Bunda Stutz & DeWitt attorneys have been actively involved in defending companies against toxic tort claims since 1979. Our skill and experience enable our attorneys to provide practical advice to help clients resolve disputes efficiently and economically, and to manage these disputes so that a cost-effective and expeditious resolution
may be achieved.
The toxic tort attorneys at Bunda Stutz & DeWitt have successfully defended numerous clients in actions involving workplace exposure to asbestos, silica, coal tar pitch, formaldehyde, PVC, rubber chemicals, fungicides and other solvents. Our trial attorneys represent manufacturers, distributors, retailers and other clients facing litigation of toxic tort liability claims and we have advised clients in the administration of claims against them, and in preventative measures to avoid products
liability claims from being brought.
The firm has access to up-to-date medical and industrial hygiene libraries as well as a team of research assistants and paralegal's who work to process the large amount of documents and data that these types of cases generate, and to research the medical, toxicological and industrial hygiene information involved. Bunda Stutz & DeWitt maintains close working relationships with a variety of experts throughout the country for
the benefit of our toxic tort clients. These experts include: pulmonologists, pathologists, oncologist's, industrial hygienists and epidemiologists.
The firm has experience in the joint defense of toxic tort cases, up to and through trial.
The formation of joint defense agreements, and the coordination of the group defense through common experts and strategy, offers many advantages in terms of cost savings and enhancement of the defense presentation.
As just one example, the common defense available to multiple chemical companies in a PVC case prevented the often employed plaintiff’s counsel’s strategy of picking off a few defendants through reasonable settlement in order to fund trial of the case against the remaining defendants. When the defendants agreed to jointly defend and to share in the cost of the defense and any indemnity, this strategy was successfully thwarted. In addition, the best experts available were retained at reasonable cost to each defendant, leading to a successful defense of all defendants at trial.
Bunda Stutz & DeWitt attorneys are also nationally recognized writers, speakers and experts in the area of toxic torts. Its attorneys have been retained as experts to testify at trial on behalf of defendants, and have spoken at national seminars on topics such as the SV-40 virus and asbestos cancer, the drafting and negotiation of mass tort case management orders in the silica and asbestos litigation, the effect of legislation on the silica and asbestos litigation in Ohio, and the formation and coordination of joint defense groups in serious multi-defendant wrongful death cases.
