In May, 1977, Mr. Cabaniss began working as a test engineer for the Engineering Staff of General Motors Corporation at its Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan. Mr. Cabaniss worked in the tire-wheel division handling various engineering projects. Mr. Cabaniss attended Wayne State University Law School at night while working for General Motors. Mr. Cabaniss received his Juris Doctorate cum laude in June, 1981.
After law school, Mr. Cabaniss worked as a litigation associate for Quarles & Brady of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a little over three years. Mr. Cabaniss then worked as an associate at Whyte & Hirschboeck principally defending General Motors Corporation in automobile crashworthiness cases for about a year.
In September, 1985, Mr. Cabaniss accepted an associate position with the plaintiffs law firm of Gillick, Murphy, Gillick & Wicht in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At Gillick, Murphy, Mr. Cabaniss tried and litigated various product liability cases including post-crash fire automobile, asbestos and swimming pool design cases.
From April, 1987 through June 30, 1995, Mr. Cabaniss practiced law in a partnership with Thomas Cunningham and Thomas Lyons. As a partner at Cunningham Lyons & Cabaniss, S.C., Mr. Cabaniss prosecuted a variety of product liability, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases throughout the country. Mr. Cabaniss has associated with attorneys in product liability cases in more than thirty states. Representative cases include automobile post-crash fire (Michael Katarincic, et al. v. Chrsyler Corp., et al., Milwaukee County Circuit Court Case No.745-174), aviation post-crash fire (Vincent Abeyta, et al. v. Cessna, et al., 8th Judicial District Court, County of Taos, New Mexico, Case No. 91-284-CV), Chrysler park-to-reverse (Lester Spars v. Chrysler Corporation, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Case No.90-CV-008783), General Motors Corporation rear lap belt-lack of shoulder belt (Elizabeth Wolf, et al. v. General Motors Corp., Dane County Circuit Court, Case No. 92-CV-3140), roof crush, tire failure, improper tire repair and defective tire repair materials (Mark Peterson, et al. v. Ress Enterprises, Inc., Ford Motor Company, et al., Case No. 90-L-15224, Cook County Circuit Court, Chicago, Illinois), Yamaha three-wheel all-terrain vehicles (Aaron Schneider v. Yamaha Motor Co., U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri, Case No. 90-3130-CV-S-4; Susan Tanych v. Yamaha Motor Company, United States District Court, District of Vermont, Case No. 2:90CV68), Honda three-wheel all-terrain vehicles (Deanna Freese, et al. v. American Honda Motor Co., Iowa District Court, Blackhawk County, Law No. 72019; Tony Battle v. American Honda Company, Case No. Civ. 90-0528HB, in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico), Suzuki four-wheel all-terrain vehicle (Joseph Gorski v. American Suzuki, Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Case No. 91-CV-1282).
Since 1995 Mr. Cabaniss has practiced law with his own firm Cabaniss Law Office. He has successfully prosecuted and settled a variety of actions in state and federal courts including a 12.65 million dollar product liability verdict in the case captioned, Mark Peterson v. Ress Enterprises, et al., Cook County Circuit Court, Illinois, a 1.56 million dollar medical negligence verdict in a case captioned, Malcolm Williams v. Dr. Arthur Goldman, Hampton Circuit Court, Virginia and a verdict in a legal malpractice case captioned, Thomas Frazier v. Gerald P. Boyle, in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin. Mr. Cabaniss is licensed to practice law in the states of Wisconsin and Texas. He has represented injury and fraud victims in more than thirty states. He is a certified civil specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He is a member of the bars the United States Court Claims, Seventh Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, United States District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin, United States District Court Western District of Wisconsin, and Potawatomi Trial Court.
