John Dornik and Siegel Brill successfully settle motorcycle claim for injured client

John Dornik has extensive experience representing those injured in catastrophic accidents, whether involving an automobile, motorcycle, or large commercial truck. Laws relating to these kinds of accidents are unique, and John and his team at Siegel Brill have the expertise and experience to help accident victims and their families obtain successful outcomes. In June of 2016, one of John’s clients was a very active 52-year old retiree who enjoyed fishing, motorcycling and riding ATVs. All that changed one day in a small community west of the Twin Cities. John’s client was riding his motorcycle to the bank. At the same time and place, a car that did not yield the right of way, turned immediately in front of the motorcycle.

John’s client took a direct hit from the car. The motorcycle flipped, and John’s client was thrown into the air. He was left unconscious, and his leg was severely injured.

Due to the severity of his leg injuries, John’s client had to have surgery immediately. The medical issues he suffered as a result of this accident have greatly affected his mobility as well as his quality of life. Because of this permanent injury, John’s client unfortunately will not be able to spend his remaining years doing the activities that he most enjoyed.

John Dornik and Heidi Torvik of Siegel Brill worked together to review the client’s medical records. They also spent a great deal of time interviewing the client and his family. They established a very positive relationship with the insurance company and presented them with a detailed demand letter.

Because of John and Heidi’s efforts, the client was awarded a settlement of $1,100,000 — the total policy limit. This claim came to Siegel Brill in February 2017, and the settlement check was issued and distributed in October of 2018.

The client was very pleased with his legal representation and the amount of the settlement, and John and Heidi were as well. “I enjoy representing injury victims at their greatest time of need, and helping them receive compensation for their medical bills, wage loss, and their loss of the enjoyment of life,” says John Dornik. “I considered it a great honor to serve this client and the victims of all types of motor vehicle accidents.”

Spotlight on Katie Pivec

Originally from southwest Minneapolis, Katie Pivec grew up hearing about her Bohemian roots. While her family meant it in the literal sense (her last name derives from the Czech word for beer), she also recognized an ancestral affinity with la vie boheme, her family resume littered with artists, actors, dancers and writers; career stability and Roth IRAs were not regular dinner table topics of discussion.

Naturally, she became a transactional attorney.

While obtaining a college degree, let alone following up with a JD (magna cum laude!) from the University of Minnesota Law School, may seem at first glance to be a bucking of family tradition, Katie sees her career as simply another. “Our family is full of storytellers and people who don’t like to be told what to do. I’ve always loved to tell stories, to solve riddles, to make things; the trick was finding a way to monetize those interests when I can’t draw or dance or sing.”

The answer, Katie found, was to find a job that lets her do all of those things, albeit within a more structured framework than either of her tapdancing grandmothers had to contend with. Perhaps surprisingly, her practice at Siegel Brill scratches that itch. Working with closely held businesses, often with components of real estate development or management, as well as business and family succession planning, there is an endless variety to the type of work that comes through her door. Each of those clients has a story they want to tell, or a riddle they need help unraveling.

In the years since entering the legal profession in 2010, Katie has worked to become a reliable asset in solving those clients’ riddles. She worked for a few years behind the scenes at a legal technology company, training attorneys in the ins and outs of legal research, and for the past six years she’s had a side gig teaching constitutional law at a local community college. Along the way, whether through assisting long-practicing attorneys on a treasure hunt for the perfect case or causing some spark of understanding in students uninitiated in the constitution’s penumbras and emanations, it’s become apparent that the family legacy for storytelling has found a home in Katie’s vocation as well. And, in case she ever gets the urge to break free from the bourgeois constraints of a conventional career — well, there’s always karaoke.

Katie enjoys spending her limited free time with her husband and her toddler twin daughters, along with the family dog and cat. She and her sister host a podcast where they spoil the endings of popular movies, and she also likes to pretend she goes to the gym.

CLICK HERE for Katie Pivec’s profile page