Most of our products liability work has defended claims that medicines or chemicals caused cancer or birth defects. We have also represented manufacturers of automobile and truck components, medical devices, sporting goods, and tires.
Jeffery Carlson spent more than a year in consolidated jury trials, defending claims by dozens of aerospace workers who alleged that exposure to industrial chemicals caused them to contract various types of cancer. The jury returned a defense verdict for Mr. Carlson’s clients in all of those cases. Mr. Carlson was also the first-chair defense lawyer in three jury trials in which children alleged that their birth defects were caused by Bendectin, a morning-sickness-drug which was prescribed in the U.S. from 1956 until 1983. All three of those trials resulted in defense verdicts.
Charles Messer second-chaired six jury trials in which children alleged that their birth defects were caused by pharmaceuticals. The only such trial which resulted in a judgment for the plaintiff was reversed and rendered by the Texas Supreme Court in Havner v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 953 S.W. 2d 706 (Tex. 1997). Havner adopted Daubert-rules for the admissibility of expert opinion testimony, and it is an important case in the history of Texas jurisprudence.
More recently, our lawyers have successfully represented manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, sporting goods, automobile and truck components, and other products in cases alleging serious personal injuries.