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Product Liability
A product liability lawsuit arises where someone suffers personal injuries or a wrongful
death because of a defectively designed, marketed or manufactured product.
Unlike other tort claims, you are not required to prove negligence nor gross negligence in order to prevail in a product liability case, though such evidence is helpful to enable you to recover punitive damages.
I have handled product liability cases, such as defectively designed firearms, defectively designed equipment in chemical plants, pharmaceutical drugs and certain other chemicals. I have also handled one case where the plant used the wrong piece of equipment on a job during a turn-around in order to save money, but that was a negligence case and not a product liability case.
Other design defects occur in tires, motor vehicles and a host of industrial equipment and sometimes in instruments.
Call me if you or someone you know was injured by a piece of equipment and I will help you determine whether or not you have a viable product liability case. It is important that you contact me as soon as possible after your injuries in order that I can make arrangements to observe, inspect and analyze the potentially defective product.
Gross Negligence-Wrongful Death-Worker's Compensation Lawsuits
In Texas, an employee cannot sue his employer for negligence resulting in personal injuries if the employer has worker’s compensation insurance, even if the employer was grossly negligent.
Texas law does allow the family of a deceased employee to sue the employer where the death of the employee's death was a result of the employer's gross negligence.
Families of former employees may also sue for gross negligence, wrongful death under the law.
These lawsuits are referred to as gross negligence, wrongful death, worker’s compensation cases.
I have handled numerous gross negligence, wrongful death, worker's compensation lawsuits where the former employees' deaths were caused by benzene related diseases.
Click my BENZENE button to read more about gross, negligence, wrongful death worker's compensation lawsuits.
I have handled numerous gross negligence, wrongful death, worker’s compensation lawsuits where benzene related diseases caused the deaths of former employees of chemical plants and/or refineries.
Click my BENZENE button to learn what diseases are caused by benzene exposure.
In order to maximize your recovery in a gross negligence, wrongful death, worker’s compensation lawsuit, I must take the deposition of the former employee before his or her death.
Typically, depositions are taken after a lawsuit is filed, but the family cannot even file a gross negligence, wrongful death, worker's compensation lawsuit until after the death of the former employee. Click my BENZENE button to learn how I preserve evidence and maximize your recovery of damages.
Let my experience, qualifications and trial skills provide the recovery you deserve.
PREMISES LIABILITY
A premises liability case requires proof of negligence and/or gross negligence. There are a number of elements to a premises liability lawsuit that do not exist in other negligence cases, making premises liability lawsuits difficult to win at trial.
In the only premises liability case I ever tried, a jury awarded my client $2.4 million after she slipped and fell on a ramp going into a commercial building and broke her ankle.
That jury argument was published in "Million Dollar Arguments."
CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS
A typical class action lawsuit is a lawsuit in which each of many clients' individual damages are not significant, but when put together they amount to a significant sum of money.
In some cases, like a mass exposure case, one clients' potential damages may be much greater than the damages of the other class members. For this reason I typically file cases with significant potential damages as individual lawsuits, because it is usually in the best interest of the client to do so. That way the clients with greater damages are able to recover for their own significant damages and they are not required to share their recoveries with clients whose damages are not as significant.
Board Certified - Personal Injury Trial Law - Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Board Certified - Civil Trial Law - Texas Board of Legal Specialization
I have been a Board Certified Personal Injury Trial Lawyer since 1994. I have been a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer since 1989. I have been a personally injury and wrongful death Trial Lawyer for over 30 years.
According to the State Bar of Texas, only 10 percent of all Texas attorneys are Board Certified in just one area of the law. As you can see, I am Board Certified in two important areas of
the law, when it comes to representing you in personal injury and wrongful death cases.
Law firms that defend against your personal injury lawsuit will have highly experienced, Board Certified Personal Injury Trial Lawyers. Don’t you think that you should have one too?
My Philosophy - Be Aggressive - Know Your Enemy
I have handled all sorts of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits, including benzene exposure cases, mass chemical exposure cases, 18 wheeler and other serious car wreck lawsuits, lawsuits arising from negligence and/or gross negligence inside and outside of chemical plants, product liability lawsuits and premises liability lawsuits.
In my 30 years of handling personal injury and wrongful death lawsuit, I have derived philosophies that have won trials and cause lawsuits to settle for large sums of money.
First of all, I have always been guided by my philosophy that
"knowledge is power."
It is my practice to learn everything possible about my opposition in
every lawsuit. My philosophy includes researching obscure laws and
facts that may prove to be valuable at some point during or before
trial.
One major component of my philosophy is being highly aggressive during the development of your lawsuit and in pre-trial discovery. I will devote a greater amount of time to your serious personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit than any other lawyer will. When I sign up a case, I go to war with the defendants and I am always focused on trying your lawsuit.
My ability to make bold and aggressive decisions during trials has also caused juries to award significant damages to my clients.
Let my winning strategies and philosophies maximize your recovery in your personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit.
Publications:
I have had extensive experience representing clients in lawsuits involving exposures to benzene and other toxic and hazardous substances.
