Asbestos Litigation
The Bowles Rice Asbestos Litigation Team actively defends product manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, contractors, premises owners and employers in matters involving asbestos related illnesses including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis.
Our attorneys have extensive litigation experience, counseling national, regional and local clients in asbestos litigation and have successfully handled a wide array of lawsuits in state and federal courts in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia and other surrounding states. The Team also works with its clients to develop internal programs designed to proactively identify and prevent potential safety and liability issues.
By leveraging the considerable resources of the firm’s broad litigation practice and applying knowledge and experience gained from decades of handling the most difficult cases, the firm’s Asbestos Litigation Team has the capability to successfully manage and resolve the most daunting disputes.
We have the experience to analyze and defend the toughest issues, the aptitude to litigate aggressively but ethically, the written and oral skills required to communicate with clarity and provide our clients with high-caliber, cost-effective representation.
Our Experience
Our firm has long been involved in asbestos litigation defense, as it has evolved from mass trials in the 1990s to the system as it currently exists today, before the Mass Litigation Panel. The senior members of our Team are recognized by respected peer-ranking organizations including Best Lawyers, Chambers USA and Super Lawyers.
Our Successes
Our Team has developed unmatchable winning strategies to defend asbestos claims. We currently are involved in a toxic tort class action involving thousands of plaintiffs and an entire township and represent several defendants in asbestos litigation in West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.
Moreover, Bowles Rice has established an infrastructure capable of managing the overwhelming administrative demands and the complicated logistics of handling mass tort claims in a number of different jurisdictions, both state and federal.
Our firm has a long tradition of handling major toxic tort litigation, beginning in the 1980s, when Bowles Rice was involved in a large-scale chemical exposure case on behalf of one of the country’s largest chemical companies. The trial involved seven representative plaintiffs out of more than 100 claimants. After an 11-month trial, we obtained a defense verdict on all claims raised by all plaintiffs except for one nominal exposure claim on behalf of one plaintiff.
Since that time, we have successfully defended numerous toxic tort cases, which included claims of personal injury/death, medical monitoring and property damage.
Additionally, our firm has defended a respirator manufacturer in several silica civil actions throughout West Virginia, and we succeeded in dismissal of virtually every plaintiff, based on procedural flaw of improper venue for out-of-state plaintiffs.
Our Commitment
Our attorneys strive to carefully and comprehensively analyze the issues and work closely with our clients to identify reasonable solutions and goals and develop sound strategies for achieving them. In any complex litigation matter for which we provide representation, we assemble a team of lawyers and support staff with a skill set matched to the tasks at hand, conduct research and manage data using first-class technology, and seek the experts and consultants who are best able to assist us in analyzing the issues and effectively presenting them in court.
We work diligently to keep our clients fully informed and listen carefully and respond promptly to their questions and concerns. We efficiently manage the often-substantial cost of complex litigation, while meeting the needs of the case.
At all times, we seek to fulfill the ultimate mission of Bowles Rice: “to strive for our clients’ success as our own.”