Firm News -

On May 18, 2013, Panish Shea & Boyle LLP will proudly sponsor the Angelman Syndrome Foundation at its annual fundraising walk in San Diego by providing breakfast to all participants. The firm also made a financial contribution to the organization. Angelman Syndrome is a neuro-genetic disorder that is characterized by developmental delay, lack of speech, and walking and balance disorders. There will be 28 walks across the country on May 18th and 19th in support of the Angelman Syndrome Foundation.

Last December, Panish Shea & Boyle LLP obtained a $10 million verdict for the parents of Kevin Cisler, a three-year-old boy with Angelman Syndrome who died when he slipped down in his wheelchair while on the bus ride home from pre-school and was strangled to death by the straps that were intended to hold him up in his seat.

“We are honored to be able to support Kevin’s parents and the Angelman Syndrome Foundation at this important event,” said firm partner Brian Panish. “Kevin’s story touched us all, and we want to do what we can to support this great cause.”

A Crepes Bonaparte food truck will be parked at the event taking place at NTC Park in San Diego to provide breakfast to participants.

For more information go to http://www.angelman.org/ or http://www.kevincisler.com/

In The Recorder’s annual report of California’s top verdicts, four of the highlighted verdicts were obtained by Panish Shea & Boyle LLP – the most by any law firm. The four jury verdicts total over $75 million and all are among the top 33 highest in the state in 2012. Last year, Panish Shea & Boyle LLP was recognized by The Recorder as having five of the top verdicts in California in 2011, with awards totaling over $65 million.

The four verdicts demonstrate Panish Shea & Boyle LP’s continued ability to win significant verdicts at trial year after year. The 2012 verdicts include a $36.5 million jury verdict in a case arising from a big-rig truck crash that left a woman catastrophically injured (Sheth v. Schneider National Carriers, Inc.); a $20 million jury verdict in a case involving a hit-and-run truck crash that left a 47-year-old woman catastrophically injured (Rivas v. J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.); a $10 million jury verdict in the death of a three-year-old boy with special needs who died on a bus ride home from school (Cisler v. Capistrano Unified School District); and a $9.3 million verdict for an injured worker in a case taken on by the firm the week before trial (Cedillo v. the Efim Sobol Trust).

The Recorder’s is a legal publication that provides attorneys and law firms with news, substantive law, profiles and practical content about the business of law both online and in a weekly publication.

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On March 16, 2013, a team of more than thirty-five Panish Shea & Boyle LLP attorneys, staff, friends, and family members participated in Public Counsel’s Run for Justice 5K, an event held in conjunction with the ASICS LA Marathon.

Public Counsel in the largest pro bono law firm in the United States and provided over $90 million in free legal services last year to those in need, including in the areas of children’s rights, veterans’ advocacy and homelessness prevention. So far, “Team PSB” has raised over $9,500 in support of this great cause and currently is second place among all fundraisers. This is the second year Panish Shea & Boyle LLP has participated in the race. For more information go to www.publiccounsel.org.

Hot on the heels of Panish Shea & Boyle’s own Brian Panish working tirelessly to secure an $8.3 million verdict for a client who sustained complications after being implanted with the DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant, a California legal publication has just honored Mr. Panish with the coveted “Attorneys of the Year 2012” distinction.

Law.com’s The Recorder profiled Mr. Panish following a series of successful cases last year.  The first of those cases involved a client who was paralyzed after being involved in a serious big rig collision.  Mr. Panish felt that the $250,000 settlement offered by the defense pre-trial failed to do justice to his client, who now requires 24-hour medical care.  He brought the case to trial and was able to obtain a $36.5 million jury verdict, the largest such personal injury decision in the history of Riverside County.

That was just the tip of the iceberg in 2012.  After turning down a $2 million settlement, Mr. Panish was able to secure a $20 million verdict for a woman who had also been injured by a big rig collision, $10 million for a family whose special needs child died on a school bus, and $9 million for an individual who suffered an injury on the job.

When bringing cases such as these to trial, Mr. Panish uses the power of technology to help the jury better understand the situation which befell his clients.  A big proponent of a computer’s ability to demonstrate the facts of a case in a visual, easy-to-understand manner, Mr. Panish employs technology experts in a bid to put together the best case possible.  In the case of the aforementioned Riverside big rig crash case, staff put together an animated recreation of the incident to show exactly what transpired.

