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RPWB Announces the Passing of J. David Butler

It is with great sorrow and heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our friend, colleague and law partner, J. David Butler on September 30, 2023, after a valiant three-year battle with cancer. He was a friend to all and was, quite simply, the nicest guy one could have the pleasure of knowing.

Dave devoted his 30-year legal career to representing individuals across the country who suffered harm from corporate wrongdoing. Dave was a fierce advocate for asbestos and mesothelioma victims and was known for his compassion, integrity and dedication to his clients and their loved ones. Over the last three years, Dave selflessly and bravely continued helping other families seek justice as he underwent cancer treatments himself.

Above all, Dave was a kind and generous family man who put his loved ones and friends before himself. He had no love greater than that for his wife, Kim, and three daughters – Elizabeth, Hannah and Rebecca. He was a passionate Florida State fan and was most at home when grilling for his family on game day.

Working with and knowing someone like Dave is a rare gift, and he will be missed tremendously at RPWB. We send our love and condolences to his family and many friends.

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    Johnson & Johnson Talc Bankruptcy Petition Dismissal is a Win for Mesothelioma and Ovarian Cancer Victims

    mesothelioma attorney Dave Butler

    By Dave Butler

    In a significant victory for injured consumers, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the bankruptcy petition of a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that holds the company’s liabilities for claims brought by thousands of consumers injured by exposure to asbestos-contaminated talc in Johnson & Johnson products.  The dismissal, on January 30, 2023, ends for now J&J’s efforts to avoid full responsibility for the claims of those suffering from mesothelioma, ovarian, and other cancers caused by its asbestos-contaminated products.

    Through a series of corporate transactions under a unique Texas law, Johnson & Johnson created two new entities with the intention to funnel its liabilities for claims brought by thousands of injured talc claimants into a new entity which it named LTL Management; while simultaneously funneling all of its profitable business into another entity.  Two days after its formation and freshly saddled with J&J’s talc liabilities, LTL Management filed a petition under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code claiming that its talc liabilities placed it in financial distress sufficient to allow it to seek the protections afforded by U.S. bankruptcy laws.

    Injured talc victims sought dismissal of the bankruptcy petition, but were denied by a federal court in New Jersey.  Victims appealed that denial to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the J&J subsidiary had not demonstrated that its petition was filed in good faith and should be dismissed.

    In its opinion the court found that “At base level, LTL, whose employees are all J&J employees, is essentially a shell company “formed,” almost exclusively, “to manage and defend thousands of talc-related claims” while insulating at least the assets in a non-bankrupt entity.  The court went on to find that “Because LTL was not in financial distress, it cannot show its petition served a valid bankruptcy purpose and was filed in good faith under” the United States Bankruptcy Code.  In conclusion, the court held that:

    Our decision dismisses the bankruptcy filing of a company created to file for bankruptcy. It restricts J&J’s ability to move thousands of claims out of trial courts and into bankruptcy court so they may be resolved, in J&J’s words, “equitably” and “efficiently.” But given Chapter 11’s ability to redefine fundamental rights of third parties, only those facing financial distress can call on bankruptcy’s tools to do so. Applied here, while LTL faces substantial future talc liability, its funding backstop plainly mitigates any financial distress foreseen on its petition date.

    Read the court’s full opinion here.

    RPWB continues to seek justice for victims of exposure to Johnson & Johnson talc products. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma after exposure to Johnson & Johnson talc products, please call us at u 1-866-594-8765 or fill out the form on this page to begin your case review.

    Dave Butler has 30 years of experience representing mesothelioma victims and their families in cases throughout the United States. He can be reached at 1-866-594-8765 or by emailing dbutler@rpwb.com.

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      With Sixteen Attorneys Named to Best Lawyers List, RPWB is the Top-Listed Product Liability and Class Action Law Firm in the State

      Sixteen RPWB attorneys were selected for the 2023 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® list for numerous practice areas including personal injury, product liability, mass tort, class action and medical malpractice litigation.

