By John Cooper, Railroad Accident Injury Lawyer
The American Association of Justice (AAJ) plans to publish an article analyzing the $8.6 million jury verdict obtained by firm FELA lawyer, Rick Shapiro. There is a lot of controversy swirling around the verdict since the defense lawyers for CSX are attempting to reduce the jury award to $3.2 million.
The defense lawyers argue that $3.2 million is appropriate since our client, Mr. Payne, who passed away from lung cancer, was a smoker and should be held contributorily negligent.
This is a false argument since, under FELA law, if a railroad company is found to have violated a safety regulation, contributory negligence cannot be used as an attempt to reduce a jury award. Our client was exposed to toxic carcinogens like diesel exhaust fumes, radioactive scrap, and asbestos which violated two safety regulations under the Locomotive Inspection Act. That is why the jury awarded our client $8.6 million.
Unfortunately, this law was not adhered to and the award was reduced to $3.2 million.
Keep in mind that industrial hygienists who testified in the case concluded that CSX knew the radiation that our client was exposed to at work was hazardous, but CSX stayed purposefully ignorant of its workers’ exposure.
In addition, an oncologist who testified said that although smoking was a factor, all of the carcinogens caused the cancer and it was impossible to break down each substance’s contribution.
Our firm is fighting this baseless decision and hope to have the original jury award recognized and enforced.
About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is an injury law firm whose attorneys have long histories of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases. Attorneys will our firm have served as chairmen of the Railroad section of the American Association for Justice. One of our attorneys wrote a major attorney’s encyclopedia section on railroad safety litigation. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Our offices are in Virginia Beach and Hampton, Virginia (VA), and Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC). Our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC, and have handled hundreds of railroad injury and FELA cases throughout the eastern United States. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. We would like to send you one of our FREE reports about railroad injury and FELA cases, such as Dos and Don’ts When Injured at a Railroad — Yours FELA Rights and What Railroad Claim Agents Won’t Tell You (But You Must Know). We provide free initial confidential injury case consultations, so call us toll free at (800) 752-0042 before giving any statement or talking to a railroad claims agent. Our injury attorneys also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.
