JS West

• Our trial team won a significant victory on October 4, 2007 in Martinez Superior Court for our client, defendant JS West. Plaintiff was a self-employed tile-setter rear ended by a 79,000 pound tanker truck driven by defendant’s employee. He underwent a cervical fusion and extensive rehabilitation, claiming brain injury, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that he would never be able to return to work. Before trial, plaintiff offered to settle for $3.2 million and Defendant offered $750,000 At trial, plaintiff claimed $8 million in damages. Defendant conceded liability and the trial focused on damages only. The jury unanimously awarded plaintiff an amount of only $393,000, rejecting his claims of brain injury and permanent disability.

North American Van Lines

• Archer Norris’s litigation team recently closed the defense of a federal class action against North American Van Lines, one of several major common carriers owned by SIRVA, which provides relocation and moving solutions to consumers, corporations and governments in more than 175 countries around the world. North American was sued for allegedly quoting a low price for the transportation of household goods then charging a higher amount. The class was all household good shippers nationwide, with a subclass of elderly shippers of household goods. Plaintiffs alleged violations of federal transportation law and state consumer protection laws. Damages were in excess of $50 million. We defeated the action by obtaining an order to dismiss all state-law claims on preemption grounds. We then defeated plaintiffs’ motion to certify a class on the federal issues. Of the remaining two named plaintiffs with small claims, one settled for $30,000 and we obtained the dismissal of claims for the remaining named plaintiff.

SuperShuttle

• Our On Call Trial Counsel team recently obtained a favorable arbitration decision for SuperShuttle, a pioneer and national leader in door to door airport ground transportation. A franchise operator who suffered truly catastrophic injuries claimed that Super Shuttle had failed to procure adequate insurance. Archer Norris was asked to join SuperShuttle’s trial team at the last minute to help fend off the claim. The arbitration decision rejected in its entirety plaintiff’s claim in excess of $5 million against Super Shuttle. The arbitrator also ruled that Super Shuttle is entitled to recover attorneys fees from the claimant. This is an impressive outcome as the plaintiff/claimant suffered very severe injuries through no fault of his own.