Appeals and Litigation Support

It is often said that cases are won or lost the moment the jury is empaneled. One bad juror can be the kiss of death for even the greatest case. Rich Newsome has been selecting juries for over three decades and is a never-ending student of the art of voir dire. If you have the trial covered and just need assistance selecting a jury, let our experienced team, led by Rich, use technology, caselaw and experience to select the best jury for your case. Call today to check for availability and consult about your case.

Complex Civil Litigation

Some cases cannot be fit into a neat category. They may involve a dispute with extremely high-stakes or a unique or emerging issue that has not been litigated before. Or maybe there’s a large number of people fighting over the same issue that cannot be subject to a class action. Or maybe the case involves an international corporate family or a bankrupt defendant. The potential complications are near infinite.

Creative and intelligent lawyering is vital when a client has been harmed but complex obstacles block the path to recovery. Not all firms like pursuing these types of difficult cases. And not all firms are able to do so even if they want to. We aren’t like those firms. We regularly take on difficult cases with unique issues and difficult procedural challenges.

What is complex civil litigation?  

“Complex civil litigation” is a catchall category—there is no one specific description that could adequately capture all the possible claims that would fall under this label. But, as a general rule, this type of case involves some specific challenge that requires a novel legal theory, extensive resources, a unique method for litigating the case, a large number of parties, or other unique and complicated issues.  

A few examples of complex civil litigation include:

• Qui tam cases (also known as whistleblower or False Claims Act cases), which involve allegations that a company or individual has defrauded the state or federal governments
• Mass torts, which involve a defendant which has caused widespread harm to many individuals, with those being harmed living in different cities, counties, states, or even countries
• Massive bankruptcies involving a defendant which caused widespread harm before ultimately declaring bankruptcy as a result of its liabilities
• Coordinated cases with multiple actions pending over the same or related issues in several jurisdictions
• Emerging litigation areas, such as the manipulation and illicit sale and trade of virtual currencies

The examples above just illustrate the types of civil cases which might be considered complex. The list is by no means exhaustive; by its very nature, complex civil litigation has a propensity to generate novel issues.

Complex civil litigations protect consumers and improve society.

The same things that make complex civil litigations “complex” also generally make them important at a societal level. The primary reason for this is obvious: high-stakes cases garner significant attention, and the lifeblood of business is money. So, industries stand up and take notice when a massive verdict is entered against a business for engaging in conduct that others may also be guilty of. Simply put, high-stakes cases can change entire industries by setting an example and changing the way business is conducted.

Complex cases can also help the law evolve in socially beneficial ways. Among other things, novel cases can change the law by creating new legal claims to address emerging problems or by carving out new ways that a case can be filed or litigated (i.e., the “procedures” used for that type of case).  

But, as you can imagine, high-stakes lawsuits draw top-notch defense counsel backed by near-limitless funding to wage war. And because of the far-reaching implications of these cases, the plaintiffs often find themselves litigating against not just the defendant, but also industry organizations that want the plaintiff to fail so that they can prevent the development of new precedent that could hold other industry participants accountable. This means that the person bringing the case must also bring their own fierce advocates with extensive resources to the fight.

We take on complex civil litigation cases.

Our firm takes pride in handling difficult cases that have the capability to change society and protect consumers. That’s what drew us to complex civil litigation, and what will keep us fighting hard on new frontiers in the years to come.

For example, our firm was at the forefront of the Takata airbag litigation. As one of the first firms to file a public case rather than confidentially settling without going to court, we were ahead of the deluge of cases that came later. This unique position allowed us to take a leadership role by organizing a group of other firms who had cases pending in state court into what we called the “Takata State Court Coalition.” We were then able to fight off attempts by the defendants to force our cases to back down and let the federal multi-district litigation (“MDL”) go ahead of us.

But that was not all. After we successfully fended off efforts to stall our state court cases, we were confronted by Takata’s declaration of bankruptcy—both in the United States and in Japan. We then helped our clients navigate the bankruptcies in both countries, ensuring that they had a say in how the bankruptcies proceeded. And once the bankruptcies concluded, we pursued their claims in the compensation trust set up by the US court system.

Our work in Takata continues to this day. We made headlines last year when we represented the family of a woman who was killed by a Takata airbag in Mexico. Although the woman and her family lived in Mexico, we were able to find a way to pursue that claim in the bankruptcy compensation fund in the United States—ensuring our clients would have access to justice. That case garnered international attention as Bloomberg News interviewed Frank Melton and published an international story that helped bring awareness to the ongoing airbag inflator recall.

We have since taken our experience and knowledge gained through the Takata bankruptcy forward into representing clients who were hurt by other companies that filed bankruptcy after being accused of hurting many people. For instance, we are now working on behalf of those who suffered injuries or death due to opioid addiction in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy, as well as on behalf of Boy Scout abuse survivors in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy.

We are also presently representing the families of people who were killed by deadly stormwaters in Waverly, Tennessee in August 2021. The lawsuit includes CSX as a defendant, alleging that its railroad bridge acted as a dam because it was clogged with debris, which, in turn, unleashed a tidal wave onto the town when the dam gave way. The case has already garnered national media attention.  

Give us a call.

Unusual, difficult, and complex cases can seem insurmountable—particularly for everyday people who do not have high-priced lawyers on retainer. The other side will certainly have top-notch legal talent and the money needed to go to war. The good news is you do not have to go at it alone.

We represent everyday people in complex cases against powerful corporations and their lawyers. And we are always happy to consult with you, free of charge. If we decide to take your case, we will do it on a contingency fee basis—meaning that you will not have to pay us unless and until we make a recovery on your behalf.