919 854 4454
800 350 7574
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 30303
Raleigh, NC 27622
Street Address ( Map )
1500 Sunday Drive, Suite 208
Raleigh, NC 27607
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Our practice
Founded in 1991, Kuniholm Law Firm is a nationally renowned trial and appellate practice representing injured and abused individuals. We appear in all state and federal courts in North Carolina, and serve clients throughout the state. We provide:
* free initial consultations
* contingent fees
* free onsite parking
* medical staff and consultants
We are experienced, dedicated advocates who work as a team to offer each client the benefits of our collective expertise. Elizabeth Kuniholm, the firm’s founder, has devoted her career to safeguarding the rights of injured people. Named in Best Lawyers in America, Liz has been widely acclaimed for her efforts to redress medical and HMO negligence, sexual abuse, and abuses in the foster care system. In 2000, the American Association for Justice honored her and fifteen of her clients with the Steven J. Sharp Public Service Award in recognition of their "contribution toward a safer, more just America. ... She and the women she represented in this case have sent a clear message that the civil justice system works to stop dangerous practices that harm Americans."
Innovative approach
Our goal with every case is to obtain the most beneficial result in the most efficient way. We are creative and flexible in our approach to resolving cases. We have long used jury focus groups to help evaluate and present claims. Our attorneys helped pioneer alternative forms of dispute resolution in North Carolina. With every case, we look for ways to make the justice system responsive to the needs of our clients.
Representative cases
We have obtained verdicts or settlements where:
* A hospital failed to treat a newborn’s respiratory distress and caused him to suffer brain damage that resulted in mental retardation and cerebral palsy.
* Doctors allowed a pregnant mother to carry her baby significantly past term, causing severe birth injuries, including spastic quadriplegia and cerebral palsy.
* When a mother came to a hospital in labor, nurses and attending doctors failed to timely diagnose an emergency condition that was cutting off the baby's oxygen supply. As a result, the baby was born with brain injury, and now suffers from cerebral palsy and mental retardation.
* A hospital and doctors caring for a mother in labor failed over many hours to recognize fetal distress or to respond to evidence of a life-threatening lack of oxygen. The baby suffered severe brain damage and ultimately died.
* A patient's broken ankle led to a below-knee amputation when his orthopedic surgeon failed to timely diagnose and treat a post-surgical infection.
* Two women had their faces badly burned by a doctor who misused laser hair-removal equipment, and their first attorney violated court rules and caused their case to be dismissed on technical grounds.
* A family physician molested his female patients during examinations, and the patients’ insurers, HMOs, and even the North Carolina Medical Board refused to act on their complaints.
* A shopping mall put a known sexual predator in charge of a law enforcement training program for teenagers, and the officer used his position to exploit young girls.
* A psychiatrist violated medical ethics and professional standards by engaging his patient in a sexual relationship, causing the patient severe, prolonged depression for which she required multiple hospitalizations.
* A social services agency, after learning that three foster siblings were having sex with each other, placed them for adoption in the same home without informing the adoptive parents.
* A social services agency placed a dangerous adolescent foster child in a home with a toddler, whom the foster child molested.
Service to the profession
We are committed to improving the legal system. We provide pro bono legal services in certain public interest cases. We serve in leadership roles in the American Association for Justice, the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the North Carolina Bar Association. Liz Kuniholm has served on commissions advising the North Carolina legislature on medical malpractice and birth injury litigation. We also teach and write in our fields of practice. Liz is a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law School, where she has taught trial practice since 1987. We regularly lecture and write for professional advocacy groups and contribute to law books and journals.