      This marks the sixth consecutive year in which RPWB is the top-listed plaintiff law firm in South Carolina for both product liability litigation and class action & mass tort litigation.

      RPWB member Beth Burke was selected as personal injury lawyer of the year in Charleston, South Carolina. In addition to working on medical malpractice and personal injury cases, Burke serves in the leadership of the national lawsuit against 3M for supplying military personnel with defective earplugs. She also represents Marine Corps veterans who developed cancer and other serious conditions after consuming contaminated water at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987.

      Beth Burke is personal injury lawyer of the year in Charleston, S.C.

       

      Here is the full list of RPWB attorneys on the 2023 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®:

      Mount Pleasant, S.C.

      Nina Fields Britt – Mass Tort/Class Actions Litigation

      Beth Burke – Mass Tort/Class Actions, Personal Injury & Product Liability Litigation

      Jerry Evans – Mass Tort/Class Actions & Product Liability Litigation

      Kim Keevers Palmer – Mass Tort/Class Actions Litigation

      Greg Lofstead – Product Liability & Mass Tort/Class Actions Litigation

      Christiaan Marcum – Mass Tort/Class Actions & Product Liability Litigation

      Tom Rogers – Medical Malpractice Law & Personal Injury Litigation

      Hoyt Rowell – Healthcare Law & Mass Tort/Class Actions Litigation

      Chris Tuck – Mass Tort/Class Actions, Product Liability Litigation & Qui Tam Law

      Ed Westbrook – Mass Tort/Class Actions Litigation

      Bobby Wood – Mass Tort/Class Actions & Product Liability Litigation

      Charleston, S.C.

      Michael Brickman – Antitrust Law, Mass Tort/Class Actions & Securities Litigation

      Charles Patrick, Jr. – Mass Tort/Class Actions & Product Liability Litigation

      Aiken, S.C.

      Dave Butler – Personal Injury & Product Liability Litigation

      Ken Wilson – Personal Injury & Product Liability Litigation

      Edwardsville, Ill.

      Jena Borden – Mass Tort/Class Actions & Product Liability Litigation

      Ones to Watch

      Three younger attorneys at the firm are recognized as “Ones to Watch,” a distinction for up-and-coming attorneys.

      • Chuck Dukes is listed for antitrust law, commercial litigation, mass tort/class action litigation, personal injury litigation and product liability litigation.
      • Matt Nickles is honored for personal injury and product liability litigation.
      • TAC Hargrove was selected for commercial litigation following his work on litigation associated with the failed V.C. Summer nuclear expansion project.

      About Best Lawyers

      Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers® has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. More than 116,000 industry leading lawyers are eligible to vote (from around the world), and we have received more than 17 million evaluations on the legal abilities of other lawyers based on their specific practice areas around the world. For the 2023 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, more than 12.2 million votes were analyzed. Lawyers are not required nor allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.

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        EPA Proposes Asbestos Ban

        Many people do not realize it, but asbestos is not banned in the United States despite the fact it kills thousands of Americans each year by causing mesothelioma cancer and other forms of lung disease.

        That might be about to change. The EPA has announced it intends to ban the known carcinogen using new authority granted to the agency by the 2016 Toxic Substances Control Act. On Tuesday, April 5, 2022, the EPA announced that it will move forward with an asbestos ban.

        The EPA last attempted to ban asbestos in 1989, but a federal court shot the effort down, an escapade that highlighted the toothlessness of the original 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. Similar attempts in Congress also sputtered, most recently in 2020, when the bipartisan measure nearly made it to the House floor before falling apart with competing accusations about who was responsible for the failure.

        “EPA’s proposed rule is a strong step forward in eliminating exposure to a substance that is killing 40,000 Americans each year,” Linda Reinstein, president of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, said in a statement.

        Under the proposed rule, the agency would ban uses for chrysotile, the one remaining type of asbestos fiber still in use in the United States. One of the major current uses for asbestos in America is the chlorine manufacturing process. In 2021, chemical companies imported 100 tons of chrysotile asbestos from Brazil. In prior years, they also imported from Russia. The 11 active chemical plants that utilize asbestos also used around 220 tons of asbestos they had previously stockpiled. Other chemical plants no longer use asbestos in the chlorine manufacturing process.

