Success Stories

Gatzke, Bucher Secure Largest '07 Jury Verdict in Waukesha County

Waukesha. Jim Gatzke and Paul Bucher, partners at the New Berlin law firm Gatzke, Ruppelt & Bucher, scored a unanimous jury verdict in a $1,000,000 Waukesha County motorcycle accident case, the largest jury verdict this year, according to Court records.

The case involved the death of Jafri Jamaludin, a 39 year old Milwaukee resident who was struck and killed while riding his motorcycle on the way to work at 6:00 a.m. on June 19, 2004 at the intersection of S. Moorland Rd. and W. Beloit Rd. in the City of New Berlin.

Jamaludin was struck as he traveled westbound on Beloit Road by a commercial truck driven by Patrick Paquin. Paquin was traveling southbound on Moorland. The intersection is controlled by traffic lights.

Jamaludin, the married father of three children, was on his way to work at Spirit Manufacturing, located one mile west of the accident scene in New Berlin.

The dispute centered on which of the drivers, Jamaludin or Paquin, had the right of way. There were no witnesses to the actual accident, however, two witnesses located by Gatzke's investigators described conditions which existed immediately prior to the accident, and just after the accident.

The critical piece of evidence, however, was discovered by Gatzke, who learned that the truck driven by Paquin had an on-board computer, known as a black box, which recorded certain vehicle conditions, such as speed, brake conditions and RPM's, of the Paquin vehicle for the final five seconds prior to the accident. This discovery was made only hours before the vehicle was to be returned to the Paquin. If the information had not been downloaded prior to the vehicle being placed back into service, it would have been lost forever.

Gatzke was able to obtain an emergency court order to download the data, and the information they discovered showed an inconsistency with the statement Paquin had given to New Berlin police after the crash.

Bucher and Gatzke represented Jamaludin's widow, Doreen, and employed the services of two expert witnesses, Wayne Higgins, a traffic safety specialist, and Robert Krenz, an accident reconstructionist. The defendants Paquin and Acuity Insurance, were represented by Arthur Simpson, senior partner at Simpson and Deardorff in Milwaukee, and Thomas Goss, a partner at Mueller, Goss and Possi, also located in Milwaukee. Prior to the loss in this case, Simpson had not lost a jury trial in more than three years.