Product Liability & Mass Torts

Our lawyers have spent decades successfully defending clients against extraordinarily challenging product liability claims in state and federal courts across the country, in the most difficult jurisdictions, against some of the most prominent plaintiffs’ lawyers. We handle individual lawsuits, mass tort/serial litigation, consolidations, and massive multi-jurisdictional claims in dozens of states and across the federal court system, from pre-filing negotiated settlements to discovery, trials, and appeals. RSHC lawyers are committed to providing our clients, and the products they make, with a strategic, thorough, and tailored defense regardless of the scale or nature of the injuries alleged.

RSHC product liability and mass tort lawyers lead national defense efforts across jurisdictions and coordinate local counsel to defend our clients anywhere and everywhere they face accusations. We execute strategic litigation plans that provide real defenses for our clients before judges and juries. That preparedness gives our clients the freedom to explore creative settlements, on their terms. Those settlement options include, when appropriate, establishing independent administrative structures to resolve future claims. We have long experience negotiating imaginative solutions to resolve cases outside the tort system. We know that process inside out. Our lawyers are highly trained negotiators and dealmakers. RSHC engages in proactive education programs on the legal, scientific, and medical issues presented in our cases, as well as negotiation theory, training, and techniques. Our lawyers have been trained by FBI Crisis Negotiation Team members, Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation, and federal dispute resolution programs.

Mass tort cases almost invariably turn on scientific evidence, and we have extensive experience mastering technical nuances of areas of medical causation concerning cancer, brain injuries, lung disease, amputations, burns, paralysis, and strangulations. Our lawyers have managed dockets of cases involving a variety of substances, including various chemicals, radiation, benzene, diacetyl, methane, fertilizers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, silica, trichloroethylene, methane, wood dust, and asbestos.

Clients seek our counsel at various stages of a product’s life cycle, from research and development to labeling and packaging. We also help them address remedial measures where necessary, including handling recalls with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, subsequent document and information requests, and communications with the public. We share our clients’ goal of making great products that meet all reasonable expectations for safety.

The array of products our lawyers have defended is vast, including medical devices, aircraft, children’s products, electronics, heavy equipment, agricultural, automotive, construction materials, engine, and metal and woodworking gear. Our lawyers have defended claims related to consumer goods, including infant car seats, household furniture, food flavorings, table saws, solvents, industrial chemicals, window coverings, and even cosmetics.

We have worked at every stage of litigation, from pre-filing negotiated settlements, through discovery, trials, and on to appeals. Our appellate work has resulted in scores of opinions that shape the law on outcome-determinative issues in key jurisdictions. We have coordinated national defense efforts on behalf of our clients, and we know how to create and manage teams of local counsel. We know how to create teams of local and national counsel — we know how to coordinate and be coordinated. And we know how to defend our clients anywhere and everywhere they face accusations.

We know the plaintiffs’ bar, and they know us. We have credibility with them. They know our word is good, that we do not posture, and that we will not blink under pressure — and we win.