Robert P Dutcher, Attorney

ROBERT P. DUTCHER grew up in Philadelphia. He became interested in becoming a lawyer while watching civil and criminal trials in the old Philadelphia City Hall courthouse during a summer job. Mr. Dutcher came to Connecticut to go to Wesleyan University in Middletown. Before going to law school, Mr. Dutcher worked many jobs--newspaperboy as a kid, railroad switchman in Milwaukee, factory worker and bartender in Middletown, and others. During law school in the District of Columbia, Bob worked for two years as a part-time criminal investigator for a law firm, working the streets of the toughest neighborhoods, alone and often at night, to develop information to defend the firm's clients from serious criminal charges.

Mr. Dutcher and his wife, Susie, live in Middletown and have four mostly-grown children. Mr. Dutcher is active in the First Congregational Church in Middletown, where he sings bass in the choir, acts in dramatic performances, and has served on boards and committees. Mr. Dutcher also serves as a trustee of Russell Library, the principal public library in Middletown. In his free time, he loves to ride his road bike, surf his sea kayak, and cross-country ski.

Professional Accomplishments:

For more than 30 years, Mr. Dutcher has represented people involved in all kinds of litigation -- plaintiff's personal injury cases, criminal defense, commercial cases, and domestic relations litigation. He represents injured victims in personal injury and workers compensation cases. He has handled all kinds of personal injury cases, including:

1. After 9/11, Mr. Dutcher represented the family of a victim killed in the collapse of the Twin Towers, in a successful claim against the Federal Victim's Compensation Fund. **
2. Mr. Dutcher successfully tried a six-week wrongful death case to a jury involving the death of a cement truck driver in a bridge collapse. **
3. He has successfully represented two widows who claimed that work-related stress caused their husbands' deaths from heart attacks. **
4. Mr. Dutcher has handled many uninsured and underinsured motorist claims, including a complex claim involving a teenage girl killed in the back of a pickup truck, which was successfully resolved in favor of the victim's estate after the two insurance companies forced a trial and an appeal which Mr. Dutcher successfully handled. **
5. He has handled a wide variety of other injury claims -- car accidents; motorcycle accidents; bicycle accidents; uninsured and underinsured motorist claims; dog bites; slip and falls; work-related injuries; defective products; medical malpractice; and food poisoning. **
6. Mr. Dutcher has also handled complex commercial litigation and estate litigation, including a case involving the probate of a will in a $7 million estate. **

7. Mr. Dutcher successfully won a jury verdict following a trial against a bar, for the maximum amount recoverable under the Dram Shop Act.  The bar served alcohol to a patron who left the bar and killed Mr. Dutcher's client (her estate) in a head-on collision.  The jury found in favor of Mr. Dutcher's client (her estate), and against the bar, even though there were no eyewitnesses in the bar who testified that the patron was visibly intoxicated, and the bartender swore that the patron seemed sober.  Mr. Dutcher successfully used the testimony of toxicologists, and eyewitness testimony that the patron appeared drunk at the scene of the collision, as circumstantial evidence that the patron must have been showing signs of intoxication when the bartender served him alcohol earlier in the evening.**

(** The results of these examples are based on the facts and merits of each individual case and may not necessarily mean that the same results may be acheived in your case.)

Mr. Dutcher gets many personal injury cases on referral from other lawyers.

He has also represented medical professionals in licensing proceedings before the State Department of Public Health.

Mr. Dutcher has served as a faculty member at the Connecticut Trial Advocacy Institute.