KEN NUNN INJURY LAWYER
PHOTO BY CLIFF RITCHEY
A HISTORY OF SUCCESS
MICHAEL PHELPS KEN NUNN LAW OFFICE
The dedicated team at the Ken Nunn Law Office has represented more than 25,000 injury clients since 1967.
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BY EVA SAVIANO he attorneys at the Ken Nunn Law Office are not the sort to back down from a challenge. Instead, founder Ken Nunn admits one of the biggest thrills he gets is taking on a difficult case—one that other firms have turned away, seemingly a lost cause— and, as he puts it, “scoring a home run.” The 17-lawyer law firm, opened in 1967 by Ken Nunn, is small potatoes compared to Big Law, but in Indiana, a small, conservative state, they are the big fish, says Nunn. The Ken Nunn Law Office has been ranked number one in Indiana for taking the most injury cases to trial for 14 years in a row, a fact that buttresses their fearless can-do attitude toward complicated cases. “It is to my advantage to file a suit,” says Nunn, who was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America for personal injury litigation in
Indiana in 2016. “Which we do, and we do not hesitate. We are not afraid to go to court.” And the results are often impressive. In 2010, Nunn took the case of a bicyclist who had suffered injuries as a result of being run over by a school bus. The cyclist had been biking to school when he was struck by the school bus whose driver then exited the vehicle, saw the man under the bus’s wheels, and in a panic, returned to the driver’s seat to move the bus, in the process running over the victim’s second leg. The police reports and witness statements were used in support of the private bus company’s claim that the accident was the fault of the cyclist. “We brought in an accident reconstructionist who stated that the accident could not have happened the way they said,” recalled Nunn. “When the jury returned with a $3.9 million result for our client, the defense was shocked. We were shocked.” The bus company appealed, and the Ken Nunn law office, their resolve to win only fortified, retained the best appellate attorney in Indiana and hired three retired appellate
judges to consult on the case, reviewing their arguments for and advising on briefs. The appellate court affirmed the original verdict. In the time the appeal took, 8% interest had accrued on the original award, totaling a $4.3 million award to help the victim after the life-altering injuries. In 2005, 42-year-old Timothy Simonton did not return to his family after venturing into the woods to scout deer. He was later discovered by his wife and stepson, dead by accidental hanging after his Ol’ Man tree stand collapsed, and he became entangled in the safety rope. The suit filed by Ken Nunn on behalf of Mr. Simonton’s wife, Carol, asked for roughly $1.5 million dollars to reimburse funeral expenses and cover estimated lost wages. But, in 2009, a jury returned a verdict of $157 million to the family, one of the largest wrongful death verdicts in Indiana history. These are just a few of the multi-million dollar verdicts earned by the Ken Nunn Law Office. “We fight hard for our clients, and we get them good results,” says Nunn. The firms readily accepts drunk-driving
state of Indiana, and there is a stigma to that, and we fight every day to dispel it. We are proud to fight for every penny and nickel we can get for our clients, not because it is about the money—it is about security and protection for families.” “The reality of it is, insurance companies are there to do one thing: maximize their profits and keep their losses as low as possible,” says Michael Phelps, a Best Lawyer for personal injury litigation – plaintiffs since 2015 and an attorney who knows the fight from both sides. Previously a defense attorney for insurance companies, Phelps doesn’t begrudge the insurers looking out for their bottom line—it’s just business. But, “I used to have a good day when I saved an insurance company a couple of dollars. Now, when I have a good trial or a good day, I help people who have been catastrophically injured, and if nothing else, I relieve a financial burden.” And at the end of the day, the Ken Nunn Law Office is all about doing right by their clients. Nunn has a policy of not allowing any client to be left waiting longer than one
I help people who have been catastrophically injured, and if nothing else, I relieve a financial burden.
– Michael Phelps
lawsuits, often referred to the firm by M.A.D.D., and executed more than 40 hours of depositions in a case that found the driver of a large semi-trucking company to be improperly licensed and responsible for the paralysis of a child who had been a passenger in a car that hit the truck while it was stopped roadside without any emergency signals. “We have a history of fighting,” says Nunn. “That is just what we do. We are advertising lawyers in the
minute; the firm has a client service department that calls clients once a month, checking in and staying in touch. And Ken Nunn doesn’t intend to stop anytime soon. “I am 75 years old, and people will ask me when I am going to retire. But this is my hobby; this is my golf,” says Nunn. “I am still doing what I love, and my attitude at the office every day is that today will be the day I say the best words I ever have, today I will write the best letter I have ever written, I will come up with the best idea ever.” www.bestlawyers.com
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