Railroad Litigation

Our Railroad practice is one of the largest in the country—comprised of 26 attorneys and 10 paralegals working together to represent the largest railroads in the U.S. as well as several short lines.

At any one time, we handle more than 200 pending FELA and crossing cases in federal and state courts in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois for Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, Illinois Central and Gateway Western.

No firm in recent years has achieved as many favorable railroad verdicts in the difficult venues of the City of St. Louis and Madison and St. Clair counties in Illinois as we have. In the past several years, we obtained 22 defense verdicts and 13 verdicts of below $150,000 in substantial cases. We have also received acceptable verdicts in some of the more catastrophic railroad injury cases tried in the City of St. Louis in the past several years. We obtained numerous summary judgments in both FELA and crossing lawsuits.

For Union Pacific, our attorneys handle hearing loss, toxic tort and other occupational claims within the railroad's entire operating area. Similarly, we handle hearing loss cases system-wide for Illinois Central, and Norfolk Southern's hearing loss and diesel fume cases on a regional basis. We represented Burlington Northern Santa Fe for significant environmental and insurance matters as well as toxic exposure claims.

We handle commercial disputes, arbitrations, labor suits, governmental issues and other matters for our railroad clients.

In addition to favorable results at the trial level, our attorneys have played significant roles in shaping railroad law at the appellate level with successful results in the United States Supreme Court, Illinois and Missouri Supreme Courts, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals and Illinois and Missouri intermediate appellate courts.

Our Railroad practice is proud of its relationships with its clients. We work hand-in-hand with clients to achieve their objectives, combining an understanding of their needs with our knowledge of the railroad industry. We apply the depth of our expertise, talented personnel and cutting edge technology to ensure the highest quality of service in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

We are pioneers in the use of alternative billing arrangements and database management. In addition, we are always cognizant of the need for early, high-quality evaluations of difficult cases. Perhaps most important, at all levels of the Firm we stress the need for imaginative approaches to tough cases and the importance of prompt and timely communication.

Through our participation in the NARTC, the NARTC executive committee, the Ad Hoc Committee on occupational litigation and numerous AAR projects, we are well equipped to monitor new case laws and regulations, effectively deal with opponent experts and stay current with new tactics for and against the railroads.

Representative Clients