        Under EPA’s proposed rule, the remaining chlorine plants that still import raw asbestos would have two years to stop using asbestos filters.

        Sheet gaskets that contain asbestos would be banned after two years. Most remaining products that contain asbestos — oilfield brake blocks, aftermarket automotive brakes and linings, other “vehicle friction products,” and other types of commercial gaskets — would be banned after 180 days.

        The proposed asbestos ban is set to be published in the Federal Register, which kicks off a 60-day public comment period. The Biden administration hopes to have the ban finalized by November.

        The ban isn’t the end of the EPA’s review of asbestos, however. The agency says it intends to look at other asbestos fibers as well as examine asbestos present in talcum powder products, which has caused even those who never worked around asbestos to develop mesothelioma. Asbestos and talc often are located near one another in the natural environment, which can cause contamination in products like baby powder and cosmetics. These asbestos victims are often younger than the blue-collar workers exposed through the late 1970s at their job sites.

        RPWB lawyers have helped thousands of mesothelioma patients nationwide get financial compensation from asbestos manufacturers since 1976, when we worked on the first successful product liability case against the asbestos companies. We have seen first-hand the devastating health effects caused by asbestos, and applaud all efforts to eliminate asbestos from the United States.

        If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma or another form of asbestos-caused lung cancer, please give us a call anytime at 1-866-594-8765 or fill out the contact form on this page.

        For more information about mesothelioma, please visit our Mesothelioma Info Center.

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          Asbestos Awareness Week Shines Light on Mesothelioma, a Cancer that Continues to Devastate

          The first week of April 2022 is Asbestos Awareness Week in the United States. Members of both houses of Congress unanimously approved resolutions making the designation.

          Once ubiquitous in worksites and homes throughout the country, we are still experiencing the negative health effects of asbestos decades after its peak use. Mesothelioma, the insidious cancer caused by asbestos, can take up to 50 years to manifest. When it does, many patients have less than two years to live, although we have seen some promising new treatments recently.

          For more than 40 years, lawyers at RPWB have worked on behalf of mesothelioma patients to get them the financial compensation they deserve from asbestos manufacturers who knew about the health consequences of the products they were selling.

          It is difficult and heartbreaking to see the men and women who built this great country die from mesothelioma due to the negligence of companies that put profits over people by hiding the ugly truth about asbestos.

          While we still see a great number of cases from older people who worked in asbestos-laden industrial worksites through the 1970s, we are now also litigating cases involving much younger individuals who have developed mesothelioma from talcum powder use. This includes young mothers and otherwise healthy people who face a very dire mesothelioma prognosis at the prime of their lives.

          Sadly, asbestos and the health consequences of it will still be with us for many more years. Contrary to common belief, asbestos is not banned in the United States and many products still contain talcum powder, which is derived from a mineral that often co-exists with asbestos in the environment.

          As asbestos lawyers, we focus on helping mesothelioma patients and their families maximize the financial compensation they get from asbestos companies that manufactured the products that caused the cancer.

          Our role as mesothelioma lawyers, however, goes beyond that.

          We hold asbestos companies responsible for the human suffering they caused for many decades, even after they knew about the devastating health consequences. It is never acceptable to value profits more than the health and well-being of people. The asbestos industry is rightfully the poster child for what happens when we do. We hope that our work will deter other types of manufacturers from producing products they know to be harmful.

          This Asbestos Awareness Week, we are remembering the thousands of mesothelioma victims we have helped in our 45-year history. We remain as committed to helping mesothelioma patients today as we did back in 1976, when our founding member Charles Patrick worked on the first successful product liability lawsuit against asbestos companies.

          We hope you never need our services, but we stand ready to assist you if you do. If you receive a mesothelioma diagnosis, give us a call anytime at 1-866-594-8765 or fill out the form on this website. In most cases, we are available to meet with you at your home or another comfortable place within just a few days of calling.

