Meet the Attorneys Behind Defiance Injury Law
Three attorneys. Different professional backgrounds. A shared commitment to helping individuals and families navigate serious injuries, wrongful death, and complex litigation.
When someone suffers a catastrophic injury or loses a loved one because of negligence, the legal challenges can extend far beyond the initial incident. Serious cases may involve multiple responsible parties, substantial medical evidence, sophisticated corporate defendants, complicated insurance questions, and decisions that affect a family’s future for years.
At Defiance Injury Law, attorneys Nicholas R. Andrews, Jeffrey H. Richter, and Holly D. Brauchli bring complementary experience to these challenges.
Their backgrounds span Washington plaintiff litigation, multistate catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases, prosecution, civil defense, medical negligence, nursing home abuse, commercial trucking, and complex corporate liability.
Together, those perspectives help define Defiance Injury Law’s approach: understand the full extent of the harm, investigate the decisions that contributed to it, and build cases grounded in evidence rather than assumptions.
Nicholas R. Andrews: Washington Leadership Rooted in Client Advocacy
Managing Partner | Defiance Injury Law, PLLC
Nicholas R. Andrews, known as Nick, is the Managing Partner of Defiance Injury Law in Seattle. Licensed to practice law in Washington since 2008, he represents individuals and families affected by serious personal injuries, medical negligence, nursing home abuse and neglect, school abuse, and other institutional failures.
A graduate of Seattle University School of Law, Nick has built his plaintiff-side practice around cases involving vulnerable individuals and complicated questions of accountability.
His work frequently requires looking beyond an isolated mistake to understand the systems, decisions, and failures that allowed preventable harm to occur.
That approach is particularly relevant when a person suffers serious injuries while receiving medical treatment, living in a care facility, or depending on an institution responsible for their safety.
A Focus on the Person Behind the Case
Nick’s legal practice emphasizes the relationship between attorney and client.
For families navigating catastrophic injuries or wrongful death, the legal process often begins during an overwhelming period. Medical decisions, financial uncertainty, unanswered questions, and the prospect of litigation can all arrive at once.
Nick’s approach centers on understanding the client’s circumstances, explaining the available options, and developing a legal strategy responsive to the individual’s needs.
His work also reflects a commitment to professional relationships, including collaboration with other attorneys when a complex case requires additional resources or experience.
Investigating Beyond the Initial Defendant
As Defiance Injury Law expands its work in complex commercial trucking litigation, Nick helps coordinate the firm’s evaluation of serious cases involving potentially inadequate insurance coverage and additional questions about corporate responsibility.
In these matters, the investigation may require identifying who selected a motor carrier, what safety information was available, which records should be preserved, and whether additional companies played a legally significant role.
The objective is not to assume that every catastrophic accident supports additional claims. It is to determine whether the available evidence warrants further investigation.
Holly D. Brauchli: Understanding Both Sides of Complex Litigation
Trial Attorney | Licensed in Washington, Oregon, and California
Holly D. Brauchli brings an especially valuable perspective to serious injury litigation: she has represented both the institutions defending these cases and the individuals seeking accountability.
She began her legal career as a prosecutor in 2011 before spending nearly a decade in civil defense litigation.
During that period, Holly represented corporations, insurers, product manufacturers, nursing homes, healthcare professionals, and other institutional defendants. She ultimately became an equity shareholder at Bullivant Houser Bailey.
In 2022, she transitioned to plaintiff-side practice, focusing on catastrophic injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, nursing home abuse and neglect, and other complex civil cases.
Experience That Helps Anticipate the Defense
Holly understands how sophisticated defendants investigate claims, evaluate financial exposure, select expert witnesses, challenge medical causation, and prepare cases for trial.
Her experience includes taking and defending hundreds of depositions, working extensively with medical and scientific experts, handling complex trial and appellate issues, and serving as first chair counsel in criminal and civil trials.
That background provides a practical perspective when representing people facing well resourced defendants.
In a medical negligence case, for example, understanding how a hospital or its insurer may defend treatment decisions can help identify the records and expert opinions that require close attention.
In a nursing home negligence case, examining institutional policies, staffing decisions, reporting practices, and internal communications may reveal whether failures extended beyond an individual employee.
In a commercial trucking case, similar investigative questions may apply to carrier qualification, safety procedures, corporate approval processes, and decisions made before a shipment began.
Keeping the Client Central to the Litigation
Holly’s approach also emphasizes the importance of giving clients a meaningful voice in their cases.
Catastrophic injuries frequently involve a loss of independence, financial security, or control over daily life. The litigation process itself can introduce additional uncertainty.
Rather than assuming every client defines success in the same way, Holly works to understand what matters to the person or family she represents.
That perspective informs how a case is investigated, how damages are developed, and how important decisions are communicated.
Her experience on both sides of complex litigation contributes to a practice focused on careful preparation, thoughtful advocacy, and accountability.
Jeffrey H. Richter: Trial Experience in Catastrophic Injury and Wrongful Death
Trial Attorney | Catastrophic Injury, Commercial Trucking, and Wrongful Death
Jeffrey H. Richter brings a different dimension to Defiance Injury Law’s litigation practice.
