Eric Hageman

Managing Partner

☎ 888-377-8900 (Toll Free)
✉ eric@pritzkerlaw.com

Find on This Page

1. Eric’s Story
2. What I Can Do for You
3. Results: Jury Verdicts and Settlements
4. Leadership In The Law
5. Contact Eric Hageman

Eric’s Story

Eric Hageman is a trial lawyer who is passionate about his work handling catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases throughout the country. His recoveries for clients include a $45 million settlement for a person who was severely burned.

The son of a bowling-alley proprietor, Eric began working in the family business at a young age, learning the value of hard work and the importance of customer service. After attending public high school, Eric parlayed his athletic success into admission to an Ivy League college, graduating from Dartmouth in 1990. Returning home for law school, Eric set out to become a lawyer for real people, not big companies. In law school, he began doing volunteer legal work for prison inmates, which taught him that those who have a voice have a duty to speak up for those who are voiceless.

Eric has carried that lesson into his career as a trial lawyer, trying and winning difficult cases for people who have been injured – or for the families of people wrongfully killed – due to the careless or reckless actions of wrongdoers and rule-breakers. While representing “the little guy” against big corporations or insurance companies, the majority of Eric’s work is on behalf of people involved in explosions, injured by contaminated water and food, hurt by reckless drivers or who were seriously harmed by defective products. The common thread in all of Eric’s cases is his insistence that wrong-doers be held accountable for the harm they have caused, in whatever form that takes.

Eric has been married since 1995 to his wife Jill, who is also an attorney, and their family includes five children, two dogs and a cat. In 1998, Eric and Jill adopted their two oldest sons (who were then 6 and 7 years old) out of foster care in Minneapolis and they have remained committed to organizations supporting “waiting children.” When he is not practicing law, Eric is active in his children’s lives and in community events. Eric has coached all five of his children in a variety of sports, has completed several triathlons and marathons and enjoys hiking, biking and running.

What I Can Do for You

“The goal of obtaining equal justice under law for my clients is the ideal which drives me. Everyone is entitled to justice.”

The desire to help regular people, not big companies, is what drove me to become a lawyer in the first place and working hard to help David defeat Goliath is what drives me still today. I am a fierce advocate for my clients with a passion for seeing that wrongs get righted. Over the course of my career, I have zealously represented injured people seeking justice in over twenty different states, obtaining numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements. I am committed to helping my clients find the truth in complicated situations and get the compensation and justice they and their families deserve.

