ENVIRONMENTAL AND TOXIC TORT LIABILITY

From benzene to breast implants, from formaldehyde to pesticides, the breadth of toxic litigation is expansive. Defending these complicated and challenging cases requires scientific expertise, courtroom experience, and tenacity.

Adams | Nye | Becht LLP's approach to toxic litigation is not just something better — it is something different. Our attorneys have defended scores of cases involving benzene, formaldehyde, DBCP and other pesticides, as well as lead, solvents, printing products, paints, silicone, silica, mold, diet drugs and other alleged or actual toxins. No California-based law firm can match our experience in this field.

Personal Injury Actions

	In the early 1980s, experienced and well-financed plaintiffs' counsel made the first California claim for medical monitoring in a toxic tort case. The alleged toxin was DBCP, a widely used pesticide/nematocide alleged to cause cancer. Our lawyers defeated the class action allegations and ultimately extricated our Fortune 500 client from this time-consuming, expensive, and pioneering lawsuit.
	In the late 1980s, seasoned plaintiffs' counsel retained hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of national experts to try one of the first benzene/leukemia wrongful death cases in Northern California. Our lawyers were there, and after all other defendants had settled out, we tried the case to a defense verdict on behalf of our oil company client. The client has never received another benzene/leukemia claim, and these cases have nearly disappeared from the Northern California landscape.
	In 1993, a forty-year-old plaintiff confined to a wheelchair and breathing from an oxygen tank, filed one of the most serious and dangerous formaldehyde/multiple chemical sensitivity cases ever brought in Northern California. Bringing extensive toxic tort experience to this multiple defendant case, we organized the joint defense of this case, recruited the joint experts, marshaled settlement contributions from all of the defendants, and ultimately achieved a settlement for our client which was far less than the potential verdict and avoided added costs of defense.
	In 1994, the first California lead paint case went to trial in San Francisco. Adams | Nye | Becht LLP mounted a successful defense. While the plaintiffs received their property remediation costs (which were largely uncontested), we turned back millions of dollars in emotional distress claims and hundreds of thousands of dollars in claimed attorneys' fees.
	On multiple occasions, Adams | Nye | Becht LLP has represented defendants in cases in which mold contamination of a home or other building is alleged to have caused property damage or physical injury. Our successes include the resolution of actions in which millions of dollars of damages were alleged for chronic fatigue syndrome which was contended to have been caused by mold in office ventilation ducts. After filing a motion for summary judgment, the cases were settled for a negligible amount.

Environmental and Agency Actions

We have an extensive background representing industries in environmental and agency action litigation involving chemicals, petroleum products, tank leakage, and soil/groundwater contamination. We successfully, vigorously, and cost effectively represent clients in common law tort actions (typically nuisance, trespass and ultra hazardous activity allegations) as well as Proposition 65, RCRA, and CERCLA litigation.