Additional information about Mr. Coté...

Quick Facts:

• Co-founder of Willingham & Coté, P.C., and employed for over 35 years.
• Has represented over 150 other attorneys and judges on legal matters.
• Has practiced before the Attorney Discipline Board and the Judicial Tenure Commission.
• Has won over-million-dollar awards for his clients and has successfully defended cases having the potential of multi-million-dollar awards.
• Currently has cases pending in circuit courts across the state, the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court.
• Qualified as an expert witness in both federal and state courts on the standard of care required of members of the legal profession.
• Guest columnist for the Detroit News and authored a column entitled, "You and Your Lawyer"
• Authored "The Defense of Grievances," Michigan Bar Journal, October 2004

• Past President of East Lansing Chamber of Commerce
• Past President of East Lansing Lions Club
• Past President of the Thomas M. Cooley Legal Authors' Society
• Past guest lecturer on Professional Responsibility at Thomas M. Cooley Law School
• Past member of the Teaching Faculty of the Institute of Continuing Legal Education
• Member of the Representative Assembly of the State Bar; chaired for five years, Committee on Specialization, Certification and Advertising
• Past President and one of the founders of the Holland Harbor Lighthouse Historical Commission (27 years)

Mr. Coté's principal area of practice is trial work including the handling of complex multi-party litigation matters. He had devoted a substantial amount of time to handling litigation in such areas as product liability; auto accident; wrongful death and serious personal injury; malpractice; representation of attorneys and judges on grievance matters as well as representation of individuals seeking admission to the bar who have character and fitness issues; real estate law as it pertains to easements, access rights to lakes and shorelines, reserves, adverse possession, abandonment and related issues; admiralty and maritime law. He has specialized in recreational boating accidents and reconstruction of events surrounding mysterious disappearances of boats and their crews that have been the subject of a number of articles authored by him.

As a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, Mr. Coté engages in the practice of Admiralty Law where several high-profile cases have brought him national notoriety in boating accident cases. One of the cases, the defense of the Chuck Muer case in which four people lost their lives, spanned nine years in both State and Federal Court. It was the subject of an article entitled, "The Last Voyage of Charley's Crab."

The case presented extremely difficult factual and legal issues because the boat was never found, no bodies were ever recovered, there were no witnesses and a bad storm was involved. On what counsel believe started out as a hopeless case due to obstacles that could never be proved in Federal Court, Mr. Coté was able to reconstruct to within a 90-95 percent accuracy exactly what had occurred, and why, winning a multi-million-dollar award for his clients against the boat manufacture.

The Senior United States District Court Judge stated in one of the many opinions issued by the court:

"To say that this case is one in which very close questions, both legal and factual, have been involved, is a gross understatement; resolution of the issues posed here has been an extremely complex process for all involved."