Meet Our Founder & Expert Attorney – James J. Gende, II

I have been a lead counsel in multiple cases that have made new laws or protected a citizen’s constitutional rights. One case involved the death of a young lady, who had been committed to Taycheedah Correctional Institute for various minor offenses due to her severe mental illnesses. While on 24/7 suicide watch, the young lady strangled herself in front of the prison guards.

A Federal Lawsuit against 20 Wisconsin state employees resulted in a final judgment against some of the highest-ranking officials in the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. At the institute, major changes in how the correctional staff handled suicidal inmates were introduced, and substantial compensation for the victim’s families was announced.

Another client was the estate of a passenger who was killed in a rental vehicle where the driver was intoxicated. I successfully challenged an alcohol exclusion that precluded coverage for a death benefit on the basis that the driver never received notice of the exclusion. It was a case of first impression in Wisconsin. We won at the trial and appellate court levels. As a result, much-needed funds were provided to the passenger’s family, as she had left behind a four-year-old daughter.

In another case, I challenged a school bus company that provided a “drop and go” service to young school children in Milwaukee. My client was a young girl who was dropped off at a street corner by the bus and was struck by an oncoming vehicle as she attempted to cross the street. My client suffered terrible injuries, but the bus company argued it had no responsibility toward children once the doors of the bus closed. The owner of the bus company testified that “the wheels of the bus must continue to roll”. The appellate court disagreed with the bus company procedures and ruled for the first time in Wisconsin that bus companies had the highest duty of care to kids who ride their buses, making the streets of Milwaukee much safer for public school children. On retrial, the client and her family received compensation for their injuries.

I also represented a family who lost their son, while he was a college student in La Crosse. In a tragic accident, the young man drowned in the Mississippi River after a weekend night of festivities downtown. He was the seventh victim of the river since 1997, where all of the deaths had happened under similar circumstances. The family decided to challenge the status quo of La Crosse as a hard-drinking party town that provided free transportation to the downtown bars for college students on the weekends via the “Safe Bus” (more commonly known as the “Drunk Bus”).

Amidst a negative media deluge against the family, we changed the University of Wisconsin’s, La Crosse, policy on alcohol advertising in the student newspaper, changed the route and policy behind the “Drunk Bus”, encouraged a task force for alcohol abuse appointed by a long-standing Mayor (who subsequently resigned from the office), and ultimately saw changes in the way alcohol is distributed to college students in La Crosse. Even though no monetary award was received by the family, our hard-fought efforts helped implement positive changes in La Crosse to prevent similar future tragedies and raised alcohol awareness to a new level in that community.

My efforts in making new laws, challenging insurance companies, and powerful interests in tough issues are evidence of my desire to protect and serve those families most in need.
I have successfully prosecuted multiple Federal Lawsuits against State and Local authorities for in-custody deaths. Defendants in these cases include Columbia Correctional Institute, Waukesha Huber Facility, Winnebago Mental Health Institute, and Taycheedah Correctional Institute. Not only did we recover several million dollars for the tragic deaths of the inmates we represented, but major institutional changes were made at every facility to correct the deficiencies that contributed to the in-custody deaths at issue.