Find Lawyers in Florida, United States for Product Liability Litigation - Plaintiffs
Practice Area Overview
Products liability, therefore, often involves complex litigation. The nature of a products liability claim is dependent on the jurisdiction or state where the injured person lives, the type of product, and the variety and cause of the defect. Product defects can surface in different facets of the user experience including defects in design, manufacturing, or even when a manufacturer fails to warn of associated dangers in the product’s use. Moreover, liability in these cases can rest on many different parties ascending the supply chain up to the original manufacturer - from the manufacturer and distributor to the supplier and retailer. After gathering all of this information, a knowledgeable attorney will determine the appropriate type of claim that should be pursued including strict liability, negligence, breach of warranty, or even fraud.
Strict Liability: Rather than focus on the behavior of the manufacturer (as in negligence), strict liability claims focus on the product itself. Under strict liability, the manufacturer is liable for harm caused by the defective product, even if the manufacturer was not negligent in making that product defective.
Negligence: This case type most resembles an ordinary negligence lawsuit. In addition to duty, defect, causation, and injury, the injured party needs to prove that the manufacturer or seller breached its duty to the person harmed.
Breach of Warranty: When the maker of a product warrants its characteristics, if it fails in one of those characteristics and the failure causes an injury, a breach of warranty claim arises. Warranties can be express (written or sometimes verbal) or implied by law.
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Cities
Tampa personal injury attorney C. Todd Alley is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell. He has concentrated his practice in the fields of personal injury, medical device, mass torts, and complex products liability litigation. As a Tampa personal injury attorney, Mr. Alley has been instrumental in the firm’s successful representation of thousands of injured clients in various complex product liability and mass tort claims. The successful conclusion of these cases has resulted in our clients&rsqu...
Alex Arteaga-Gomez is a Partner at Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen, representing victims in general liability, mass tort, and medical malpractice matters. Before joining the firm, he acted as an assistant federal public defender at the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, where he represented clients at trial and on appeal. He has tried cases and argued appeals in both state and federal courts and represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court.Between his ...
THEODORE (TED) BABBITT is a former managing partner at Babbitt & Johnson, P.A. who for the past five decades has represented individuals in personal injury, wrongful death, and commercial cases. In 1970, he obtained the first verdict in Palm Beach County for a plaintiff in a medical malpractice case; in 1975, he obtained the first jury verdict in Palm Beach County in excess of one million dollars. When Mr. Babbitt was 17 years old he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and still managed to be sw...
Rosalyn “Sia" Baker-Barnes is a Shareholder at Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A., and the Chairperson of the firm’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee. In her over 20-year career, she has successfully pursued justice for victims in personal injury, medical negligence and product liability cases and frequently lectures throughout the United States on catastrophic injury cases. She has achieved numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements, includi...
For more than 35 years, Attorney David W. Bianchi has represented clients in all kinds of personal injury matters. He has been selected to the list of “Best Lawyers in America” and named Lawyer of the Year for his experience in product liability. He also represents clients in matters involving business disputes, class actions, negligence-related crashes, legal and medical malpractice, aviation collisions, and more. He has been a member of numerous professional organizations recogn...
Tampa personal injury attorney James D. Clark is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell. Mr. Clark's practice areas include medical malpractice, general negligence, products liability, and mass torts (pharmaceutical and medical products). Mr. Clark was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1975 and the North Carolina Bar in 1979. Mr. Clark is a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer and is certified as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Mr. Clark is a Board Certified Circuit Court M...
BRIAN R. DENNEY is a Shareholder at Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A. in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he currently serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. He has earned Florida Bar Board Certification in Civil Trial Law, the highest level of recognition for the competency and experience of a civil trial lawyer. Mr. Denney routinely works with individuals and families throughout Florida whose lives have been devastated due to the negligence of others. He takes pride...
Attorney Todd R. Falzone is an experienced South Florida personal injury lawyer who has secured dozens of multi-million dollar settlements and verdicts for personal injury and wrongful death victims. Mr. Falzone has helped secure hundreds of millions in compensation on behalf of clients at Kelley/Uustal, particularly in the areas of product liability, auto accidents, premises liability, medical negligence, maritime accidents, and discrimination. He has been named one of the most effective law...
MARIANO GARCIA is a Florida Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer who has been practicing in West Palm Beach since 1994, representing people in personal injury and commercial litigation matters in state and federal courts. He has achieved an AV rating for the highest level of professional ability and ethics from Martindale Hubbell. He is a member of the Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the American Board of Trial Advocates and has been selected to Florida Super Lawyers...
Stuart Grossman is recognized as one of America’s preeminent trial lawyers concentrating on catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death, products liability, aviation accidents, and professional negligence, including medical, legal, accounting, and engineering malpractice.His successful career is distinguished by a number of favorable verdicts that are among the largest awarded by Florida juries.Mr. Grossman was named Trial Lawyer of the Year by the American Board of Trial Advocates ...
