Toxic and Mass Tort

Polsinelli’s Products Liability and Mass Tort litigation team includes experienced attorneys that have specialized in tort litigation for more than three decades. This includes members who have been elected to the American College of Trial Lawyers, certified as Appellate Specialists and recognized for many years in Super Lawyers by their peers and legal publications. The practice was nationally recognized by Chambers USA in Product Liability & Mass Torts, May 2016.

The team has successfully defended thousands of toxic and mass tort cases. Named as national and regional defense counsel because of their integrity and insight, our attorneys have coordinated and mounted significant defense efforts on behalf of major industrial clients. Our diverse group of attorneys has defended cases involving exposures to: aluminum, asbestos, benzene, beryllium, coal dust, diacetyl (butter flavoring), hexavalent chromium, mineral products, mining fiber, mold, mercury, perchloroethylene, silica, talc, vinyl chloride, and other chemicals.

Medical disease claims from these exposures include:

• Asbestosis
• Autoimmune diseases
• Cancers
• Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis
• Mesothelioma
• Pulmonary obliterans
• Silicosis
• Other claimed latent diseases

Our work includes development of medical defenses; coordination of discovery responses; use of e-discovery techniques; preparation of medical and product state-of-the-art expert witnesses; use of computer animations for trial presentations; and testing of defense themes in mock jury presentations. 

No matter the product involved, our guiding principles remain the same: We believe in client focus, sound legal advice, quality work and quality service. Our attorneys have the trial experience to aggressively and effectively represent a client anywhere the case may take us. We have tried cases in federal and state courts from New York to California, and in some of the most challenging jurisdictions, including Madison and Cook counties in Illinois, and Los Angeles, Alameda, and San Francisco counties in California. 

More importantly, we recognize the impact that trials have on a client’s business, so we implement innovative pretrial strategies to minimize the effect of mass and repetitive litigation on our client’s bottom line. In our advisory role, we assist our clients with loss prevention advice, including claim prevention to reduce exposure when claims may be anticipated. We also provide consultation on issues such as adequacy of warnings, warranties and industry standards.

• Successfully defended client through defense verdicts and appeals in repeat litigation accusing client of conspiracy to suppress medical and scientific information from workers exposed to toxic substances.
• Obtained court’s orders dismissing latent disease claims based on challenges to plaintiff’s experts. The court barred plaintiff’s experts from testifying and then granted summary judgment because of a failure of proof on general and specific causation.
• Obtained a federal court ruling that provisions of a state environmental act regulating the transportation of waste in interstate commerce were unconstitutional and finding that fines imposed against client were improper.
• Obtained a precedent setting decision from State Supreme Court that applied to a 10-year statute of repose to latent disease claims.
• Obtained Federal Appellate Court ruling that state legislature's efforts to amend the 10-year statue of repose to allow for latent disease claims was unconstitutional as an effort to eliminate defendants' constitutionally vested rights to a defense.
• Obtained State Supreme Court ruling under last injurious exposure rule barring toxic tort claims against an employer that was not the last employer of the employee under state's workers' compensation statute.
• Advised property owners and property management companies regarding mold remediation and responding to mold-related claims.
• Successfully defended manufacturer of hard board siding against moisture intrusion and growth of mold product defect claims by more than one hundred plaintiffs.
• Provided national product liability coordination and defense to client for all punitive damages claims brought against client across the country.
• Developed strategies for client in several hundred silicosis claims to obtain court orders granting summary judgment in every case based on plaintiff's failure to prove that exposure to client's product caused plaintiffs' diseases.
• Participated in clients' national trial teams to assist in developing themes for defense of cases and to try cases for clients related to alleged exposures to chemicals.