Employment Law

Workers' Compensation

Personal Injury

Car Accident

• Auto Accident

Intentional Injuries

• Dog Bites & Animal Attacks

Truck Accident

8

Iowa

Our practice consists of personal injury (car, truck and motorcycle accidents, dog bites, etc.) and workers' compensation (work injury) cases.

Our firm was established by Lee M. Walker in 1975.

At age 14, I began working for my grandfather in the concrete construction business during the summer school break. The work was hard, hot, and long, but provided me with framework for my character. My grandfather always told me to get a good education so I did not have to do hard labor for the rest of my life. I graduated from Newton High school in 1990 and played on the 1988 state 4A runner-up football team. After I graduated from high school, my mother purchased an appliance store and I began working on weekends and during the summer delivering refrigerators, washers, dryers and other heavy equipment. I would also help my grandfather when he needed extra help on job sites. I graduated from Central College in Pella in 1994 and then went onto law school at Drake in Des Moines. After my first year of law school in 1995, I began working at Walker & Billingsley (now Walker, Billingsley & Bair). Since 1997, I have been an attorney representing Iowans injured in personal injury (car, truck and motorcycle accidents, dog bites, etc.) and workers' compensation (work injury) cases. If you want a divorce or have a traffic ticket, I won't handle your case, but I can refer you to another attorney at our office that will. I worked my way through college and then through law school and am dedicated to helping Injured Iowans. With hard work and personal attention I help Level the Field between Injured Iowans and Insurance CompaniesTM

o www.Avvo.com Attorney Rating of "Superb"- 10 out of 10
o Top 100 Trial Lawyer As Determined by the American Trial Lawyers Association
o Featured by USA Today, Des Moines Register, Chicago Tribune, KCCI TV, WOI-TV and Other Media
o Received Award from Iowa Department of Transportation for His www.QuitDD.com Program to Lead the Fight Against Distracted Driving in Iowa
o Author of 8 Books and Numerous Consumer Reports and Articles
o Recognized Lecturer on "Legal Education" for Lawyers
o Practicing Primarily in Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation
o Active Injury Practice- Has Represented More than 1,000 Iowans Injured in Car Accidents, Work Injuries and Other Personal Injury Accidents.
o Active Trial Practice- More Than 300 Trials With 50+ Jury Trials and Experience in Handling Appeals
o Member of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice
o Member of Iowa Association of Workers' Compensation Lawyers
o Member of WILG- Workplace Injury Litigation Group
o Admitted to the United States Supreme Court, all Federal Courts in Iowa and Minnesota State Court
o Active in Drafting and Lobbying for Legislation to Help Injured Iowans
o District 5A Judicial Nominating Commissioner from 2010 to present
o District 5A Attorney Grievance Commissioner from 2009 to present
o Born and Raised in Iowa

Ferch v. Oakview, 759 N.W.2d 812 (Iowa Ct. App. 2008) (Worker hurt at a nursing home on two occasions received workers' compensation benefits for both her neck and back injuries despite the insurance companies attempt to only pay for one). Description: Oakview, Inc. and its insurer, Iowa Long Term Care Risk Management Association, (collectively Oakview) appealed the district court's judicial review ruling affirming the workers' compensation commissioner's award of permanent partial disability to Elizabeth Ferch. The Iowa Court of appeal found that Ferch sustained industrial disability relating to her June 2001 neck injury and from her November 2003 back injury. Also, the apportionment rule only applied during the time that Ferch received both benefits, not combining to treat them as a single industrial work injury.

Second Injury Fund of Iowa v. George, 737 N.W.2d 141 (Iowa 2007) (Corey fought for his client for more than 4 years and this case determined by the Iowa Supreme Court found that injured workers who sustain injury to both extremities (for example both arms, both legs, both hands or both feet) can qualify for Second Injury Fund benefits under Iowa's Workers' Compensation law. Description: We conclude the Fund's position that the statute applies only to injuries of a single scheduled member would lead to impractical and absurd results . . . The legislature could not have intended for an injured worker with only one impaired scheduled member to be placed in a better position than a more severely injured worker with bilateral injuries. Therefore, we conclude that a bilateral simultaneous injury under section 85.34(2)(s) is a qualifying loss under section 85.64. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's and the agency's determination that George's bilateral knee injury qualified her for Fund Benefits. The plain language or plain meaning of a statute "is not limited to the meaning of individual terms, but rather, such inquiry requires examining the text of the statute as a whole by considering its context, object, and policy." Forbes v. Hadenfeldt, 648 N.W.2d 124, 126 (Iowa 2002). "[W]e must avoid legislating in our own right and placing upon statutory language a strained, impractical, or absurd construction." Anderson v. Second Injury Fund, 262 N.W.2d 789, 791 (Iowa 1978) (citation omitted). After examining the statute as a whole, and considering its object and policy, we conclude the Fund's position that the statute applies only to injuries of a single scheduled member would lead to impractical and absurd results. George provided documentation from the workers' compensation commissioner that due to the May 3, 1996, injury she was paid permanent partial disability for a seven percent impairment to her left knee. Concerning her June 21, 2000, injury George testified she sustained a bilateral knee injury when she knelt in front of a copy machine to begin a repair.

Office Manager- Pam Wade

(641) 792-0289

Monday to Friday 8 to 5. Other appointment times available.

Yes

Spanish

Des Moines Office
2545 E. Euclid
Suite 120
Des Moines, IA 50317
(515) 440-2852

Marshalltown Office
25 North Center Street PO Box 492
Marshalltown, IA 50158
(641) 352-4747

Ankeny's Office
2605 SW White Birch Drive
Suite 110
Ankeny, IA 50023
(515) 964-5664

We have an hourly option at $350 per hour, but 99% plus choose our contingency fee.

Yes

Yes

99% of our cases are contingency so we do not require a retainer.