JAMES W. GUSTAFSON JR . is a Shareholder with Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A., a member of the firm’s executive committee, and the managing partner of the firm’s Tallahassee office. He is a sixth generation Florida native who served with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and studied at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, before becoming a trial lawyer. Mr. Gustafson is a member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, a worldwide organization limited to ju...
James S. Haliczer is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Haliczer Pettis & Schwamm, residing in the Fort Lauderdale office. For more than 30 years, Jim has built a reputation for litigation excellence, serving as trial counsel in a broad range of cases, including medical and legal malpractice, personal injury, wrongful death and commercial disputes. He also has the unique perspective of having successfully represented his clients on both the defense and plaintiff side, affording him an...
JACK P. HILL played football at Yale University, earned all-Ivy and all-American academic honors, and served as a felony prosecutor in the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office before joining Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A. A native of Palm Beach County who attended the Benjamin School in North Palm Beach, Mr. Hill handled dozens of jury trials as an Assistant State Attorney, prosecuting crimes ranging from DUI to first degree felonies punishable by life in prison...
Lance C. Ivey is recognized as a top civil litigation attorney in the area of products liability. His practice includes cases involving automotive design and manufacturing defects including insufficient roof strength, handling and stability defects, defective airbags and defective seat belts. Lance has handled defective product cases all over the country and has obtained numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for firm clients in cases against virtually every international auto...
JOSEPH JOHNSON is a Florida Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer with extensive experience litigating difficult and complex cases. Over the last 38 years, he has represented victims and their families in a wide range of personal injury cases, including medical malpractice, products liability, consumer protection, defective medical devices and automobile and trucking accidents. Mr. Johnson is a third generation lawyer who has been recognized as a Florida Super Lawyer since 2006. He has been sele...
Attorney Robert W. Kelley is a founding Partner at Kelley/Uustal. Mr. Kelley is a highly accomplished attorney. He has earned numerous awards and recognitions, including his continued inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America publication, Florida Super Lawyers ® Magazine, and South Florida’s Best Lawyers. Mr. Kelley has tried over 100 jury trials. His record of success includes the 7th largest jury verdict in the country according to the National Law Journal, and more than 25 multi-m...
CAMERON KENNEDY is a shareholder with Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A. Throughout his career, he has dedicated himself to representing clients in cases across the State of Florida and throughout the Southeastern United States. As a trial attorney with an unparalleled work ethic and attention to detail, Mr. Kennedy has recovered more than $100 million on behalf of his clients, including many multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements in cases involving dangerous and defect...
Attorney Chris Larmoyeux is a partner with the personal injury law firm of Larmoyeux & Bone, P.L. Prior to forming Larmoyeux & Bone, Mr. Larmoyeux was a partner with the firm of Montgomery & Larmoyeux. Before that, he was a partner with the firm of Montgomery, Searcy & Denney from 1985 to 1989, and a partner with Montgomery, Lytal, Reiter, Denney & Searcy, P.A., in West Palm Beach, Florida from 1983 – 1985, where he began his legal career in 1979. Mr. Larmoyeux gradu...
ANDREA A. LEWIS is an experienced trial lawyer who has dedicated her life to fighting for victims who have been injured, abused, or killed by the negligence and wrongdoing of others. She has successfully conducted over 80 jury trials and handled many high-profile cases. Due to her experience, Ms. Lewis has been quoted in numerous national publications and her cases have been covered by media outlets across the country, including USAToday, FoxNews and CNN. Ms. Lewis has a lengthy track record ...
Michael Maher’s extensive experience as a trial lawyer has made him one of the nation’s outstanding client advocates with an impressive list of precedent-setting settlements and verdicts and a recognized leader in the legal profession. One of his most notable accomplishments was chairing the 11 legal firms making up the People’s Trial Advocates appointed by the state of Florida and resulting in the long-term recovery of more than $25 billion from the tobacco industry. Mr. Ma...
Steve Maher received his law degree from the University of Southern California. For more than 30 years, he has handled thousands of personal injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, dangerous drugs and medical devices, patent infringement, automobile negligence, antitrust, and class action lawsuits, helping countless individuals achieve justice after being wronged. Attorney Maher's commitment to success is evident in everything he does. In recognition of his outstanding advocacy and count...
Anthony D. Martino (“Nino”) is a partner in the firm and the son of Anthony T. Martino, Esq. He grew up in Tampa, FL and graduated from Jesuit High School. Mr. Martino then attended the University of Florida on academic scholarship where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with minors in Economics and Criminology. While at UF, he was inducted into Florida Blue Key, which is the oldest and most prestigious leadership honorary within the state of Florida...
Mike Papantonio is a senior partner with the law firm of Levin Papantonio. He has received numerous multi-million dollar verdicts on behalf of victims of corporate malfeasance. His award-winning work handling thousands of mass tort cases throughout the nation has helped make Levin Papantonio one of the largest plaintiff law firms in the country. Mr. Papantonio is a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer by the Florida Bar and the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He is a fellow in the Internation...
