Product Liability, Complex Tort & Health Effects

Overview

We handle the full spectrum of products liability, complex tort, and health effects cases, including as national and regional counsel.

Rely on our team in cases questioning the safety and efficacy of products or alleged toxic exposure. Our success includes Daubert rulings, dismissals, and trial and ADR wins. We resolve cases by motion, often with no monetary payment. We obtain defense verdicts in sensitive, emotional personal injury matters, resolve tough cases favorably, and, in an era of rising awards, keep settlements in check.

But before any of this, we work with you to avoid or limit exposure. We aim to deliver “victory” to you in the courtroom and the boardroom by structuring approaches that are designed to put you in the best position possible and meet your economic goals. Trust our experience in preventive counseling, risk mitigation, safety, and regulatory compliance.

Representative experience

• Secured a unanimous defense verdict in Broward County, Florida, state court for French aircraft company Daher-Socata Aerospace, a case that was featured as #4 in CVN’s Top 10 Most Impressive Defense Verdicts of 2018. After a three-week trial, the jury agreed that pilot error caused the crash of the single-engine TBM 850 and that the plane is safe and free of any defect.
• National coordinating counsel for a specialty pharmaceutical manufacturer executive who has been named as a defendant in hundreds of cases nationwide, many of which advance personal injury/wrongful death claims in ongoing federal and state litigation matters
• Manage New York-based litigation for a commercial vehicle manufacturer. Defending numerous cases for this client in the New York metropolitan area. Cases involve asbestos, product liability, fraud, and RICO claims.
• Fortune 1000 electrical components manufacturer against multiple personal injury lawsuits arising from alleged exposure to asbestos
• Component supplier to cryogenic freezer manufacturer in lawsuits over alleged freezer failure. Sixty-one (61) separate lawsuits were filed in Circuit Court, Cook County, IL. Through strategic litigation and motion practice, we limited the claims as against our clients and negotiated a favorable settlement on their behalf, which concluded the litigation.
• Advise clients in numerous Proposition 65 matters brought by private litigants and the State of California involving a variety of consumer products
• Manufacturer of industrial pumps and valves facing thousands of personal injury and wrongful death cases filed by individuals suffering from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases
• Fortune 500 company and its 100+ subsidiaries, including claims alleging personal injury and property damage in an MDL litigation pending in federal court regarding toxic tort litigation and claims
• Co-trial counsel for highway products manufacturer in product liability action
• Client in an appellate preemption win in a putative class action brought against seven pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and sell eye drops

Recognition

• Nixon Peabody has been named a Tier 1 firm in Boston, Buffalo, Rochester, and San Francisco for Product Liability Litigation - Defendants by U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” in 2023.
• Recommended in The Legal 500 United States 2024 editorial for Dispute resolution – Product liability, mass tort and class action: toxic tort - defense