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Catherine S. Nietzel is a partner in the firm. She practices in the firm's litigation department, primarily defending civil suits in the areas of personal injury, civil rights, professional negligence and medical malpractice. Catherine is board certified in civil trial advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and has tried over 30 jury cases to verdict.
Catherine has been selected for inclusion in 2010 Connecticut Super Lawyers®, the result of a peer review process, blue ribbon panel review and independent research of candidates identifying the top 5% of attorneys in the state. Catherine has also received the highest Martindale-Hubbell rating of AV.
She was appointed by Chief Justice Chase Rogers in 2007 to join the Connecticut Supreme Court’s Civil Commission. The Civil Commission is charged with the review of the status of the civil docket and the development of practices that will improve the administering of judicial services to litigants, the bar and public, and will promote the resolution of cases in a fair, timely and cost-effective manner. It is comprised of members of the judiciary and experienced trial attorneys. |
| Professional Affiliations |
• Lecturer for the Fairfield County Bar Association on topics including trial preparation and settlement techniques.
• Faculty member of the Connecticut Bar Association and Regional Bar Association’s joint Symposium on Professionalism in the Civil Practice forum, which was moderated by state and federal judges and the Keynote speaker was then Chief Justice William J. Sullivan.
• Connecticut Bar Association
• Connecticut Defense Lawyers Association
• Defense Research Institute |
| Education |
B.S.F.S., Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, 1986
J.D., Fordham University School of Law, 1992 |
| Representative Experience |
• Obtained a directed verdict on all but one count of a complaint and a defendants' verdict on the remaining count for two Fairfield County police officers accused of false imprisonment, unreasonable search and seizure pursuant to the Fourth Amendment, and malicious prosecution in a case brought by two elderly residents charged with animal cruelty.
• Won a defendant's verdict for a local surgeon who performed an exploratory laparoscopy on a post-bariatric surgery patient who developed a leak where patient went on to suffer catastrophic complications for several months. The jury concluded the plaintiff could not establish that the surgeon either caused the leak or negligently failed to apprehend it when he performed the exploratory laparoscopy.
• Won a defendant's verdict in a lawsuit alleging wrongful death against a psychiatric hospital where a patient, a librarian, committed suicide. The patient had previously attempted suicide in the same hospital. The patient suffered from dissociative identity disorder, previously termed multiple personality disorder.
• Represented a Connecticut city’s Board of Education, high school principal and the coaching staff of the football team in a negligence and failure to supervise claim for a football player catastrophically injured while conducting an indoors sprinting drill. The lawsuit resulted in a defendants’ verdict after a three week trial
• Recently obtained defendant’s verdicts in jury trials representing neurosurgeons, a gastroenterologist and an opthalmalogical surgeon in claims of partial paralysis and dysfunction, wrongful death and blindness, respectively.
• Obtained summary judgment on claims of unfair trade practices which would have given rise to exemplary damages in a lawsuit against an equine veterinarian.
• Successfully defended a Department of Public Health license disciplinary action in a hearing before the Board of Medical Examiners, resulting in a complete exoneration of an internist whose patient died in the hospital as a result of infection.
• Represented motor vehicle operators in connection with wrongful death and catastrophic injury claims resulting from accidents. Obtained two defendants verdicts in rear end motor vehicle accidents on the basis of the failure of the plaintiff to prove causation between the plaintiff’s alleged injuries and the motor vehicle accident.
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