Joe is a partner and founding member of Seward Henderson. He has over thirty years of litigation experience. He specializes in municipal law, personal injury defense, property preservation litigation, and insurance defense. He is well known in the legal community for his expertise in police misconduct cases. Michigan Lawyers Weekly has coined him the Policeman’s Advocate, a well-deserved moniker. His success in the courtroom is unparalleled and second to none. He has tried well over fifty cases involving allegations of police misconduct, all but two of which resulted in defense verdicts in favor of his clients.

Notable Cases

• Auto Owners v. Olympia Entertainment, 310 Mich. App. 132 (2015), leave denied by 498 Mich. 949 (2015) (dram shop case in which the Michigan Court of Appeals held, inter alia, that only the liquor licensee can be held liable under the dram shop act)

• Latits v. Phillips, 298 Mich. App. 109 (2012) (deadly force case in which the Michigan Court of Appeals granted governmental immunity to an officer)

• Bowers v. Livingston County, 426 Fed. Appx. 371 (2011) (jail case in which the Sixth Circuit granted summary judgment to a county and a sheriff on deliberate indifference claims arising out of inmates’ contraction of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)

• Dunn v. Matatall, 549 F.3d 348 (6th Cir. 2008) (case in which the Sixth Circuit granted summary judgment to an officer on excessive force claims arising out of a high-speed chase)

• Odom v. Wayne County, 482 Mich. 459 (2008) (case in which the Michigan Supreme Court clarified the standard applicable to governmental immunity for intentional torts)

• Willett v. Waterford Township, 271 Mich. App. 38 (2006) (sewage discharge case in which the Michigan Court of Appeals granted governmental immunity to a township)

• Bradley v. City of Ferndale, 148 Fed. Appx. 499 (6th Cir. 2005) (jail death case in which the Sixth Circuit granted qualified immunity to officers and held—for the first time—that a denial of governmental immunity on a pendent state claim is a final, appealable order)

• Kowalski v. City of Livonia, 267 Mich. App. 517 (2005) (case in which the Michigan Court of Appeals held that a franchise fee did not constitute a new tax that required voter approval under the Headlee Amendment to the Michigan Constitution)

• Horace v. City of Pontiac, 456 Mich. 744 (1998) (defective building case in which the Michigan Supreme Court held that a walkway leading to a public building did not fall within the public building exception to governmental immunity)

• Page v. City of Southfield, 45 F.3d 128 (6th Cir. 1995) (case in which the Sixth Circuit held—as a matter of first impression—that the federal removal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1441, et seq., does not authorize a District Court to remand a case sua sponte for a perceived defect in the removal procedure)

• Malcolm v. City of East Detroit, 437 Mich. 132 (1991) (case in which the Michigan Supreme Court held that the Emergency Medical Services Act, when construed in conjunction with the Governmental Tort Liability Act, foreclosed direct liability on the part of a governmental entity)

• Ostoin v. Waterford Township Police Department, 189 Mich. App. 334 (1991) (case in which the Michigan Court of Appeals recognized—for the first time—the existence of a deliberative process privilege in the State of Michigan)

• Van Dike v. AMF, 146 Mich. App. 176 (1985) (products liability case in which the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed a directed verdict in favor of a seller of an allegedly defective trampoline)
• Livingston Christian Schools v Genoa Charter Township, 858 F.3d 996 (2017) (case in which the Sixth Circuit issued the first published opinion on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) to affirm the district court’s dismissal of a suit claiming the township improperly denied a special-use permit to a private religious school)