Services Toxic Tort Litigation

Kean Miller has unsurpassed expertise across the full spectrum of toxic tort litigation, including the defense of claims for environmental contamination and remediation, short-term and long-term exposure to hazardous substances, such as asbestos, benzene, silica, H2S, SO2, NOx, chlorine, ammonia, and other chemicals. Our toxic tort practice ranges from the defense of small, single plaintiff/single defendant claims to representation in complex, multi-party claims and large class actions involving tens of thousands of claimants. We leverage our knowledge and experience with local legal and business communities to help clients assess, manage, and resolve toxic tort liabilities.

We represent business and industrial clients in toxic tort litigation involving claims for personal injury, including fear of future injury or illness, and alleged exposures to substances on site and off site via air, water, groundwater, or soil. We also have experience with waste disposal sites and railcar, tanker truck, and barge spills, fires, and explosions.

We use state-of-the art technology for organizing, managing, and litigating complex toxic tort cases. Our work with experts in toxic tort cases, includes industrial hygiene, hydrogeology, analytical chemistry, process chemical engineering, air dispersion modeling, epidemiology, toxicology, and a variety of medical specialties. Our representation has included representing joint defense groups in a number of cases. The firm has been successful in resolving a substantial number of cases through trials and mediations and has successfully negotiated class action settlements in state and federal courts.

Representative Experience

• Representation of a forest product company in a suit by neighborhood plaintiffs alleging exposure to various chemicals from a former facility in Plaquemine, Louisiana. The chemicals involved included vinyl chloride, ammonium nitrate, and other toxic substances. The claims centered on fear of cancer from air contaminant exposure.
• Representation of numerous petrochemical companies in premises and product benzene exposure claims.
• Defense of claims of alleged exposures to hazardous or toxic substances manufactured or sold by business and industrial clients.
• Defense of claims of alleged exposures to a variety of materials, including silica, H2S, SO2, NOx, chlorine, ammonia, phosgene, vinyl chloride, hydrocarbon emissions, pesticide manufacturing emissions, EDC, and other chemicals.
• Counsel to a major appliance manufacturer in a product liability case involving allegations of brain damage and other health problems resulting from alleged exposure to excess levels of carbon monoxide emitted from an oven. The case was resolved through mediation.
• Defended national chemical manufacturers in confined space nitrogen asphyxiation cases.
• Alleged environmental exposures to substances on site and off site via air, water, groundwater, or soil.
• Class actions for exposures, both long-term and short-term, from industrial facilities or waste disposal sites.
• Class actions for alleged injuries in neighborhoods or communities surrounding industrial facilities that have experienced major incidents, such as explosions, fires, or accidental release.
• Defended global pesticide manufacturer and distributors in multi-plaintiff lawsuits, including trials to verdict.
• Counsel for international manufacturer in numerous product liability cases in which the plaintiffs allege injuries as a result of exposure to various chemicals.
• Defended national chemical manufacturers in confined space nitrogen asphyxiation cases.
• Railcar explosions.
• Transportation accidents.