BUDGE & HEIPT PLLC ATTORNEYS AT LAW

Budge & Heipt has achieved great success in the courtroom. We have received some of the largest jury verdicts in the country for victims of civil rights violations. Not all of our cases go to trial. Sometimes we negotiate settlements for our clients before trial. But we believe that our willingness to take cases to trial leads to better results for our clients.

Here are some of our notable achievements:

Description	Verdict/Settlement

$8 million jury verdict in an excessive police force case on behalf of a woman who was pepper sprayed, struck several times with a police baton, and shot by a state trooper	$8 million
$5 million jury verdict in a race discrimination & breach of contract case on behalf of a small transportation company owned and predominately staffed by East Indian Sikhs	$5 million
$3.7 million settlement in personal injury and medical negligence case involving significant brain injuries	$3.7 million
$1.6 million settlement in an excessive police force case on behalf of the parents of a 23-year old who died after he was pepper sprayed, hogtied, hooded, brought to a county jail, and held face down on the floor of a jail cell until he lost consciousness and died	$1.6 million
$1.2 million settlement in a civil rights case involving excessive police force	$1.2 million
$1 million post-trial settlement (negotiated after we won a favorable jury verdict) in a “whistleblowing” case on behalf of six public employees who were retaliated against after reporting county government officials for misusing taxpayer dollars	$1 million
$1 million settlement in a religious discrimination case on behalf of a Jewish employee who was harassed by the company owner	$1 million
Court-approved settlement of class action against Washington Department of Corrections involving total award of more than $650,000	$650,000
$575,000 settlement (negotiated in the middle of a jury trial) in a race discrimination case on behalf of two East Indian Sikhs who were harassed and terminated because of their race	$575,000
Settlement in case involving the death of an inmate who was not properly treated for alcohol withdrawal	$573,000
Settlement in case involving the death of a federal inmate who was not properly treated for prescription drug withdrawal	$500,000
Many other favorable awards and large settlements in a wide variety of civil rights cases	---

We do not win all of our cases, but we fight hard for all of our clients. For example, in September 2003, a jury ruled against our clients in a case involving the death of a young man who was killed by the police. Because we strongly believed that the jury reached the wrong result, we did not give up. Following trial, we convinced the federal judge who presided over the case to overturn the jury’s verdict and rule in our favor. The judge’s ruling came down in May 2004 and received extensive local and regional news coverage. The case later settled for a large, confidential amount.