In just the past decade, the Law Offices of W.
James Chandler, P.L.L.C. has
obtained settlements and verdicts for our clients in selected cases
that total in excess of $84,000,000.00.
These results were produced from some
of these fact situations:
- A negligently designed pool filter exploded under
pressure, causing blindness and brain damage to the homeowner.
Litigation continued for 6 years until the case settled the night
before jury selection.. Over $350,000 was spent in trial preparation.
- Defective brakes on an improperly designed fork
lift crushed the foot of the operator and resulted in his total
disability. This trial involved experts from 5 states.
- A negligently engineered transmission system on
a bulldozer resulted in serious injury to a yard worker when the
machine lurched forward, pinning him against a dumpster. A mechanic
was located who testified that he had warned against this transmission
system but was told by the company to “just jury-rig it”
because of the costs of a proper repair.
- A scaffolding system separated because of an improperly
welded bracket, causing disabling injury to a mason working on
the third level.
- An examining table in a doctor’s office
malfunctioned due to a hydraulic problem, causing a severe laceration
to the patient’s leg and a subsequent amputation.
- A poor connection from the water source to an
ice maker in a restaurant leaked water onto the floor. The client
suffered severe orthopedic injuries in the fall. Interviews with
tenants in the same office building revealed 6 people had complained
about the condition 3 weeks before this injury.
- A surgical staple designed to retain tissue connection
at the site of a gastric bypass failed upon installation, causing
the contents of the small intestine to drain into the stomach
cavity. Terrible complications followed and the patient barely
survived.
- Brake drums on a dump truck were improperly serviced,
resulting in a lock down of the truck in the travel lane of an
interstate highway. The client struck the rear of the truck whiling
attempting a lane change. He later died from his injuries. Engineers
and accident reconstruction experts were used extensively at trial
to establish the liability of the trucking company.
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- A city bus, operating on the wrong route
with a malfunctioning speedometer and horn and driven by an unsupervised
trainee driver, rear ended a pickup truck, causing brain damage
to the occupants.
Six weeks of trial produced a very favorable result.
- A pest control operator, using outdated and malfunctioning
equipment, misapplied a toxic pesticide to a residence, causing
neurological injury to the family living there..
- A car with minimum insurance coverage turned left
into the client’s path, causing injuries that resulted in
total disability and the need for lifetime care. Through our investigation
it was determined that the at fault driver was returning to her
company’s office, having picked up the morning mail. This
information led to the discovery of a $5,000,000 insurance policy.
- A woman who had lived in her apartment for 3 days
slipped in water produced by a clogged toilet, severely fracturing
her pelvis and leg. Our investigation disclosed 5 complaints of
the same problem from former tenants and an engineering inspection
revealed an inadequately sized pipe that caused the backup.
- Sheriff’s Deputies in a small rural town
organized a drug raid on a suspected dealer. Even Barney Fife
would have been embarrassed by the tactics. The deputies came
rushing onto the property without any identification, no uniforms
or marked cars and no search warrant. A gun battle broke out.
A next door neighbor heard the gunfire, came to his front door
with a shotgun to protect his property and was shot point blank
by deputies who mistook him for a criminal. Fortunately he survived.
The 3 week trial in Federal Court produced a large compensatory
as well as punitive damages award.
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- A trainee air traffic controller failed
to notice two private planes on the same coordinates 18 minutes
before the mid-air collision. Both planes had filed flight plans
with their home airports but through a controller error, one was
not entered into the system. 3 people died.
- A pilot was rendered paraplegic when the stabilizer
unit on his aircraft failed following repairs performed 3 days
previous.
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- The client, chief of anesthesiology at a major
hospital, was ordered into improper physical therapy following
rotator cuff surgery, disrupting the repair and disabling the
client from the practice of medicine.
- Accounting errors and deceptive marketing
practices resulted in the overselling of time share units at a
major resort to more than 86,000 people.
- We are currently investigating a multi-million
dollar tax avoidance scheme sold by a national consulting firm
to a group of wealthy individuals. The plan did not meet IRS requirements
and resulted in massive interest assessments and penalties against
our clients by the government.
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- The client, having lost his home to fire,
was falsely accused of arson by the insurance adjuster. That rumor
was spread throughout the client’s home town. Litigation
against the insurance company for fraud and bad faith resulted
in a punitive damages award of 3 times the policy limit.
- Allstate Insurance Company refused payment of
a death claim of a passenger under an uninsured motorist policy.
The verdict ordering payment of the policy limit was trebled and
all attorneys fees and costs were ordered paid by Allstate because
of its unfair and deceptive trade practices. Allstate lost all
appeals.
- Client severely injured in a car crash. Litigation
over available uninsured motorist policies produced a million
dollar recovery with the issue of additional coverages currently
on appeal.
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- A Georgia motel chain provided inadequate
security for its customers in a high crime area. The client was
attacked outside his room by a criminal who had just been thrown
out of the motel’s bar for assaulting another customer with
a bottle. The police were not called because minors were drinking
in the bar at the time. The client suffered complete hearing loss
and a brain injury in the attack.
- A construction company and an engineering firm
hired by a city to install a 54" water main on a busy highway
completely failed to follow the traffic control plans drawn for
the project. The client was critically injured and totally disabled
when he became confused by the traffic pattern at night and struck
a bulldozer parked in the roadway. The turning point in this lawsuit
was the discovery of a letter from the city to the contractor,
written 4 months before the accident and concealed for 2 years,
which read: “The traffic controls must be followed as drawn
or a motorist will likely suffer serious injury.”
- A refrigeration technician entered a hotel under
construction carrying the back of a large cooling unit. He could
not see his feet. Another subcontractor, in violation of OSHA
regulations and safety codes, had removed the cover from an HVAC
duct and the client fell through, severely injuring his knee and
back. 5 operations followed. Investigation revealed that the cover
had been removed to install the duct work but the worker left
the job at quitting time without reinstalling the cover and that
night was arrested for his 3rd DWI and imprisoned. He never returned
to the job.
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The Law Offices of W.
James Chandler, P.L.L.C. is
proud of its record of protecting the rights of injured persons
no matter how complex or difficult the issues each case presents.
No trial attorney can guarantee success in every set of facts. But
the attorneys of W.
James Chandler, P.L.L.C.
will guarantee that we will aggressively pursue
the rights of each client through negotiation if possible but through
litigation if necessary.
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