HEALTH EFFECTS - TOXIC & COMPLEX TORTS

Nixon Peabody’s Toxic & Mass Torts team has successfully defended clients in some of the most high-profile and complex areas of product liability. We understand the difficulties of shepherding products through regulatory processes and then bringing them to market. For more than two decades, our work has helped set legal precedent and established law that has benefited the food, pharmaceutical, chemical, and petrochemical industries. As a result of our extensive industry experience, we are able to develop the creative, cost-effective solutions our clients need.

We defend clients in cases ranging from individual personal injury suits to aggregate and class action cases involving multidistrict litigation and consolidated discovery and motion practice.

We call upon in-house and consulting experts who assist with the technical and medical aspects of these cases. We have developed an extensive database of medical literature and transcripts of expert testimony from trials and depositions. Nixon Peabody has a reputation for aggressively defending toxic tort and environmental cases, and a wealth of trial experience.

Proven results

Our clients have experienced an outstanding history of loss control as they work with us to develop a reputation that discourages the filing of claims. We have resolved numerous environmental and complex toxic tort cases without claim payments by our clients, and have successfully represented clients in matters involving the health effects of various products.

Our record of cases tried to verdict or judgment is exceptional, as is our record of resolving cases by dispositive motion, extracting clients from unnecessary litigation in the early stages. We are also adept at negotiating settlements and working collaboratively with other defense counsel in multiparty cases.

Representative Experience: National Coordination and Defense of Product Liability Actions

• National coordinating counsel for a New Jersey–based company in asbestos litigation. The Los Angeles school district brought a suit claiming the floor tile in hundreds of school buildings is defective because it contains asbestos. Suit is pending in State Court, Los Angeles County.
• Long-term representation of a major chemical company in product liability cases involving various chemicals and allegations of a variety of injuries, ailments, and diseases.
• Represented a client in mass tort product-liability litigation, managing more than 11,000 cases across the country, including in federal and state courts in forty-six states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. As a result of a successful motion strategy, the claims against our client in the federal multidistrict litigation were dismissed and the caseload was reduced to approximately seven hundred state cases.

Additional Experience: Regional and State

• Liaison/group counsel to 17 defendants in a 200+ plaintiff carcinogenicity litigation involving alleged exposure to numerous chemicals deposited in a western New York landfill.
• Asbestos case involving Boston schools and public buildings. The case was ultimately trifurcated by product group. Several million documents were produced and several hundred depositions were taken. Phase I (surface products) was tried before a jury and resulted in a defendants’ verdict. Our client resolved Phase II (thermal insulation) for a nominal settlement, and was dismissed completely from Phase III (floor tile) with no payment.
• Defense and counseling in numerous Proposition 65 matters brought by both private litigants and the State of California involving foods, dietary supplements, and a variety of consumer products.