Toxic Tort and Environmental Litigation

Toxic tort cases present significant financial risks to business. The plaintiffs bar has become increasingly sophisticated and well financed. Are you prepared to take on the legal and public relations challenge?
 
Often without any scientific basis, plaintiffs have pressed new cases concerning alleged exposure to minute concentrations of chemicals and environmental agents. Some of these cases have resulted in substantial awards against defendants. In seeking these awards, the plaintiffs' bar has been accused of having played upon the public's fear of chemicals and its suspicion of large companies. Our team focuses on causation or evidence of actual damages in defense of such claims.

Emboldened plaintiffs' attorneys are constantly working to identify their next targets. Businesses require experienced, motivated and aggressive defense counsel to best insure they do not become the next victim. Our Toxic Tort Team has the experience and motivation to defend your company.

The Toxic Tort Team

The Toxic Tort Team of Brad De Vore, Ric Morton, Kurt Lindquist, Debbie Israel, David Hamilton, Sam Outten, Jimmy Kirkland, Greg Horton, Mark Schamel, Michael Sullivan and Clark Goodman has combined experience handling the defense of virtually every type of environmental and toxic tort matter brought over the last three decades. The Team combined has handled individual claimant cases and class actions for wrongful death, personal injury and property damage  concerning air emissions, soil, surface water and groundwater contamination, workplace and residential exposures, products related exposures, and other complex exposure matters.

The types of cases range from sudden incidents such as facility fires and hazardous material releases to long-term exposures including to the presence of chemicals or environmental agents at various workplace and residential settings.
 
Increasingly, toxic tort cases are based upon "trace" or "low level" exposure to chemicals or environmental agents and myriad alleged adverse health consequences. As a consequence these new cases often include claims for "medical monitoring", "fear of future illness" or "diminution of property value."

Such cases place a premium on utilizing defense counsel that can master both the law and science applicable to the matter. Our Team has demonstrated the ability to weave legal experience and practical science in numerous matters covering a wide range of chemicals and environmental agents including:
  • Agricultural chemicals
  • Hexavalent chromium
  • Hydrazine
  • Asbestos
  • Hydrogen sulfide
  • Mercury
  • Radon
  • Benzene
  • MTBE
  • Toluene
  • Mold
  • Dioxins/furans
  • Textile dyes
  • TCE
  • TCA
  • Ethylene oxide
  • Lead
  • Low-level radioactive materials
  • Uranium
  • PCE
  • Styrene
  • Sewage sludge
  • 1-4 dioxane
  • Methylene chloride
  • Other heavy metals
  • Other Volatile Organic Compounds

Resources

The Toxic Tort Team leverages its experience with the vast practice resources made available at Womble Carlyle to assemble an effective and efficient defense of toxic tort claims. The Toxic Tort Team draws on the natural convergence of Womble Carlyle’s many practices to analyze and aggressively defend against the claims employing cutting edge legal and scientific concepts.

The resources the Team routinely brings together for significant toxic tort matters include: 
  • Toxic tort lawyers with reputations for success in cases involving some of the most controversial chemicals; 
  • Environmental regulatory and litigation attorneys familiar with plaintiffs’ use of regulatory investigation and cleanup issues as leverage;
  • Lawyers with experience in effectively bringing scientific principles to the court room in Daubert/Frye challenges to plaintiffs' consultants and witnesses;
  • Mass tort attorneys who have worked on a number of major class actions or multiple plaintiff matters 
  • Consulting and testifying professionals from among the hundreds we have interacted with across the country. 
  • Case Management system for high volumes of documents in electronic and hard copy forms. The Case Management Facility is an "online file cabinet" containing millions of documents pertaining to tens of thousands of cases every day. The state-of-the-art technology is backed by a staff that includes experienced trial lawyers and paralegals who understand large-scale litigation and what litigators need to win cases.
In short, the Team integrates the capabilities to provide the best possible defense for a particular case. Some of the other Womble Carlyle attorneys include: Howard Grubbs and Michael Bogle, Environmental Litigation; Richard Rainey, Labor and Employment/OSHA; Keith Munson and Fred Rom, Product Liability Litigation .

Related Teams

Related Industry Teams

Contacts