Toxic Torts & Environmental Litigation
Troutman Sanders LLP offers one of the most sophisticated environmental and toxic torts litigation practices in the nation. We have litigated some of the most important cases in the United States, from global climate change in the Southern District of New York to new source review under the Clean Air Act in the Northern District of Alabama to personal injury claims involving electromagnetic fields in Georgia. At issue in our cases has been a wide range of substances, including arsenic, asbestos, chromium, diesel exhaust, dioxin, mold, coal tar, mercury, PCBs, and vinyl chloride, to name only a few. We were one of the first firms to litigate key provisions of the Class Action Fairness Act in the context of residential properties with PCB and lead exposure.
We try cases throughout the United States for plaintiffs and defendants, and we regularly handle appellate matters involving exposure claims. Our attorneys serve as trial counsel and regional counsel in both standalone and mass tort liability claims, as counsel in coordinated class actions, and as coordinating counsel supervising law firms in other states and other countries in the development of trial strategy and conducting mass settlement negotiations. Our clients include consumer and industrial product manufacturers, individuals, railroads, local governments, transportation companies, electric utilities, and chemical manufacturers.
With more than 40 lawyers, our group is one of the largest in the United States. Members of our team include a former Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a former Justice on the Georgia Court of Appeals, several Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers, several former appellate law clerks, two former counsel at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and six former assistant state attorneys generals. Our team includes Ph.D. and M.D. scientists.
Given our experience, we possess in-depth knowledge of air quality modeling, epidemiology, toxicology, hydrogeology, and a range of other technical skills and areas. We also regularly file and defend challenges to expert testimony in Daubert and related hearings in state and federal court. And increasingly we are asked to litigate novel legal issues such as medical monitoring for asymptomatic plaintiffs and claims for “cancerphobia” and increased risk of disease. Although science and technology are important in toxic tort cases, we still believe the most important strategy in toxic tort lawsuits is to communicate science and the law to judges and juries simply and effectively.
The Toxic Tort and Environmental Litigation Team’s recent representations include:
Toxic Torts
- Defending an electric utility in a three-week state court jury trial involving personal injury allegedly resulting from exposure to electro-magnetic fields;
- Defending numerous toxic tort cases in which the plaintiffs alleged that mercury emissions contributed to neuro-toxic disorders in their children--a majority of the cases ended in voluntary dismissal by the plaintiffs;
- Defended a major electronics manufacturer in a class action involving claims of personal injury and property damage from lead and PCB exposure in Anniston, Alabama;
- Representing a waste management company in federal court on claims that minority manager was disproportionately exposed to hazardous wastes;
- Defending a county government in a multiple party lawsuit involving alleged personal injury and property damage from contaminated groundwater associated with a closed municipal solid waste landfill;
- Representing a defendant in a state court action alleging damage to orchards from air emissions;
- Represented manufacturers producing asbestos-containing products and respiratory devices in thousands of claims throughout the Southeast;
- Defended a major medical institution in a claim of multiple chemical sensitivity allegedly caused by pesticide exposure;
- Representing an individual against a manufacturer for workplace exposure to perchlorethylene;
- Defending a railroad against claims that diesel fume exhaust causes cancer;
- Defending a major mask manufacturer in hundreds of asbestos lawsuits; and
- Represent major railroads in claims involving toxic exposure to asbestos, diesel fumes, solvents and silica.
Environmental Statutes
- Negotiating a $200 million global settlement in a Clean Air Act citizen suit involving a large Western utility, citizen groups and the State of New Mexico to resolve allegations of over 60,000 opacity and Title V violations;
- Representing an electric utility in federal district court in New York in a lawsuit brought by the Attorneys General of eight states and three environmental groups alleging that carbon dioxide emissions from the company’s power plants contribute to global warming in violation of state and federal nuisance law;
- Representing a consortium of companies in challenges to EPA's eight-hour ozone and particulate matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards;
- Representing defendants in significant CERCLA cost recovery case involving PCBs and lead;
- Representing a state-wide coalition of diverse industrial and energy companies in the NOx SIP Call rulemaking and subsequent appellate litigation before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ultimately resulted in the vacatur and remand of the rule as applied to Georgia;
- Challenging EPA’s approval of “better than BART” regulations under the regional haze rules in the D.C. Circuit;
- Challenging EPA’s Section 126 rulemaking under the Clean Air Act before the D.C. Circuit and negotiating a successful settlement with EPA that resolved our client’s concerns with the rule;
- Before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, prevailing in a Clean Water Act citizen suit brought by a national environmental organization over wastewater discharge temperature limits;
- Defending a major chemical products manufacturing company in a U.S. EPA RCRA enforcement action in Louisiana;
- Representing an individual in a "show cause" hearing with the U.S. EPA, involving alleged criminal violations of the hazardous waste requirements of RCRA;
- For major Florida municipality, obtaining dismissal of CERCLA claims involving environmental justice allegations, affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit;
- Representing a major airline in a multi-party cost recovery suit in which another airline alleged damages of over $100 million from jet fuel contamination originating from an underground hydrant fueling system at JFK airport; and
- Representing a major corporation in a CERCLA cost recovery action seeking $4 million in clean-up costs related to the site of a former manufactured gas plant adjacent to a major river.
Administrative Hearings
- In a challenge to a chemical company's receipt of an air quality permit, obtaining an Administrative Law Judge decision, after an 8-day hearing, which upheld issuance of the permit without modification, a decision subsequently affirmed by Court of Appeals;
- Representing a state agency as special assistant attorney general in bankruptcy proceedings involving the allocation of cleanup costs for property leased from the agency;
- Representing international chemical company in administrative challenge to Title V permit conditions;
- In a 17-day hearing, defending a electric utility against a challenge brought by an environmental group to a surface water withdrawal permit; and
- Representing an individual in an administrative hearing opposing the issuance of a permit for landfill expansion.