Civil Litigation Representative Cases

Sexual Harassment Defense – Hospital Administrator Stalking

Mike Arnold defended the administrator of a hospital who pursued a relationship with a young woman who was apparently giving him mixed signals. Before contacting Mike Arnold he was convicted of a criminal stalking charge and lost a stalking order trial. She then sued him for $500,000 claiming sexual harassment, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In a Marion County jury trial after a brutal cross-examination of the plaintiff and picking apart their psychologist expert, we won a defense verdict.

Product Liability – Cattle rancher’s livestock killed from defective feeding pellets

We represented an Oregon rancher whose cattle were killed by endophyte poisoning from grass seed screening pellets. We were able to retain the best expert in the world on endophytes who just happened to be a professor at OSU. Extensive and highly technical discovery was conducted and ultimately the case settled for damages before trial.

Wrongful Use of Civil Proceedings Defense – Elder Abuse Gone Bad

Mike Arnold defended a woman in United States District Court who was accused of wrongfully initiating an elder abuse case in state court. Plaintiff was the wife of the client’s brother. Brother stole substantial assets from their father while he was infirm. Client received a large verdict against brother in state court but sister-in-law received a defense verdict. Sister-in-law then sued in federal court. We won a defense verdict after a civil litigation jury trial in federal court in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.

Undue Influence – Stealing Mobile Home Park from non-profit

An elderly woman suffering from dementia was coerced into changing her will to leave all of her assets to the managers of the mobile home park she owned. Previously, the woman graciously left substantial assets to family and several non-profit organizations. Our firm represented several of the nonprofits. After a thoroughly diligent investigation by the firm turned up a material witness in California, depositions quickly turned into a settlement conference. A six-figure settlement occurred thereafter.

Civil Rights Violation – False Confession of Minor by Lane County Sheriff’s Deputy (Federal Court)

The Lane County Sheriff’s Office made some incorrect assumptions about the guilty of our twelve-year-old client and coerced him into a false confession for the shooting of a neighbor’s dog. They even made him demonstrate how he did it with his pellet gun. Ballistics tests proved that his gun did not fire the bullet but the results were not disclosed to client’s juvenile delinquency lawyer for an unreasonable amount of time. During that time, he faced ridicule and embarrassment. We sued the county and school district in federal court. After discovery and numerous depositions, the defendants agreed to have judgments entered against them.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty – Self dealing in business/land deal gone bad

Civil jury trial in Lane County circuit court resulting in a reduced damages verdict far less than what was requested by plaintiff.

Rural Easement Dispute – Defense of easement obstruction

Mike Arnold defended a rural couple in a complex easement and breach of contract dispute with several counterclaims and third-party claims involving a non-profit and corporate landowner. After several site visits with expert witnesses, we petitioned the court to force the unreasonable plaintiff to a settlement conference when plaintiff was stating that there was no way to settle the claims. After site visits with our expert witnesses, we were able to boil down this complicated case with several years of relevant facts to only a few salient factual and legal issues. This analysis proved crucial in resolving the claims with a settlement several weeks before trial, saving the clients tremendous amounts of attorney fees.

Copyright Infringement – Federal trial for stolen website content

We inherited a federal copyright infringement case from a retiring attorney who failed to plead “jury trial” in federal court. The defendants claimed that they didn’t steal the content that they duplicated on their website but instead received it from a firm in the country of Namibia in Africa. Their story was destroyed after we were able to coordinate an international video perpetuation deposition of the owner of the firm in Namibia. The judge found a copyright infringement and awarded statutory damages.

Trade Secret Misappropriation and Breach of NDA – Apparel industry dispute

We inherited a year-old trade secret case three months before a scheduled jury trial where the prior attorneys failed to receive any discovery from the primary defendant and failed to achieve depositions of essential out-of-state witnesses. We were able to jump into a highly contentious case involving hundreds of thousands of documents to be reviewed and countless trial issues. We were able to coordinate experts ranging from electrical engineers to trade secret damages experts to intellectual property experts while simultaneously defending against motions against the pleadings while conducting a global investigation involving witnesses stretching from Maryland to China to Belgium, all while preparing for trial. We were able to assist the client in this massive undertaking while assisting them with an exit strategy from this costly litigation.

Civil Sexual Harassment Defense – case dismissed with no damages paid

Successful businessman client civilly sued for sexually harassing plaintiff, his employee, also a family member by marriage. After discovery process completed, we negotiated a dismissal of all claims with no damages paid by our client and released client from future litigation, saving client from trial process and thousands of dollars in attorney fees defending against unfounded allegations.

Stalking Orders and Restraining Orders

Wrongful Use of Civil Proceedings – False Stalking Order to Gain Custody

Received a $50,000 judgment through bankruptcy adversarial proceeding due to mother lying to get a stalking order.

Restraining Order – Lying about Fear to Gain Custody

Mother lied about being afraid of father. She dismissed it after being cross-examined and confronted with dozens of text messages she sent to father.

Stalking Order – Lying about Rape to Gain Custody

We won a dismissal after trial. Court made findings of fact that stalking order was brought for an improper purpose.

Sexual Harassment – Setting up co-worker for a sexual harassment lawsuit

Negotiated a dismissal and a mutual no-contact agreement after discovering that petitioner made similar allegations against another employer in California.

Stalking – Young woman files after older man stops buying her things

Young woman lied about stalking incidents to gain a stalking order to spite her much older friend who bought her car, surgery, etc. Petitioner lied to the court; the firm proved the lies in trial and case dismissed.

Stalking Order – Dismissed

Mother obtained stalking order on Father to keep him from seeing his child for weeks. We were able to demonstrate motives for obtaining a stalking order to gain advantage in a custody case to keep child from Father. After Mother put on her case and she and her witnesses were cross-examined, judge dismissed the order without requiring any evidence or testimony from Father at all.

Restraining Order – Upheld with Attorney Fee Award

Husband took Restraining Order out on Wife after she applied for one to protect herself from him. After a hearing on both orders, Wife’s Order was upheld, Husband’s Order dismissed, and Husband ordered to pay all attorney fees for the firm’s time on the case.