Our Plaintiff Practice

Yunker & Schneider has successfully represented individuals with serious bodily injuries, families who have lost loved ones, businesses ruined by fraud or bad faith, and many others who have been forced to sue powerful and well-defended opponents. We realize the tremendous financial and emotional pressures facing our clients in these cases, and we understand their need for immediate attention.

We protect our clients' rights and we prosecute their claims faithfully, aggressively, and creatively. We are always ready to take a case to trial when that is the best way to vindicate our clients' rights. However, we are also open to a fair, negotiated settlement - or to arbitration or mediation - whenever those methods will achieve our clients' goals quickly and efficiently.


Representative Plaintiff's Cases:
Wrongful death cases involving auto accidents, product failures, and other tragedies which have taken the lives of an aerospace scientist, young mother, small boy, college student, elderly farmer, and teacher.
Personal injury cases involving spinal fracture, nerve impairment, facial disfigurement, elder abuse, AIDS, and several levels of brain trauma.
Product liability cases involving several automobile components, an elevator, escalator, respirator, semi-trailer reflectors, marine diesel engine, and playground seesaw.
Construction cases involving an office building, hotel, nursing home, parking garage, property boundaries, and several custom homes.
Business cases involving companies bought and sold, shareholder disputes, franchise, maquiladora, distributorship and employee terminations, and all forms of contract and insurance disputes.

Significant Plaintiff Cases Handled By Our Partners:
A business executive served three successful years with a new employer, but did not fulfill one important administrative requirement of his very lucrative employment contract. As a result, the employer refused to pay anything under the contract, and sued the executive for millions of dollars in loans and alleged damages. The executive counterclaimed against his employer, and recovered over $14.3 million in settlement, which netted him over $8.7 million after the loans were repaid.
Two sisters claiming stock in a family-owned company recovered over $3 million in settlement from the company, even though their father and company founder denied that they ever owned any stock.
The family of a skilled worker killed by a defective concrete pump recovered $2.2 million in settlement from the German pump manufacturer.
Five elderly migrant workers were attacked by eight teenage boys in a widely publicized hate crime that resulted in guilty pleas by all the boys. The migrants sued the boys and their parents, and settled for $1.36 million paid by their insurers, despite California law barring insurance coverage for criminal acts.
In three different cases involving start-up companies, minority shareholders recovered a total of $1.43 million, debt cancellations, and valuable intellectual property rights from majority shareholders who forced them out of the companies they helped to build.
A pediatrician and her husband received $1.27 million in settlement from a hospital where she was given a misplaced injection that left her in permanent pain.
Four small business owners in a shopping center recovered $900,000 in settlement from a developer and brokers who fraudulently misrepresented the occupancy of the center.
A ferry boat operator and his bank recovered $900,000 in a settlement from an insurance company and insurance agents who denied coverage for an engine room explosion.
Dozens of migrant workers won a jury verdict for $833,000 against an immigration consulting business that overcharged for worthless and fraudulent services.
A bank recovered $725,000 and $500,000 in two different settlements from an insurance company that refused to defend the bank in environmental lawsuits over real estate managed by the bank.
A small retailer in a shopping center recovered $650,000 in settlement from a developer who redesigned the center's parking and traffic flow, causing the retail business to fail.
A young man undergoing drug rehabilitation had his major hand terribly mutilated and scarred in a roll-over auto collision with an express delivery van. The young man recovered $650,000 in settlement from the delivery company, despite having difficult emotional problems that made it impossible for him to go to trial.
A small business owner had his lower leg badly burned when radiator components burst in his aged German luxury car. After proving that the car manufacturer had been aware of similar incidents, and had mounted an ineffective recall campaign, he settled for $600,000 from the manufactuer and other component suppliers.
A family trucking business won a jury verdict for $577,000 against a company that serviced the family's semi tractor-trailers so poorly that they could not operate and lost contracts.
A small metal-cutting business damaged in a fire started by a defective band saw recovered $550,000 in settlement from the Japanese saw manufacturer.
An accountant injured by a fall in an overcrowded nightclub recovered $405,000 in settlement from the nightclub operators.
A nursing home with construction defects recovered $350,000 in settlement from the structural design engineer.
A guest speaker injured by a fall from an unsafe hotel stage recovered $350,000 in settlement from the hotel.
A vehicle passenger injured in a collision between a pickup and a trash truck recovered $320,000 in settlement from the drivers.
A real estate agent won a jury verdict for $289,000 against the buyers of a motel who fraudulently refused to pay the agent's commission.
A local businessman won a jury verdict for lost profits of $240,000 against the owner of a minor league baseball team who breached an oral agreement to sell 40% of the team.
A woman won a jury verdict for $238,000 against the lawyer who did not include her in the settlement of her husband's medical malpractice lawsuit.
A woman injured in a car accident won a bench trial awarding $201,000 against the lawyer who mishandled her case.
Three sons who lost a house due to a mistake in their mother's will won a jury verdict for $181,000 against the lawyer who drafted the will.