These latest trials join a list of more than 100 cases brought to trial by Mr. Panish since he started practicing law upon graduation from Southwestern Law School.  Mr. Panish figures that he secured $300 million in settlements and verdicts last year alone.

The Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal has released its list of the top verdicts of last year, and Panish Shea & Boyle has been featured on the list not once, but twice, for efforts to aid clients in the personal injury legal realm.

First, Brian Panish and Spencer Lucas represented a woman who suffered serious injuries after her vehicle was struck by a truck operated by J.B. Hunt Transport Services.  The collision forced the plaintiff to experience bleeding in the area around the brain, retrograde amnesia, and a concussion.  This left her unable to work, and more than four years on, she still deals with depression and cognitive impairment.

The parties were able to agree to the liability of J.B. Hunt after it was discovered that the driver of the truck had a history of safety issues during his tenure in the trucking industry.  Although Hunt offered to settle for a scant $2 million, the jury eventually handed down a verdict worth $20 million plus attorney fees and punitive damages.  Although Mr. Panish feels the amount could have been higher given the situation the injured party faced, he believes that this decision went a long way toward altering the way the trucking company screens applicants prior to offering employment.

Another precedent was set when Mr. Panish and other lawyers with our firm represented a pair of individuals from India who suffered serious injuries when a Schneider National Carriers Truck attempted to pass their vehicle in an inappropriate manner, leading to a collision.  When the Riverside County jury awarded the pair $36.5 million (and their relative $1.4 million), it became the largest verdict ever issued in the county, and it came from a conservative jury that the defendants believed would not decide in favor of plaintiffs from India.  Mr. Panish explained that facts and evidence can go a long way toward overturning any potential biases or language barriers.

Did DePuy and parent company Johnson & Johnson essentially play a game of Russian Roulette with those persons who became recipients of the DePuy ASR metal on metal hip implant?  That’s what a jury must decide.

Panish Shea & Boyle’s Brian Panish posed that provocative statement during closing arguments which took place yesterday in Los Angeles.  After hearing both sides, jurors must now figure out the level of financial responsibility owed by the medical device company in this case, which could be a bellwether for what future lawsuits can expect to achieve.  This marks the conclusion of the first of thousands of lawsuits which accuse DePuy of putting forth an inferior product that was never properly tested.

Today was to mark the first day of jury deliberations.  Jurors are being asked to decide whether the implantation of the defective DePuy ASR device led the plaintiff, Mr. Loren Kransky, to experience a decline in health.  At trial, Mr. Panish pointed to Australian statistics which showed a whopping 44% failure rate for the device, and an internal analysis from DePuy itself shows an estimated 37% failure rate.  Much has also been made of the device’s propensity to shed metal debris, a condition which the plaintiff argues has caused him to experience metal poisoning.

Mr. Panish asked that the plaintiff receive $5 million for his troubles, and he also believes $179 million in punitive damages should be assessed against the troubled company.  Johnson & Johnson has recalled over 30 items since 2009, the DePuy ASR among them.  750,000 people across the country are thought to have received some kind of all-metal hip implant, but safety concerns have since diminished their popularity.

On March 1, 2013, Adam Shea and Spencer Lucas recovered a confidential 8-figure settlement for their injured clients whose vehicle was struck head-on by an oncoming semi-truck.

On the morning of May 18, 2011, a young married couple were traveling in their SUV on their way to work as teachers with their 18 month old daughter in the back seat. Suddenly, an oncoming truck driver lost control of his vehicle and swerved into their lane. The severe impact caused the Plaintiffs’ SUV to roll and come to rest on its roof. The wife was a restrained passenger and suffered severe abdominal injuries from the lap belt including avulsed abdominal muscles and sheared intestines. The father suffered a broken knee and fractured left elbow. The young daughter sustained a fractured clavicle.

The mother’s severe injuries required multiple intestinal surgeries which resulted in a colostomy which was reversed six months later. She continued to suffer from gastrointestinal problems and a chronic pain disorder.

The defense disputed liability and argued that a front left tire failure caused the driver to lose control. The defense also argued that the mother made a remarkable recovery, was able to return to work, and that the future medical expenses were minimal.