In response to a publisher's request, I applied my expertise with
respect to OSHA and hazardous chemicals by writing a Chapter in
a book, "Civil Trial Practice: Winning Techniques of Successful Trial
Attorneys," about OSHA, CFR 1910.1200 for other lawyers to learn by.
In response to another publisher's request, I also recorded a jury
argument that I made in a lawsuit that resulted in a multimillion
dollar jury verdict. The argument was published in a nationwide
publication, the "Million Dollar Arguments" series of audio tapes,
that is published for attorneys to learn by.
I made this million dollar jury argument in a lawsuit where my client suffered a broken ankle when she slipped and fell on an exit ramp. The jury awarded $2.4 million to my client.
Let my winning experience, qualifications and strategies maximize your recovery in your personal injury and wrongful death lawsuit.
If you are a client or a potential client, you can put my number in your cell phone now and call me at 409-945-4241.
Law Offices of J. Michael (Mike) Black
2102 8th Avenue North
Texas City, Texas 77590
Click here to read about attorney qualifications and to find attorneys in Bristol.
Click here to read about attorney qualifications and to find attorneys in Glasgow.
I have successfully handled significant and complex benzene exposure cases that arose out of occupational exposures in
Texas City.
I have the qualifications, experience,knowledge and skills to represent you or anyone you know who has been diagnosed with a benzene related disease.
You can find a list of benzene related diseases on my BENZENE page.
It is very important that a benzene exposure victim be represented
by a lawyer as soon as he or she learns of his or her diagnosis.
This is because death follows soon after the diagnosis of some of
the benzene related diseases.
Immediate legal representation is imperative because I will want to file a special proceeding, discussed under the BENZENE section of my website, which will enable me to take the deposition of the exposure victim and thereby preserve his or her testimony to present to at trial.
Mass Chemical Exposure Lawsuits
A mass exposure case is typically brought by individuals from
a neighborhood who were exposed to chemicals that were released from chemical plants and/or refineries, even though they were never inside the plant or refinery.
There can be thousands of individual clients in a mass exposure lawsuit.
18 Wheeler Lawsuits
In vehicular collision or car wreck lawsuits, you must prove
that the collision was caused by the negligence and/or gross
negligence of the defendant and that you suffered damages
as a result.
It is very important that an injury victim retain me
immediately after a major vehicular collision in which he or
she was seriously injured.
I need immediate access to the motor vehicles involved in
the collision in order that they can be photographed and/or
analyzed, if necessary. The vehicle’s “black box” may hold the key to your lawsuit.
Click my COLLISION page button to read more about 18 wheeler and other car wrecks .
In one mass exposure case, I successfully represented over
3,100 individual Texas City residents.
Do not get a mass exposure lawsuit confused a class action lawsuit. The mass exposure case I just referred to was not a class action lawsuit. I determined that it was in the best interest of my clients to sue for each individual client in each client’s name.
Filing a class action lawsuit would have been less expensive, but I wanted to serve my clients’ best interests, so each client sued individually in his or her own name.
Benzene Birth Defects - Spina Bifida
Environmental Health Perspectives recently published a scientific study
confirming that the benzene causes a birth defect, spina bifida, in unborn
children of pregnant women who were exposed to benzene in their earliest
stage of pregnancy.
CLICK HERE to go to the published study in Environmental Health
Perspectives then, when that screen comes up, click PDF.
If you are not interested in reading the entire study, but you want to
read the Discussion and Conclusion sections, you can CLICK HERE.
The results of the EHP study gives rise to lawsuits that may have arisen under two sets of facts.
First and most recently, there are the women who were pregnant and exposed to benzene during the 40 day BP chemical release that occurred in April and May.
Second, there are children in Texas City who were already born with spina bifida, who's mothers were exposed to benzene during their pregnancies.
I am investigating cases where I can prove that the mother of a child with spina bifida was exposed to benzene during the early stages of her pregnancy.
The statute of limitations does not apply until two years after the child reaches majority, so your child with spina bifida could be a teenager now and still be able to sue the entity that caused your exposure to benzene.
I urge you to Click my BENZENE button to read about the legal damages I can recover for you and your child. I am highly skilled and qualified to recover significant damages for you and your family.
If you know someone whose child has spina bifida or who was pregnant and exposed to benzene during the 40 day BP release, call me immediately, so I can recover damages for her and her child.
Go to my BENZENE page and CLIENT ALERTS page to read more about the multi-million dollar damages recovery that you and your child may be entitled to receive.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
You will probably want to opt out of the BP class action lawsuit if you became pregnant during the BP release or if you were already pregnant during that release. If so, it is likely that your potential recoverable damages, if your child is born with spina bifida, will greatly exceed the damages of the people in the class action lawsuit.
If you are a client or a potential client, you can add my number to your cell phone numbers now:
409-945-4241.
Benzene Birth Defect Lawyer
Benzene Occupational Exposure Lawyer
OSHA
J. Michael (Mike) Black
2102 8th Avenue N.
Texas City, Texas 77590
(409) 945-4241
The Law Offices of
Occupational Benzene Exposure Cases and Leukemia
