Results For Plaintiffs and Defense
Dana Harris and Brette Hart founded Harris & Hart Attorneys at Law in 2012. For years, we have demonstrated our success as trial-proven attorneys for clients in the Kansas City area and throughout Kansas and Missouri.
We have a long history of successfully representing individuals and businesses. As a result of extensive legal experience, our attorneys understand what it takes to win.
In fact, we have tried hundreds of cases in our combined careers, resulting in a large percentage of victories for our clients.
A History of Success Representing Plaintiffs
Representing Kansas City Car Accident Victims
Case Type: Personal Injury, Car Accident
Location: Kansas City area
Our client was driving through an intersection when he was t-boned by a driver attempting to turn through client’s lane. Client suffered general soft tissue injuries with temporary vision complaints. Our challenge was in proving significant degree of injury with minimal doctor treatment or documentation. We obtained a confidential 6-figure settlement for our client.
Representing Kansas City Car Accident Victims
Case Type: Personal Injury, Car Accident, Distracted Driving, Bad Faith Insurance
Location: Kansas City area
Our client was struck at highway speeds in the rear by a teenage driver who was looking at his cell phone. Client sustained soft tissue injuries including a permanent and visible cosmetic tissue deformity to her hip. Our challenge was in proving the nature and extent of injuries and unique permanency of hip deformity. To maximize the client’s recovery, we took this case to trial and obtained a 6-figure verdict. We obtained this verdict which was more than 5x the underlying insurance policy limit for the plaintiff. Rather than facing the potential bad faith suit that would follow a failure to pay the excess verdict, the insurance company paid the entire verdict.
Representing Kansas City Car Accident Victims
Case Type: Personal Injury, Car Accident
Location: Kansas City area
Our client was a car passenger hit in a rear end collision by a negligent driver who wasn’t paying attention. Our client suffered general soft tissue injuries with neck pain. Our challenge was in proving the nature and extent of soft tissue injuries without any objective or diagnostic evidence of injury. We obtained a confidential 5-figure settlement for our client.
Representing Kansas City Jobsite Truck Accident Victims
Case Type: Personal Injury, Worker’s Compensation
Location: Kansas City area
Client was an employee for a subcontractor riding with his son who was driving a dump truck. Client’s son drove recklessly and tipped and rolled the dump truck causing Client to be ejected out of the windshield. Son was in the course and scope of his employment with two large construction companies, allowing us to recover damages for our client from the company’s insurance. Our challenge was in proving that Son was also an employee of the general contractor, not just his direct employer the subcontractor, so that we could establish insurance coverage under both companies. As a result of our legal work, we expanded the settlement amount, he was entitled to and recovered a confidential 7-figure settlement for our client.
Enforcing Premises Liability
Case Type: Personal Injury
Location: Kansas City area
Multiple major settlements for individuals injured during nursing home and restaurant slip-and-fall accidents.
Protecting the Title IX Rights of Students on Campus Against Sexual Assault
Case Type: Criminal Law, Education Law, Title IX
Location: Kansas City area
Our client was a student at a Kansas City area college who alleged violations of Title IX protections by the college following an on-campus rape by a male student who had been reported for sexual harassment violations previously but against whom the College had taken no steps to prevent future assaults.
By proving the extent of knowledge that the College had and its failure to protect its female students from the known predatory risk presented by the male student we established negligence. With our expert witness we were able to prove the nature and extent of injuries and long-term harms and costs to our client. Due to our relentless pursuit of discovery, we recovered 100 times the initial settlement offer made by the College.
Protecting Employees in Labor Rights Disputes
Case Type: Civil Conspiracy, Labor Law, Employment and Breach of Contract
Location: Kansas City area
Our client, an executive of a finance company was forced out of his position, in violation of employment contract, by family member of owner of the company. Our challenge was in proving that the company owner’s family member took intentional steps to create false reasons for Client’s wrongful termination including extensive technological and metadata discovery. As a result, we obtained a confidential 7-figure settlement for our client.
Protecting Membership Interests in Financial Disputes
Case Type: Business Law, Breach of Contract, Business Membership, Promissory Notes.
Location: Southern Missouri
Clients were members of a business who agreed to have their membership interests redeemed by the business in exchange for promissory notes to be paid over time. The business repeatedly avoided paying on the notes and claimed lack of capacity to execute requisite documents. Due to our relentless pursuit of discovery, we recovered 5x the initial offer the business was previously willing to pay.
Protecting Privacy Rights for Employees
Case Type: Labor Law, Privacy
Location: Southern Missouri
Six-figure settlement for an employee who had been spied upon and videotaped by an employer while the employee was changing clothes in the dressing room.
Select Defense Verdicts
- Represented a defendant at jury trial for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff in a single-vehicle accident occurring on ice when the vehicle left the roadway. The plaintiff demanded $230,000 prior to trial. The jury found the accident was not due to any negligence by the defendant and returned a verdict in the defendant’s favor.
- Represented a defendant in the first case ever tried under the newly established first-party negligent entrustment cause of action in Kansas. The jury found the plaintiff was more than 50 percent at fault for causing his own injuries, and no recovery was awarded against the defendant.
- Represented a farmer in a lawsuit for negligence. The farmer’s truck malfunctioned while hauling hay, thereafter causing sparks. The hay bales on the truck caught fire, which then spread to the neighbor’s field and burned farm equipment and several hundred bales of hay. The jury found the farmer had no negligence and returned a verdict in the defendant’s favor.
- Represented a defendant who had been sued as a result of an automotive accident. The plaintiff demanded $50,000 prior to trial for a rotator cuff tear. The jury found the plaintiff had sustained the rotator cuff tear from the accident but, because he had not yet had surgery to repair the injury, the jury did not believe the plaintiff would ever have the injury repaired. No damages were awarded to the plaintiff.
- Represented a defendant who was sued as a result of an auto accident. The plaintiff underwent spinal surgery post-accident and demanded $100,000 prior to trial. The jury did not find surgery was caused by an auto accident and awarded the plaintiff no money.
- Represented a defendant who was incarcerated following an auto accident that killed a head-of-household and 17-year-old son and injured two other family members. The total verdict for both wrongful death claims, at jury trial in Missouri, was $1.2 million — significantly less than the $10 million demanded by plaintiffs.
- Defended multiple defendants in a railroad collision where the railroad company sought almost $1 million. Prevailed on summary judgment against the railroad company, and then prevailed again at both the Court of Appeals and Kansas Supreme Court.
- Represented an insurance company in an action for declaratory judgment, seeking a determination that the policy did not afford coverage for a claim involving a party seeking over $500,000 in medical bills. Prevailed on summary judgment, with the court finding that no coverage existed with respect to the claim.
- Obtained a verdict for a defendant in a wrongful death jury trial in Jackson County, Missouri, in June 2018. The case involved a single-vehicle accident where the plaintiff was the 19-month-old daughter of a deceased passenger in the vehicle. The defendant was the Estate of the deceased driver. The vehicle struck a curb and a road sign and burst into flames. The plaintiff asked the jury to award her $6 million for pecuniary loss of services, consortium, companionship, comfort, instruction, guidance, counsel, training and support caused by the death of her father, the deceased passenger. The jury found that the plaintiff had not met her burden to prove that the deceased driver failed to keep a careful lookout — the only allegation of negligence submitted — and a verdict for the defendant was returned.