Licensed in Texas since 2009, Jeff represents individuals and families in catastrophic injury, commercial trucking, wrongful death, traumatic brain injury, workplace fatalities, nursing home abuse, and other complex civil matters.
His experience includes litigation involving parties and claims across multiple states, as well as cases in which the apparent defendant or initially identified insurance coverage does not fully explain the scope of potential responsibility.
Jeff earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law in 2008.
Following the Evidence Beyond the Obvious Defendant
One of Jeff’s central litigation approaches is examining the relationships and business decisions behind a serious injury.
A catastrophic commercial truck collision, for example, may initially appear to involve only a negligent driver and a motor carrier.
But the transportation arrangement may also involve a freight broker, shipper, equipment owner, maintenance contractor, or other company.
The relevant questions may include who selected the trucking company, what safety history was available, how the transportation agreement was structured, and whether decisions made before the crash contributed to the outcome.
Jeff’s approach emphasizes reviewing contracts, business records, insurance arrangements, corporate practices, and other evidence before treating the initial liability picture as complete.
Preparing Complex Cases for Litigation
Serious injury cases may depend on medical experts, technical evidence, economic analysis, corporate documents, and testimony from multiple witnesses.
Jeff’s background emphasizes detailed investigation and preparing cases with the possibility of trial in mind.
This approach can be especially important in catastrophic injury and wrongful death litigation, where disputes often extend beyond the question of who caused an incident to include causation, future medical needs, earning capacity, and the full extent of the resulting loss.
His work adds a trial focused and multistate perspective to Defiance Injury Law’s complex litigation practice.
Different Backgrounds. A More Complete Approach to Serious Injury Cases.
The strength of a litigation team is not simply the number of attorneys involved. It is how their experience contributes to identifying issues, developing evidence, and making informed decisions.
Nick Andrews brings Washington-based leadership, plaintiff-side experience, and an emphasis on client relationships and institutional accountability.
Jeff Richter brings experience investigating catastrophic losses, complex corporate relationships, commercial trucking operations, and the full liability and insurance picture.
Holly Brauchli brings firsthand knowledge of civil defense strategy, extensive deposition and expert-witness experience, and a perspective shaped by representing both institutional defendants and injured plaintiffs.
These complementary backgrounds can be valuable when litigation involves multiple companies, conflicting expert opinions, disputed medical evidence, complicated insurance arrangements, or questions about decisions made far from the scene of an accident.
Looking Beyond the Immediate Incident
A serious injury may be caused by a single event, but understanding why it occurred can require investigating decisions made long before that moment.
A trucking collision may raise questions about driver qualifications, maintenance, dispatch practices, and freight arrangements.
A preventable death at a medical or residential facility may require examining staffing, supervision, medical protocols, communications, and emergency response.
An injury involving an unsafe product may require investigating manufacturers, design decisions, testing, warnings, and corporate knowledge.
In each case, the objective is to identify the parties whose conduct may have contributed to the harm and develop the evidence needed to evaluate potential legal responsibility.
Beyond the $1M Trucking Policy: A Broader Investigation into Responsibility
One area in which Defiance Injury Law is applying this collaborative approach is its Beyond the $1M Trucking Policy initiative.
The initiative focuses on catastrophic trucking cases in which the motor carrier’s identified insurance coverage may be insufficient to address the severity of the injury or loss.
The central question is straightforward:
Does the identified insurance policy represent the complete liability picture, or are there additional decisions, companies, and records that warrant investigation?
For brokered freight, that may mean investigating the selection of the motor carrier and reviewing carrier onboarding records, safety information, transportation contracts, shipment documents, and relevant communications.
An inadequate policy does not establish negligence by another company, and a freight broker is not automatically responsible for a motor carrier’s crash.
But when catastrophic harm far exceeds the coverage initially identified, a careful investigation may need to examine the transportation chain before determining whether additional legal claims are supported.
The attorneys’ different backgrounds in plaintiff advocacy, complex injury litigation, institutional defense, and corporate accountability inform this investigative approach.
Learn More About Catastrophic Trucking and Broker Liability →
Representing Individuals and Families Across Washington
Defiance Injury Law is based in Seattle and represents individuals and families throughout Washington, including Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Bremerton, Spokane, Olympia, and surrounding communities.
The firm handles serious injury and wrongful death matters involving negligent drivers, commercial vehicles, health care providers, nursing homes, institutions, unsafe properties, and other potentially responsible parties.
In appropriate cases, Defiance also works with referring attorneys and collaborating counsel when litigation calls for additional experience, investigation, or trial resources.
Every case begins with understanding the facts, the people affected, and the legal questions that need to be answered.
Get to Know the Attorneys at Defiance Injury Law
Behind every serious injury claim is a person or family facing circumstances they did not expect.
The attorneys at Defiance Injury Law bring different experiences to that responsibility, but share a commitment to careful investigation, thorough preparation, and clear communication.
Whether a case involves catastrophic injury, wrongful death, medical negligence, nursing home abuse, or a complex commercial trucking collision, the firm works to understand not only what happened, but what evidence may establish legal responsibility.
Explore our attorneys or contact Defiance Injury Law for a free case review.
Legal Disclaimer
Attorney Advertising. This article provides general information about Defiance Injury Law and its attorneys. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Attorney participation, jurisdictional requirements, and case acceptance depend on the circumstances of each matter.
