Michigan Civil Rights Lawyers

Michigan Civil Rights Attorneys — Holding the Government Accountable in Federal Court

When a man was choked to death by law enforcement while protesting his brother's arrest, his family needed attorneys willing to take that case to a federal jury. We did. The verdict was $4.1 million.

That case is not an outlier for our firm. It is what we do.

Christopher Trainor & Associates has spent more than 35 years taking on police departments, county jails, state agencies, and municipal governments that abuse their authority. We have recovered millions for victims of wrongful arrest, jail injuries, excessive force, illegal searches, and racial discrimination by government actors, across both the Eastern and Western U.S. District Courts in Michigan.

Civil rights cases are among the most aggressively defended in the legal system. Government entities have taxpayer-funded legal teams and qualified immunity protections built specifically to discourage these lawsuits from moving forward. They count on people not having the resources or the attorney to fight back properly. We are that attorney, and every case we take is on contingency: nothing upfront and no fee unless we win.

Why Civil Rights Cases Against the Government Are Different

Suing a government entity is not like suing an insurance company. The obstacles are different, the procedures are different, and the defendants fight differently.

Qualified immunity is the first wall. Government officials can claim personal immunity from liability unless the right they violated was "clearly established" at the time. Courts have historically interpreted that standard narrowly, giving officers and officials substantial protection. Overcoming it requires identifying specific binding precedent from the Sixth Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court that put the official on notice their conduct was unconstitutional. Our attorneys have defeated qualified immunity arguments in both federal districts in Michigan. It is not a barrier, but it requires an attorney who has done it before.

Government defendants also fight on different terms than insurers. Insurance companies run settlement calculations. Government entities often refuse to settle civil rights cases as a matter of institutional policy — they view any payout as an admission of wrongdoing and would rather spend more in legal fees than pay a just settlement. That means your attorney has to be genuinely prepared to try the case in front of a federal jury. Our $4.1 million verdict was won at trial, not negotiated.

Evidence also moves faster than most people expect. Body camera footage gets overwritten. Internal affairs reports get sanitized. Officers transfer or retire. We issue preservation demands the day you hire us and begin building the record before it can disappear.

Michigan also adds a procedural layer that catches people off guard. Before filing certain claims against government entities under state law, you must serve a written notice of intent at least 60 days before filing suit under MCL 600.6431. Miss that deadline and those state claims are gone. This is one of many procedural traps that make experienced civil rights representation essential from the start.

Types of Civil Rights Cases We Handle

Our Michigan civil rights attorneys represent individuals and families whose constitutional rights have been violated by government actors.

• Wrongful arrest
• False imprisonment
• Malicious prosecution
• Illegal search and seizure
• Excessive force by government officials
• Jail injuries
• Prison civil rights violations
• First Amendment violations
• Discrimination by government actors
• Wrongful conviction

Each type of case has its own legal foundation. A wrongful arrest claim centers on the absence of probable cause under the Fourth Amendment. A jail injury case may involve Eighth Amendment deliberate indifference standards. A racial targeting case may draw on both § 1983 and § 1981. We identify the strongest theory for your specific facts and pursue every available avenue for compensation.

Michigan and Federal Civil Rights Laws

Civil rights cases are built on a combination of federal statutes and Michigan law. Understanding how they work together determines which claims you bring and where you file them.

42 U.S.C. § 1983

Section 1983 is the foundation of civil rights litigation in the United States. It allows any person to sue a state or local government official who, acting under color of law, deprives them of rights secured by the U.S. Constitution or federal statutes. This covers police officers making unlawful arrests, corrections officers using excessive force, and government employees engaging in racial discrimination. Section 1983 does not create new rights — it provides a remedy when existing constitutional rights are violated. Nearly every civil rights case our firm files begins here.

42 U.S.C. § 1981

Section 1981 guarantees all persons the same rights to make and enforce contracts, sue, give evidence, and receive the full protection of the law regardless of race. It is a direct tool in cases involving racially motivated government action, including discriminatory policing and race-based targeting by public officials.

Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (MCL 37.2101)

Michigan's ELCRA provides state-level protection against discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and public services based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, and marital status. When government actors violate ELCRA, victims can pursue claims in Michigan state court alongside or instead of federal claims.

Civil Rights Case Results in Michigan

These are not just verdicts. Each one represents a person whose rights were taken from them by someone with government authority, and who deserved to have that recognized by a jury.

• $4,100,000 — Wrongful death civil rights verdict for the family of a man who was choked to death by law enforcement while protesting his brother's arrest. Tried to verdict in federal court.
• $835,000 — Settlement for a detainee who suffered severe injuries at the hands of corrections officers in a county jail, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
• $750,000 — Recovery for a Michigan resident subjected to wrongful arrest without probable cause, resulting in lost employment, emotional trauma, and lasting reputational harm.
• $485,000 — False arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution.
• $455,000 — Wrongful arrest.
• $345,000 — County government civil rights violations involving a judge and sheriff.

How We Build a Civil Rights Case

Winning against a government entity requires preparation that starts the day you call us, not the day before trial.

The first step is evidence preservation. We send litigation hold letters to the agency immediately, demanding that body camera footage, dashcam recordings, jail surveillance video, internal communications, use-of-force reports, and disciplinary files be preserved. Government agencies routinely destroy or misplace evidence that is damaging to them. Once we have put them on written notice, that destruction becomes part of the case.

Building the independent record. We review police reports, medical documentation, and witness statements. We retain use-of-force specialists, forensic experts, and constitutional law professionals who can analyze the conduct and explain to a jury, in plain terms, what the government actor should have done and why what they actually did was wrong.

Strategic federal court filing. We file in the appropriate U.S. District Court, crafting complaints that identify every viable constitutional claim, name every responsible defendant, and are structured to survive qualified immunity challenges at the motion-to-dismiss stage. Pleadings that can be knocked out early lose cases before discovery even begins.

Aggressive discovery and depositions. We depose the officers, supervisors, and policymakers involved. We subpoena training records, policy manuals, and prior complaint histories. Under Monell v. Department of Social Services, a municipality can be held liable when an officer's misconduct stems from an official policy or a failure to train. Building that case runs in parallel with the claim against the individual.

Government defense teams settle cases they expect to lose. We prepare every case for trial, which is why our settlements and verdicts reflect serious numbers.

Key Federal and Michigan Statutes in Civil Rights Cases

These are the laws at the center of every civil rights case we file. For plain-language explanations, visit our Federal Civil Rights statutes guide.

• 42 U.S.C. § 1983 — Civil action for deprivation of federal rights — the primary vehicle for every civil rights lawsuit
• 42 U.S.C. § 1988 — Attorney fees in civil rights cases — why civil rights firms can take cases on contingency
• Fourth Amendment — Unreasonable search and seizure — the constitutional foundation of excessive force and unlawful arrest claims
• Fourteenth Amendment — Due process and equal protection — protects against wrongful arrest and racially motivated government action
• MCL 691.1407(2) — Governmental immunity gross negligence standard — why federal § 1983 is the stronger path in most cases
• MCL 37.2101 — Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act — Michigan's state-level discrimination protections

Serving Civil Rights Victims Across Michigan

Civil rights violations happen everywhere — in Detroit precincts, Flint county jails, Grand Rapids courtrooms, and on rural highway shoulders across the state.

Christopher Trainor & Associates represents civil rights victims in both the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit and the Western District of Michigan in Grand Rapids, as well as Michigan state courts in every county. Whether you were wrongfully arrested in Southfield, injured by corrections officers in a Lansing facility, or subjected to an illegal search in Ann Arbor, our team has the reach and federal court experience to pursue the case.

Call (248) 886-8650 any time for a free, confidential consultation. If your constitutional rights have been violated, we want to hear what happened. You pay nothing unless we win.