Product manufacturers have been and continue to be beleaguered by litigation. Since 2003, forty-six product liability verdicts have made the National Law Journal's annual list of the top 100 jury verdicts. The combined verdicts in those forty-six cases totaled more than $4 billion. The third-highest product liability jury verdict in the United States in 2002 came in an Alabama case where the jury awarded $100 million in punitive damages (although we were not involved in the trial of this case, we handled the appeal). This incredible award was the second time that an Alabama jury has awarded $100 million in punitive damages in a product liability case. Clearly, in dangerous venues like Alabama and other Southeastern states, any case can turn into a "bet-the-company" nightmare for a product manufacturer. In such a climate, it is critical for a company to have experienced, aggressive attorneys to defend its products.

That is where the trial attorneys at Lightfoot, Franklin & White come in. We have substantial experience in the defense of sophisticated product liability cases for all types of products, including automobiles, heavy trucks, aircraft, pharmaceuticals, firearms, medical devices, consumer goods, chemicals and industrial and agricultural products. Representative examples of experience in product liability litigation include:

• Nationwide representation of manufacturers of over-the-road trucks in rollover and fuel-fed-fire crashworthiness litigation;
• Defense of both foreign and domestic automobile manufacturers in more than 600 cases involving a wide variety of alleged design or manufacturing defects, including cases involving air bag, seat belt, vehicle structure and other crashworthiness claims;
• Representation of leading pharmaceutical manufacturers in various substantial cases involving, among others, the following drugs: phen/fen diet drugs, OxyContin and phenylpropanolamine (PPA);
• Regional representation of an American manufacturer of industrial process systems, motor systems, control systems and consumer products. We have successfully tried cases for this client in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas;
• Representation of a European firearms manufacturer in a nationwide class action alleging that certain handguns are defective and unreasonably dangerous;
• Defense of one of the nation's leading tobacco companies in numerous smoking and health cases throughout Alabama in state and federal courts;
• Representation of a major gas water heater manufacturer in fire cases filed in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Oklahoma;
• Representation of a major power tool manufacturer in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri and Michigan.
• Representation of a major breast implant manufacturer, which resulted in the successful defense or resolution of over 1,000 individual cases.

The extent of our product liability experience is most evident in the courtroom, where our lawyers have a long track record of winning high-profile product liability cases involving complex technical, scientific and medical issues. Our lawyers have tried scores of product liability cases to juries. Of these cases, the vast majority resulted in defense verdicts for our clients.