          To learn more about mesothelioma, please visit our Mesothelioma Info Center here.

          Here is the full text of the Asbestos Awareness Week Resolution:

          RESOLUTION

          Designating the first week of April 2022 as ‘‘National Asbestos Awareness Week’’.

          Whereas dangerous asbestos fibers are invisible and cannot be smelled or tasted;

          Whereas the inhalation of airborne asbestos fibers can cause significant damage;

          Whereas asbestos fibers can cause cancer, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, and other health problems;

          Whereas symptoms of asbestos-related diseases can take between 10 and 50 years to present themselves;

          Whereas the projected life expectancy for an individual diagnosed with mesothelioma is between 6 and 24 months;

          Whereas little is known about late-stage treatment of asbestos-related diseases, and there is no cure for those diseases;

          Whereas early detection of asbestos-related diseases might give some patients increased treatment options and might improve the prognoses of those patients;

          Whereas, although the consumption of asbestos within the United States has been substantially reduced, the United States continues to consume tons of the fibrous mineral each year for use in certain products;

          Whereas thousands of people in the United States have died from asbestos-related diseases, and thousands more die every year from those diseases;

          Whereas, although individuals continue to be exposed to asbestos, safety measures relating to, and the prevention of, asbestos exposure have significantly reduced the incidence of asbestos-related diseases and can further reduce the incidence of those diseases;

          Whereas thousands of workers in the United States face significant asbestos exposure, which has been a cause of occupational cancer;

          Whereas a significant percentage of victims of asbestos-related diseases were exposed to asbestos on naval ships and in shipyards;

          Whereas asbestos was used in the construction of a significant number of office buildings and public facilities built before 1975;

          Whereas people in the small community of Libby, Montana, suffer from asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma, at a significantly higher rate than people in the United States as a whole; and

          Whereas the designation of a ‘‘National Asbestos Awareness Week’’ will raise public awareness about the prevalence of asbestos-related diseases and the dangers of asbestos exposure: Now, therefore, be it

          Resolved, That the Senate—

          1. designates the first week of April 2022 as ‘‘National Asbestos Awareness Week’’;
          2. urges the Surgeon General to warn and educate people about the public health issue of asbestos exposure, which may be hazardous to their health; and
          3. respectfully requests that the Secretary of the Senate transmit a copy of this resolution to the Office of the Surgeon General.

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            Top-Listed Firm for Personal Injury, Product Liability and Mass Torts

            RPWB is the top-listed plaintiff law firm in South Carolina for personal injury, product liability and mass tort litigation in the 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®.

            In all, 14 RPWB attorneys were named Best Lawyers in their respective practice areas. Two other RPWB lawyers were named “Ones to Watch,” a designation for younger, up-and-coming attorneys.

            Also in the 2021 edition of Best Lawyers, two RPWB attorneys were honored as lawyers of the year in Charleston, SC.

            Elizabeth Middleton Burke honored for her work on product liability litigation. Burke is one of the leaders in the national product liability litigation against 3M for manufacturing faulty earplugs for service members.

            Thomas Rogers received the distinction for his work on medical malpractice cases

            RPWB’s Best Lawyers

            Jena L. Borden

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

            Michael J. Brickman

            • Litigation – Securities
            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

            Nina Fields Britt

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

            Elizabeth M. Burke

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
            • Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
            • Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

            J. David Butler

            • Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
            • Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

            Jerry Hudson Evans

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
            • Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

            Gregory A. Lofstead

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
            • Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

            Christiaan Marcum

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
            • Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

            Kimberly Keevers Palmer

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

            Charles W. Patrick, Jr.

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
            • Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

            Thomas D. Rogers

            • Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs
            • Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs

            A. Hoyt Rowell III

            • Health Care Law
            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

            T. Christopher Tuck

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
            • Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

            Edward J. Westbrook  

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

            Kenneth J. Wilson

            • Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
            • Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

            Robert S. Wood

            • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
            • Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

            RPWB’s ‘Ones to Watch’

            D. Charles Dukes

            • Antitrust Law
            • Commercial Litigation

            Matthew A. Nickles

            • Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
            • Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

            Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers® has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. Almost 108,000 industry leading lawyers are eligible to vote (from around the world), and we have received over 13 million evaluations on the legal abilities of other lawyers based on their specific practice areas around the world. For the 2021 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America©, 9.4 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in more than 67,000 leading lawyers being included in the new edition. Lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.