EDWARD V. RICCI was born and raised in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He is a graduate of The Benjamin School (1997), Georgetown College (2001), and Georgetown University Law Center (2006). Since joining the firm in 2008, Mr. Ricci has successfully tried numerous personal injury and wrongful death cases to verdict and obtained significant settlements on behalf of his clients. He has advocated for his clients in complicated cases involving product defects, medical malpractice, automobile neglige...
MATTHEW K. SCHWENCKE earned his law degree from Stetson University College of Law, where he was a member of Stetson's award-winning moot court board. While in law school, he served as intern to a federal magistrate judge and also prosecuted misdemeanor criminal offenses as a Certified Legal Intern for the Pinellas County State Attorney's office. As an undergraduate, Mr. Schwencke attended the University of Florida on a Bright Futures Scholarship; he graduated with honors. A Palm Beach County ...
CARTER W. SCOTT is licensed to practice in both Florida and Georgia and has been admitted pro hac vice to handle cases in various states throughout the country. He maintains a practice focused on wrongful death and serious injury cases resulting from brain injury, spinal cord injury, burns and catastrophic orthopedic injuries. He has represented clients in all types of complex litigation, with a focus on large personal injury lawsuits, including trucking collisions, products liability, medica...
CHRISTIAN D. SEARCY is president and CEO of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A. and writes and lectures extensively about civil trial practice, personal injury and wrongful death. For 46 years he has litigated cases primarily involving catastrophic injury and death in venues throughout Florida as well as in other states. At age 29, he had the distinction of being the youngest lawyer in the United States to achieve a verdict of $1 million for a single personal injury lawsuit. In...
Peter Spillis brings more than 20 years of experience as a civil trial lawyer to Kelley/Uustal. He has worked as defense counsel for some of the largest insurance companies in the world, and today uses his insight to protect the rights of injured victims and families. Mr. Spillis has been named to the 2010 “Legal Elite” list by Florida Trend magazine and has been recognized as a Top Lawyer by the South Florida Legal Guide from 2012 through 2014.
KAREN E. TERRY is a Shareholder at Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A. in West Palm Beach and has been with the firm for 25 years. Recently, Ms. Terry became Florida Bar Board Certified in civil trial law as well as in health care and medical malpractice, which are the highest honors one can achieve. For the last 10 years in a row, she has been named as one of The Best Lawyers in America. Recently honored as one of the top-rated lawyers in health care in the United States, Ms. ...
Attorney John Uustal is a founding partner at the Fort Lauderdale law firm, Kelley/Uustal. John specializes in protecting the rights of catastrophically injured victims. Mr. Uustal holds an impressive record of success, including many multi-million dollar verdicts and a $51 million car accident verdict—one of the largest verdicts ever awarded for an individual. As a result of his continued success, Mr. Uustal has been named one of the Best lawyers in America and has been included in mul...
DONALD J. WARD III is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Notre Dame Law School, where he earned his degree cum laude. At age 26, in his first jury trial, Mr. Ward obtained a verdict of $824,200, which was more than thirteen times what the defendant had offered to settle the case. Since joining Searcy Denney, he has recovered in excess of $100 million on behalf of his clients. He currently serves as President of the Palm Beach County Justice Association, a countywid...
CALVIN WARRINER III (Cal) has been with the firm for 32 years and has been a Shareholder since 1991. He joined the firm as a seasoned trial attorney and is Board Certified as a Civil Trial Lawyer by both The Florida Bar and the National Board of Trial Advocacy, as well as being a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys. He has been nominated by his peers and received the distinction of being included in the prestigious publication The Best Lawyers in America as wel...
MELVIN BOWEN WRIGHT was born in Albany, Georgia on August 1, 1959 and was raised on a family farm still in operation in Warwick located in Worth County, Georgia. He moved to Central Florida in 1985, is married and has two children. He received his Juris Doctor degree in 1985 and was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 1985 and the Florida Bar in 1986. Mr. Wright is also licensed to practice law in Tennessee. Mr. Wright is also a member of the Supreme Court Bar, the District Courts for the...
JUAN C. DIAZ AVIL A has devoted his legal career to the litigation of personal injury, premises liability, wrongful death, negligent security and products liability claims, representing his clients in both state and federal courts from inception of the case through trial. As a native Spanish speaker, he is especially well equipped to understand and serve the needs of the Latino community. Before joining Searcy, Denney, Scarola, Barnhart, & Shipley, P.A. Mr. Diaz Avila worked with the larg...
JORDAN A. DULCIE began his legal career in medical malpractice defense at a boutique firm in Palm Beach Gardens, followed by broader civil litigation practice at a larger civil defense firm in Florida. His practice areas include not only medical malpractice, but automotive accidents and nursing home and assisted living cases. In 2019, 2020 and 2021 he was selected by Palm Beach Illustrated magazine as a top lawyer in the area of medical malpractice, and Florida Super Lawyers Magazine lists hi...
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