Police Officers Suffering Auto Accidents

Seattle Police Accident Lawyers

At Swanson Gardner, P.L.L.C., a special part of our practice has long been devoted to helping Seattle-area police who have been injured in car accidents. Our lawyers help them get the compensation they need, including money for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. We focus specifically on auto accident cases involving police officers, and are well known in the police departments of Renton, Kent, Bellevue, and more.

The attorneys of our firm will meet, free of charge, with any officer or family member of an officer who has suffered an injury in a car accident, including a catastrophic injury or fatal accident. We do all work on a contingency basis, meaning we charge no attorneys’ fees until our clients receive compensation.

A History of Service to Police Officers

Our law firm’s long history with police car accident cases goes back to 1970s. For example, in 1981 we represented a Washington state patrol trooper who suffered a very serious accident while in pursuit of a drunk driver. The trooper sustained major burns and broken bones, and was given a 10 percent chance of survival.

When our lawyers investigated the case, we discovered that his injuries would have been much less severe if not for design flaws in the car he was driving. In 1984, we filed suit on his behalf against General Motors. More than 3 years later, GM and the other defendants settled the case for far more than our client's medical bills and loss of his career as a "State Trooper."

Since that case, our attorneys have helped dozens of police officers and their families. For example, we represented an officer and his wife whose adult daughter died in an accident. We found that a defect in a traffic signal on SR99 was to blame, and obtained a jury verdict that was 20 times greater than the state's highest offer.

Our law firm took on the Ford Motor Company in a dangerous products case involving a car with an "automatic shoulder belt "on behalf of the future son-in-law of a local police officer.  After spending six days going through boxes and boxes of files in Dearborn, Michigan, Todd Gardner was able to demonstrated that Ford had knowledge of problems with this restraint system and knew, or should have known, that first-time users may not be aware that they had to manually attach a lap belt, in addition to the "automatic" shoulder belt, in order to be safe.  Our client was ejected from a rental car when the driver fell asleep and overcorrected after going off the road onto the gravel shoulder, ultimately rolling the Ford Escort.  He is now a quadriplegic.  We are pleased that his settlement helped fund cutting edge medical technology that has allowed him and his wife to become proud parents of a healthy baby boy, and the police officer to become a very happy grandfather.

In June, 2006 Todd Gardner obtained a jury verdict in excess of $230,000 for a police officer in a case involving injuries from an auto accident.  Allstate refused to offer any more than $20,000, essentially forcing us to take the police officer's case all the way to trial. 

We believe that police officers give more to society than they receive and we do everything possible to see that they are fairly treated when they suffer injuries in auto accidents or as the result of some other negligent act.

To read about other examples of our cases, see our past experiences page.

Contact Us

Contact us to learn more about our lawyers’ work with police car accidents. Set up a free initial consultation with our attorneys by calling (425) 226-7920 or filling out our personal injury intake form.