentials he does not claim that his credentials are superior to those of any other Group lawyer or any other attorney in his or any other state. He will not accept cases arising outside the state of California, and will only appear as trial counsel in pending litigation in another state at the request of an attorney in the other state, where the attorney requests that he serve as trial counsel in the pending litigation, with the consent of the client, and only where the trial court judge in the out of state litigation consents to his appearance as trial counsel pro hac vice. His credentials, however, might serve the purpose sought to be achieved here, only to suggest what might be some of the questions that any prospective client may want to ask the lawyers in the state in which his cause of action arose whom he would consider to represent him, along with all the other questions that the prospective client deems important in selecting the attorney best qualified and experienced to prosecute his or her potential litigation.

For example, the first of attorney Henke's credentials discussed below is his Martindale & Hubbell rating. And indeed, often as lawyers consider recommending or referring clients to lawyers in other states they will commonly consult the lawyers' Martindale & Hubbell "legal ability" and "ethical standards" ratings. Martindale & Hubbell is the most respected attorney rating directory in the United States. The ratings are most commonly based upon interviews with Judges before whom the lawyer has appeared and interviews with other prominent lawyers in the attorney's community.

Law Group attorney, Henke and his law firm are "AV" rated by Martindale and Hubbell, the highest lawyer "legal ability" rating ("A") and highest attorney "general ethical standards" rating ("V"). The "A" is defined by Martindalee & Hubbell to mean "very high to preeminent" in "legal ability" and the "V" is defined to mean "very high" in "general ethical standards". According to Martindale & Hubbell: "AV Peer Review Rating shows that a lawyer has reached the height of professional excellence. He or she has usually practiced law for many years, and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity." Martindale & Hubbell also assigns numerical ratings, from 1.0 to 5.0, with 4.5 to 5.0 satisfying the criteria for an "AV" rating. Henke's numerical rating is 5.0.

He is recognized as one of the "Top Lawyers in America," a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, commonly referred to as "the most prestigious group of trial lawyers in the United States."

He is a former Governor of LATLA, the 5th Largest Trial Lawyer Association in the United States, elected and reelected to the position, year after year, by LATLA's large trial lawyer membership.

He was nominated by LATLA for the coveted and prestigious "Trial Lawyer of the Year" Award. He was also given its President's Award, and was given the privilege to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of the Association's Law Journal, "The Advocate.".

His cases, trial work and victories in "test" litigation, including medical and drug litigation have been the subject of substantial legal commentary in respected state and national legal journals from the National Law Journal to the California Lawyer.

His cases and trial work have also been the subject of substantial legitimate news coverage from front page articles in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, from the Washington Post to the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner. He has appeared to discuss his cases on national legitimate television news, Tom Brokaw's Evening News, CNN; his cases, trial strategies and successes have also been described in 2 books.

He has also testified before Congress at the invitation of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives specifically with regard to his successful prosecution of certain medical and drug "test" cases, and his contention that punitive damages are an important tool in assuring that drugs are safe and that health care providers, including physicians and hospitals, adhere to the medical standards of care.

He has also published over 30 legal articles in professional journals from "Trial" the Journal of the American Trial Lawyers Association, "The Forum," the Journal of the California Trial Lawyers Association, Consumer Attorneys Association of California, and the "Advocate," the Journal of the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, including , "Mandatory Class Action," Trial Magazine, ATLA; Henke with Professor Dean Neubauer, "Medical Malpractice Legislation," Trial Magazine, ATLA, "Negligence Per Se and Drug Product Liability Cases," Advocate, LATLA; "Statute of Limitations/Delayed Discovery Rule in Drug Product Liability Litigation," Advocate, LATLA, "Amending the Complaint at Trial to Add Punitive Damages, "Advocate," LATLA; Henke with Inner Circle Member James Butler, "The Right of Counsel to Speak to Press on Pending Civil Litigation: First Amendment Protections Reaffirmed," Forum, CTLA; "Falsification of Medical Records: How to Establish it and how best to handle it," Advocate, LATLA; "Medical Malpractice, Overcoming Common Defenses in Uncommon Medical Malpractice Cases," Forum CTLA; "Children’s Rights v. Government Claims Provisions," Advocate, LATLA; "Statistics," Advocate, LATLA; "Defendant's Counsel's Sub-rosa Interview with Plaintiff's Treating Physicians," Advocate, LATLA; "Special Defenses, "Advocate, LATLA; "Framing Economic Damages," Advocate, LATLA; "Character Evidence and the Ostensible Secondary Purpose, " Advocate, LATLA; "Legislation," Advocate, LALTA; "Proving Economic Damages of Undocumented Aliens, " Advocate, LATLA; "Initiative Checklist," Advocate, LATLA; "Selecting the Medical Negligence Case," Advocate, LATLA; "The Reasonable Suspicion Standard in Drug Product Liability Cases," Advocate, LATLA; "Use of Rebuttal Expert Testimony at Trial,"Advocate, LATLA; "Proving Negligent Failure to Diagnose a Rare Disease," Advocate, LATLA; "Breach of the Physicians Obligations of Confidentiality," Advocate, LATLA; "Taking Expert Depositions," Advocate, LATLA; "Jury Selection," Advocate, LATLA; "Epidemiology and Applied Statistics," Advocate, LATLA; "Recovery for Increased Susceptibility for Future Medical Disease," Advocate, LATLA; "Strict Liability," Advocate, LATLA; "Contention Interrogatories," Advocate, LATLA; "Ex Parte Interviews with Plaintiff's Treating Physicians," Advocate, LATLA; "The High Cost of Forum Depositions," Advocate, LATLA. Full Bibliography Available Upon Request.

