Product Liability and Toxic Tort
Product liability and toxic tort litigators at McKenna Long & Aldridge (MLA) represent a highly trained group of attorneys with a depth of experience in today’s litigious environment, who work to minimize a firm’s risk of exposure to legal action. Our attorneys have handled cases in federal and state courts nationwide, and in a number of industries. Our clients include both manufacturers and distributors of diverse products such as: agricultural chemicals, asbestos and asbestos containing products, automobiles, cellular phones, drugs and medical devices, formaldehyde, machinery and manufacturing equipment, military and aerospace products, organic/halogenated solvents, pesticides, and petroleum-based products.
Our environmental tort work includes the defense of cases involving a wide variety of industrial and agricultural chemicals and radioactive materials released to groundwater, indoor air, outdoor air, soil, and surface water. We also handle mold litigation.
Our work includes personal injury and property damage litigation, as well as counseling and training. We work with clients to develop mechanisms to avoiding lawsuits when they are developing or marketing a new product or when they have an environmental release or incident. We have experience in defense of actions involving multiple plaintiffs and defendants and are often called upon to act as national coordinating counsel. We are also successful in defeating class certification.
Our product liability and toxic tort practitioners combine their experience in complex civil litigation with the firm's experience in the technical and medical issues that often form the battleground for these cases. MLA's extensive experience with scientific and medical issues enables us to integrate complex issues to present a credible scientific defense for your company. These types of cases frequently are won through discovery. By immersion in the technical and medical issues and the related law, we succeed in effectively cross-examining opposing experts to support pre-trial motions to exclude their testimony or hinder their effectiveness at trial. At the same time, we use our experience with medical and technical issues to create a strong defense that is effectively integrated with the unique facts facing the companies we represent. When these cases are not defeated by pre-trial motions, our attorneys are skilled at presenting complex scientific evidence to lay juries for excellent results.
One unique aspect of MLA's practice is the defense of government contractors in product liability and environmental tort cases. We are particularly skilled at presenting the special legal defenses and third-party claims that are available when a products or environmental matter arises in connection with a contractual relationship with the government, or out of the battlefield.