Through discovery, Plaintiffs’ counsel gathered evidence that the driver likely lost control due to being fatigued. Shea and Lucas worked with leading experts in California dealing with internal injuries and pain management and established that the future medical expenses would be substantial.

With this significant monetary settlement , the injured mother and her family will be able to obtain the future medical care they require and increase the quality of their living environment.

A trial attempting to determine the level of responsibility Johnson & Johnson should bear in the design and marketing of a defective hip implant is winding to a close, and Brian Panish of Panish Shea & Boyle was there to present closing arguments on behalf of a man injured by the implant.

Mr. Panish has been presenting the case of a retired prison guard named Loren Kransky.  In December 2007, Kranksy was implanted with the DePuy ASR metal on metal hip implant, a device that had to be removed less than five years later.  The lawsuit contends that DePuy both put forth a defectively designed product and failed to notify patients and medical professionals of the risks of using the device.  Testing which could have exposed certain issues wasn’t sufficiently carried out and complaints from surgeons and patients failed to trigger an adequate response from the company.

This sentiment was echoed by Mr. Panish during closing arguments in Los Angeles today.  He argued that defects plagued the item from the moment it arrived on the market, and these defects led to unprecedented rates of injury among patients.  In Australia alone, Mr. Panish cited an astounding 44% failure rate within five years, a number that’s much higher than the original 12% suggested by DePuy.

Mr. Panish argued that the plaintiff is entitled to $5 million for pain and suffering and $338,000 for reimbursement of medical expenses.  To send a message to DePuy, a company which has yet to acknowledge responsibility for this entire episode, Mr. Panish also called upon the jury to force DePuy to pay up to $179 million in punitive damages.

The attorney for Johnson & Johnson argued that the plaintiff’s injuries could not be attributed to a defect in the DePuy ASR device.  With upwards of 10,000 additional lawsuits awaiting trial, it’s now up to the jury to decide whose evidence is more compelling.

Numerous developments continue to arise as a lawsuit filed in conjunction with the DePuy ASR metal on metal hip implant gets addressed at trial.  This past Wednesday, a toxicologist with ChemRisk Inc. took the stand, and Panish Shea & Boyle’s own Brian Panish was there to question him.

DePuy actually hired the toxicologist to conduct research into the effects of heightened levels of cobalt into the bloodstream.  The medical device company has been accused of putting out a product which sheds cobalt and chromium debris when the components of the ASR implant rub against one another.  It’s thought that the absorption of the metal into the bloodstream and the tissue around the implant can lead to blood poisoning and a host of side effects.

The toxicologist, though, disagreed with these assertions, outlining how he and his firm had not been able to turn up evidence that adversity could be expected when cobalt levels rise.  He also explained that the phenomenon wasn’t studied extensively until the DePuy ASR recall.

However, Mr. Panish’s questioning revealed potential bias in the toxicologist’s research.  Although he bristled when accused of being the go-to guy for the industry, the toxicologist then admitted that he had in fact received this description.

Mr. Panish also asked about a Journal of Occupational Health and Environmental Medicine article from 1997.  That article was retracted nine years later, according to the toxicologist, because readers were not told that ChemRisk was responsible for the piece.  At that time, the firm was on retainer with the very companies which were targeted for their role in chromium pollution in a certain area of rural China.  ChemRisk’s article went contrary to research showing a link between chromium pollution and cancer.

What’s more, Mr. Panish outlined how dozens of companies had hired the toxicologist and his firm to conduct research that attempted to contradict studies into the apparent danger posed by benzene, asbestos, and other carcinogens.

Brian Panish has been named a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year by California Lawyer magazine. The CLAY awards are given annually by the magazine to recognize attorneys whose work made a significant impact during the previous year. Attorneys are recognized in 21 areas of legal practice; Panish was selected for a CLAY award in the area of Personal Injury.

In 2012, Panish obtained over $75 million in jury verdicts, including a record $36.5 jury verdict in a case arising from a big-rig truck crash that left a woman catastrophically injured, a $10 million jury verdict in the wrongful death of a 3-year-old boy on a school bus, a $20 million jury verdict in a case involving a hit-and-run big-rig truck crash and a $9.32 million verdict for an injured worker in a case taken on by Panish the week before trial.

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