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              RPWB is a 2020 U.S. News & World Report Best Law Firm

              CHARLESTON, S.C. – U.S. News & World Report has named Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook & Brickman as a 2020 Best Law Firm for the firm’s work in personal injury, mass torts and class actions, product liability, medical malpractice, securities litigation, healthcare law and railroad law.

              U.S. News’ announcement came on the heels of the 2020 Best Lawyers in America list, in which 16 RPWB attorneys were recognized for work in their respective practice and geographic areas. This included a Personal Injury Lawyer of the Year designation for Dave Butler, an asbestos lawyer who works across the country helping people with mesothelioma lawsuits from his office in Aiken, South Carolina.

              RPWB was the top-listed plaintiff law firm in South Carolina for work on product liability cases, class action lawsuits and mass torts. In 2019, the firm had the most lawyers on the list in the entire country for mass torts and class actions.

              RPWB was founded in 2002, when four of the six shareholders of the very successful law firm Ness, Motley, Loadholt, Richardson & Poole formed a new firm to focus on complex litigation throughout the United States.

              RPWB attorneys regularly hold leadership positions on class actions and other mass torts across the nation. In 2019, RPWB lawyers were named to the leadership of national lawsuits, including the 3M Combat Arms Earplug MDL and the Aqueous Film-Forming Foams Product Liability MDL.

              The firm remains deeply rooted in work to help mesothelioma victims. Terry Richardson, a founding member of RPWB, was one of the first attorneys in the nation to win a mesothelioma lawsuit against asbestos manufacturers. Since then, RPWB has successfully represented mesothelioma victims throughout the United States. Several attorneys at the firm played pivotal roles in the fight against tobacco companies in the 1990s that led to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. RPWB is currently helping six Canadian provinces in their fight to recoup money spent on treating smoking-related illnesses.

              In addition to national litigation, RPWB also works on individual lawsuits in a variety of practice areas, including: wrongful death, catastrophic personal injury, truck accidents, railroad accidents, construction defects, medical malpractice, mesothelioma and other occupational lung disease, whistleblower & qui tam, nursing home abuse, pharmaceutical drugs and medical device cases.

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                16 RPWB Lawyers Selected For Best Lawyers List

                CHARLESTON – RPWB was once again the top-listed plaintiff law firm in South Carolina for product liability cases as well as mass tort and class action lawsuits in the 2020 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, which was released in August 2019.

                In total, 16 RPWB attorneys were designated as 2020 Best Lawyers, including David Butler, who was chosen as the personal injury lawyer of the year in the Augusta, Ga. metropolitan area. Butler, who works out of Aiken, S.C., has devoted much of his career representing asbestos victims who have developed mesothelioma, but he also works on other personal injury and product liability cases.

                Here are the RPWB attorneys named to the 2020 Best Lawyers list:

                Michael J. Brickman
                Litigation – Securities
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                Elizabeth M. Burke
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
                Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                David Butler
                Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
                Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                Blair Hahn
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                Gregory A. Lofstead
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                Christiaan Marcum
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                Kim Keevers Palmer
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                Terry E. Richardson, Jr.
                Business Organizations (including LLCs and Partnerships)
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
                Railroad Law

                Thomas D. Rogers
                Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs
                Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs

                Hoyt Rowell III
                Health Care Law
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                Brady Thomas
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
                Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                Christopher Tuck
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                Charles W. Patrick, Jr.
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                Edward J. Westbrook
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                Kenneth J. Wilson
                Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                Bobby Wood
                Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. Almost 94,000 industry leading lawyers are eligible to vote (from around the world), and we have received over 11 million evaluations on the legal abilities of other lawyers based on their specific practice areas around the world. For the 2020 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America, 8.3 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in more than 62,000 leading lawyers being included in the new edition. Lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”

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                  Supreme Court ruling will help asbestos victims

                  By Dave Butler

                  The United States Supreme Court delivered an unexpectedly good opinion for asbestos victims last week.