He has also obtained extraordinary published state and federal appellate results, including in sophisticated medical and pharmaceutical product liability litiagtion effecting lasting, significant changes in the law favorable to his clients and other plaintiff litigants. An attorney's experience in appellate advocacy is not only useful on appeals, but may be important in some cases to overturn before or during trial a bad ruling of the trial judge that guts the case or deprives the client of an element of his damages. To take one example, in the context of pre-trial motions a Judge struck Henke's clients' punitive damage claims relying of newly enacted tort reform legislation requiring that in cases against health care providers the punitive damage claim must not be stated in the original complaint, as was the practice when the complaint was filed prior to enactment of the law, but by amendment to the complaint based upon evidence of the validity of the punitive damage claim. Henke obtained a stay of the trial to take an extraordinary writ to the appellate court, obtaining an immediate decision from the Court of Appeals ordering the trial court to reinstate the clients' punitive damage claims, and then he went forward to obtain in addition to compensatory damage awards for his clients, a $1.6 million jury verdict against one of the defendants.

To take another example, after more than 1000 federal cases involving children who had suffered serious birth defects were assigned by the federal Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation to a federal Judge sitting in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, the District Court Judge in Ohio certified a "mandatory class action" binding together the 1000 birth defect cases assigned to his court and all the other thousands of birth defect cases involving the drug filed nationwide, including those filed independently in the state courts. The pharmaceutical product liability lawyers in Henke's office had over 40 cases involving exposure to the drug, most of them involving children born with severe limb defects, and had developed an extensive list of experts fully prepared to testify in the individual pharmaceutical product liability trials against the manufacturer. The Plaintiffs' Lead Counsel Committee and the attorneys for the drug manufacturer then settled the mandatory class litigation involving the thousands of children born with birth defects nationwide for $120,000,000. The federal District Court Judge then issued an order approving the settlement. Group attorney Henke and his other firm members considered the settlement to be woefully inadequate to compensate the many thousands of children with serious birth defects for even the smallest fraction of the fair measure of the value of their injuries and damages. So Henke filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit challenging the District Court's certification of the mandatory class action and settlement. Attorney Henke's petition for writ of mandamus was successful in obtaining the United States Court of Appeals' order instructing the District Court Judge to decertify the mandatory class and void the class settlement.

Henke had argued that "mandatory class action" offended the individual client's right to the attorney of his choice, and control over his individual litigation, arguing that the sole legitimate exception that the Court of Appeals should recognize should be that mandatory class action might be justified in the rare instance where the defendant had a demonstrated limited fund of assets and insurance insufficient to pay all claims brought against it, proof that the large manufacturer in this drug product liability class action clearly could not and had not substantiated. The United States Court of Appeals adopted Henke's arguments, issuing a landmark published decision severely restricting the availability of mandatory class actions, with the sole exception mentioned above. The decision altered the law of class action in an enduring way, and now almost all class actions must be framed as "voluntary class actions" where each plaintiff has the opportunity to opt out, choose his own attorney to represent him and pursue his individual litigation independently if he so chooses. The case indeed applies to all mass tort litigation, and all class actions, rendering mandatory class action essentially unavailable except in very rare class litigation.

Mr. Henke received his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of San Francisco, served on the USF Law Review, received the American Jurisprudence Award for Civil Procedure, and interned at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit while in Law School.

Martindale & Hubbell ratings, elected offices in trial lawyers associations, awards and honors from professional organizations, recognition in professional journals, publications in trial lawyer journals, significant appellate victories, and experience preparing and presenting to settlement judges and juries cases in the legal subject area of the potential client's case, as well as the relevant settlements and jury verdicts the lawyer has obtained as the lead trial attorney, are all credentials that a potential client may wish to consider in comparing the qualifications of the lawyers whom he would consider to represent him, among such other qualifications as the client deems important in the lawyer who will represent him. We strongly recommend that decisions with regard to the choice of a lawyer be made on the basis of legal qualifications, and we welcome all prospective clients to inquire about our Group lawyers' qualifications.

Our serious injury bicycle attorneys welcome you to contact us with regard to your case. We provide free consultations. You may submit the "Contact" form and one of our bicycle accident lawyers will call you to discuss your case, offer his initial case evaluation, and provide his initial recommendations. Our bicycle accident attorneys will consider serious injury cases including traumatic brain injury, TBI, spinal cord injury, quadriplegia, paraplegia, internal injury, orthopedic injuries, leg or arm amputation. Our serious injury bicycle accident lawyers will consider representing bicyclists in most states, from New York to California, from Texas, Georgia and Florida to Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, from Alaska to Hawaii, and in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming. We welcome the opportunity to speak with you.