Results: Jury Verdicts and Settlements

• $45,000,000.00 on behalf of a man who suffered horrific burn injuries in an explosion.
• $27,000,000.00 on behalf of a family whose children were sickened with E. coli.
• $12,150,000.00 on behalf on an 8-year old girl who was sickened with E. coli.
• $10,000,000.00 for a client who suffered burn injuries in a propane explosion.
• $9,500,000.00 for a client who suffered burn injuries in a factory explosion.
• $8,750,000.00 on behalf of a 13-year old girl who was sickened with E. coli.
• $8,000,000.00+  for the family of a young girl who suffered catastrophic injuries in a kiddie pool.
• $6,500,000.00 landmark verdict in a case against Foster Poultry Farms on behalf of a 5-year-old child who contracted Salmonella Heidelberg and, as a result, suffered brain damage.
• $6,450,000.00 On behalf of of three people sickened in a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at a resort hotel
• $6,000,000.00 on behalf of six people impacted by a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak linked to a hotel hot tub.
• $5,100,000.00 on behalf of a motorcyclist who suffered an amputation injury when an unqualified and overtired delivery truck driver collided with him.
• $5,000,000.00 on behalf of a woman severely injured in a boat accident involving an intoxicated driver.
• $4,900,000.00 on behalf of a 4-year old boy who was sickened with E. coli.
• $4,750,000.00 for a client who suffered an injury after eating a food product.
• $4,500,000.00 for our client, who suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of a crash between a drunk driver and a semi trailer.  
• $4,500,000.00 on behalf of a plain-clothes police officer who was shot by a fellow officer who mistook him for a suspect.
• $4,500,000.00 for a 31-year old man who contracted meningitis from a food product contaminated with listeria.
• $4,500,000.00 on behalf of an 18-year old man who was rendered a paraplegic after diving into a residential pool.
• $4,500,000.00 on behalf of a 23-year old man who was sickened with Salmonella.
• $4,050,000.00 on behalf of a family in a wrongful death lawsuit against a driver and the company that had negligently serviced the vehicle prior to the crash.
• $3,500,000.00 for a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury when his vehicle was hit by a distracted commercial truck driver.
• $3,900,000.00 on behalf of the parents of children who were sickened with E. coli.  
• $3,750,000.00 for our client who contracted Legionnaires’ disease at a hotel and was hospitalized for eight weeks.
• $3,700,000.00 on behalf of a 26-year old woman who was sickened with E. coli.
• $3,300,000.00 on behalf of a 10-year old boy who was sickened with E. coli.
• $3,300,000.00 on behalf of a 1-year old boy who was sickened with E. coli.
• $3,100,000.00 for a woman who was injured and her teenage son killed when their car collided with a jackknifed tractor-trailer rig on a snowy highway.
• $3,050,000.00 for a young man who was paralyzed in a police shooting.
• $3,000,000.00 on behalf of a family in a wrongful death lawsuit against the St. Louis Park School District arising from the drowning death of a 12-year-old during school swim class. Eric was named an “Attorney of the Year” in 2015 for his work on this pool-drowning case in which he uncovered previously-unknown facts regarding negligence and evidence destruction.
• $3,000,000.00 for a wrongful death claim brought on behalf of two adult men whose parents were killed in a Kentucky home explosion caused by a natural gas leak
• $3,000,000.00 on behalf of the family of a woman who died as a result of Legionnaires’ Disease contracted while staying at a Las Vegas hotel.
• $2,469,000.00 on behalf of the family of a 53-year-old bicyclist who was run over at an intersection by a right-turning tractor-trailer. The jury verdict was achieved after the defendant refused to make any pre-trial settlement offer. Eric was named an “Attorney of the Year” for his work on this case.
• $2,350,000.00 for our client who contracted Legionnaires’ disease at a hotel and was hospitalized for over a month
• $2,250,000.00 on behalf of the family of a 73-year old man who contracted Legionnaires’ disease at a hotel and died.
• $2,100,000.00 on behalf of the family of a severely mentally ill inmate, when a jury found that guards were “deliberately indifferent” to his serious medical needs prior to his death.
• $2,000,000.00 on behalf of the wife and daughter of a 68-year old Michigan man who was killed when a police squad car collided with his vehicle at an intersection.
• $1,950,000.00 on behalf of surviving family members of a young man who was killed when he collided with a jackknifed tractor-trailer on an icy highway.
• $1,900,000.00 on behalf of a work-release inmate found comatose after being neglected by officers for three days, causing permanent neurologic impairment.
• $1,750,000.00 for the family of a 52-year old man who died of Legionnaires’ disease linked to a hotel.
• $1,750,000.00 for the family of a 50-year old man who died of Legionnaires’ disease linked to exposure at a hotel.
• $1,750,000.00 to a woman sickened with Legionnaires’ disease after being exposed in a hotel hot tub.
• $1,558,300.00 on behalf of the seven-year-old daughter of a man who was killed when he collided with the back of a stopped semi truck on a Wisconsin highway.
• $1,500,000.00 for the family of a woman killed in a car crash.
• $1,500,000.00 settlement in a motorcycle crash case.
• $1,325,000.00 on behalf of a 59-year old man who was sickened with Legionnaires’ disease after using a hotel hot tub in California.
• $1,300,000.00 on behalf of a woman whose husband was killed by a distracted driver while he was bicycling on the shoulder of a country highway.
• $1,075,000.00 on behalf of family members who suffered physical and emotional injuries when a semi truck ran a stop sign and collided with their minivan.
• $1,050,000.00 on behalf of a 15-year old girl who was sickened with E. coli.
• $1,000,000.00 on behalf of the family of a man who died as a result of Legionnaires’ Disease contracted while staying at a Wisconsin resort.
• $1,000,000.00 on behalf of a 17-year-old bicyclist struck by a right-turning tow truck as the bicyclist crossed at an intersection.
• $1,000,000.00 on behalf of a family whose child died from an E. coli infection linked to a daycare.
• $1,000,000.00 on behalf of an 11-year old girl who was burned in an apartment fire.
• $475,000.00 on behalf of a professional football player who was unlawfully pepper-sprayed, tased and arrested while waiting for his car near a valet stand at a Minneapolis nightclub

Leadership In The Law

Honors and Awards

In recognition of the results he has achieved for his clients, Eric Hageman has received a variety of accolades from legal organizations:

• Lifetime Achievement selection to America’s Top 100 Attorneys®, reserved for less than one-half percent (0.5%) of attorneys in the U.S.
• Named a “Super Lawyer” (reserved for fewer than 5% of lawyers) every year since 2004
  Read the profile of Eric Hageman in the 2014 issue of Super Lawyers.
• Selected to the “Best Lawyers in America” list (recognizing only the top 5% of all practicing lawyers in the U.S.) for excellence in the practice areas of personal injury litigation and transportation law.
• Named an “Attorney of the Year” in both 2011 and 2015.
• Named one of the Top 10 Personal Injury Attorneys in the state by the National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys.
• Selected as one of the Top 100 litigation attorneys in the state by the American Society of Legal Advocates.
• Rated “AV-Preeminent” by Martindale-Hubbell every year since 2001, signifying the highest level of professional excellence.
• Inducted into the “Circle of Excellence” by Minnesota Lawyer as a multiple “Attorney of the Year” winner.

Education

Dartmouth College, B.A. (1990)
University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., cum laude (1995)

Seminars/Teaching

Eric has spoken at legal seminars locally and nationally on topics including trucking accidents, wrongful death and traumatic brain injury and has chaired the Minnesota Association for Justice Wrongful Death seminar four times.

Bar Memberships

• United States Supreme Court
• State of Minnesota
• 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals
• 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals
• 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals
• 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals
• Federal Circuit Court of Appeals

Jeanne Malush, Eric’s Paralegal, can be contacted at: jeanne@pritzkerlaw.com // 888-377-8900