Our attorneys have handled hundreds of personal injury, product liability and premises liability cases (including over 50 fatality cases) in a variety of venues, including state and federal court.
We have taken a number of these cases to trial – and to defense verdict. Our jury trial and litigation experience has run the gambit from soft tissue to amputation and wrongful death. We have been involved in all aspects of the litigation from pleadings, to dispositive motions, to depositions, to expert witnesses, to many full blown jury trials and have been responsible for the defense of clients in various MDL’s, encompassing hundreds of cases, all involving personal injury.
We have defended matters for clients in over 30 states, including Illinois, California, Florida, Texas, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee, Utah, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Mississippi, Wyoming, Washington, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Ohio. Our personal injury defense attorneys are part of our firm’s 85-attorney Litigation Practice Group, a core practice of the firm that includes attorneys across all offices.
We are currently representing clients in catastrophic loss cases that include premises liability for a public utility company involving electrocution, coma and complete disability, as well as a motor vehicle accident matter involving facial scarring, loss of use of lower extremities and long term loss of income claims. In addition to defending at trial various restaurants and parking facilities from premises liability claims and individuals and companies for automobile accidents, we have tried cases representing physicians and hospitals for medical malpractice and EMTALA claims. Our jury trial experience includes the defense of a grain supplier against allegations that an entire dairy herd was either made ill or died as a result of vomitoxin exposure, resulting in a $3.6 million loss. The case was successfully defended, which included expert discovery with respect to mycotoxins and economic loss.
At Benesch, we employ a tiered approach to personal injury litigation. Initially, we offer our services to our clients pre-suit for evaluation, investigation (if need be), medical records collection and strategy for resolution. This strategy can come in the form of tolling agreements to avoid unnecessary litigation costs if the parties are close to evaluation/resolution but are abutting a statute of limitations. We often concentrate on driving the defense of claims to mediation as opposed to trial with high percentage success in early resolution, often providing critical cost savings to our clients and speed in resolution. These mediation successes have come in the area of premises liability, product liability and personal injury, ranging from soft tissue, extreme orthopedic procedures and wrongful death. We have found that pre-litigation mediations are quite effective in resolving claims without full blown discovery, relying upon experience, as well as medical knowledge, to fill in otherwise costly gaps where experts would be retained in an actual court case. As for cases in litigation, we employ a triage approach - actuarial tables reflect (and experience bears out) that the lesser injury cases make up the highest percentage of those filed - especially in the premises liability arena.