                  For years, equipment makers (including those who make pumps, valves, turbines and boilers) have argued that they only make and sell metal products and cannot be held responsible for asbestos products made by third parties and later applied to their equipment (e.g. gaskets, insulation, etc.). This argument is known as the bare metal defense. As an asbestos attorney, this argument is particularly maddening because these companies know that the equipment they manufactured required asbestos to operate properly.

                  However, in Air & Liquid Systems Corp. et al v. Devries, the Supreme Court ruled that in a maritime tort context, a product manufacturer has a duty to warn when:

                  • its product requires the incorporation of a part,
                  • the manufacturer knows or has reason to know that the integrated product is likely to be dangerous for its intended uses, and
                  • the manufacturer has no reason to believe that the product’s users will realize that danger.

                  The opinion – written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh along with Justices Roberts, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan – will particularly help Navy veterans and others who developed mesothelioma as a result of asbestos exposure at sea. We also suspect the opinion may carry some weight on dry land as well.

                  To read the full opinion click here.

                  Dave Butler, who has worked as an asbestos attorney since 1993, helps people diagnosed with mesothelioma throughout the United States. For more information about our asbestos and mesothelioma work, please click here or fill out the contact form on this page.

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                    RPWB is a 2019 U.S. News Best Law Firm

                    CHARLESTON, S.C. – Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook & Brickman was named a 2019 Best Law Firm by U.S. News & World Report, recognizing the plaintiff firm for its work on mass torts and class actions, product liability, securities, healthcare law, medical malpractice and personal injury lawsuits.

                    With 16 lawyers listed on the underlying Best Lawyers in America list, RPWB was the top-listed plaintiff law firm in the country for its work on mass torts and class actions. RPWB was the top-listed plaintiff law firm in South Carolina for mass torts, personal injury and product liability.

                    Four RPWB attorneys were new to the list: Brady Thomas, Chris Tuck, Bobby Wood and Ken Wilson. RPWB founding member Ed Westbrook was named Lawyer of the Year for class actions and mass torts in the Charleston-area.

                    Here are the RPWB attorneys named to the 2019 Best Lawyers list:

                    Michael Brickman
                    Litigation – Securities
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                    Elizabeth Middleton Burke
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                    Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
                    Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                    David Butler
                    Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
                    Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                    Blair Hahn
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                    Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                    Greg Lofstead
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                    Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                    Christiaan Marcum
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                    Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                    Kim Keevers Palmer
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                    Charles Patrick
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                    Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                    Terry Richardson
                    Business Litigation
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                    Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
                    Railroad Law

                    Tom Rogers
                    Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs
                    Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs

                    Hoyt Rowell
                    Health Care Law
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                    Brady Thomas
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs
                    Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs

                    Chris Tuck
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                    Ed Westbrook
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                    Ken Wilson
                    Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

                    Bobby Wood
                    Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs

                    About RPWB

                    RPWB was formed in 2002 as a collective of talented legal minds who focus on complex litigation throughout the United States. The firm is well-respected for its work on mass torts and product liability cases, including mesothelioma lawsuits and pharmaceutical litigation. RPWB attorneys regularly hold leadership positions on class actions and other mass torts across the nation.

                    RPWB founding member Terry Richardson was among the first attorneys in the nation to successfully hold asbestos manufacturers liable for causing mesothelioma cancer. Several attorneys at the firm played pivotal roles in the fight against tobacco companies in the 1990s that led to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Some of those same attorneys are currently assisting six Canadian provinces seeking to recoup public healthcare spending on smoking-related illnesses.

                    In addition to national litigation, RPWB also represents individual people in many practice areas, including: catastrophic personal injury, truck accidents, railroad accidents, construction defects, medical malpractice, mesothelioma and other occupational lung disease, whistleblower & qui tam, nursing home abuse, pharmaceutical drugs and medical device cases.

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