Our Firm'sVictories

Arnold & Itkin, LLP successfully tried a case on behalf of the victim of a severe ambulance accident. The plaintiff had been seven months pregnant and experiencing stomach pain when she called Acadian Ambulance to pick her up and transport her to the hospital in December 2010. The driver of the ambulance who picked her up had a history of bad driving and poor vision. When driving down LA-1 North, he dropped his RSI device onto the floor. Without reducing speed, he leaned down to locate and grab it – completely looking away from the road. During this time, he drove the ambulance into the back of a sugar cane truck. The plaintiff's spine was severed at T4 during the accident and she sustained serious brain injuries. There is no chance of a full recovery and she will be in a wheel chair for the rest of her life.

At the time of the verdict, she had already sustained medical bills in excess of $1.4 million, with an estimated cost of $30 million for her future care plan. After the accident, her unborn daughter was prematurely delivered; since then, both the infant and the plaintiff's other daughter have gone to live with their grandmother.

Arnold & Itkin, LLP was able to successfully prove fault on behalf of the ambulance driver and succeeded in obtaining a $117 million verdict for the mother, as well as her two daughters.

Attorneys from Arnold & Itkin worked together to represent individuals who had been seriously harmed by dangerous, defective products. We helped recover $110 million on behalf of our clients.

Arnold & Itkin attorneys represented individuals who had suffered from the use of defective, dangerous products. Our team reached a record settlement, helping our clients achieve the justice they deserved.

Attorneys Jason Itkin, Kurt Arnold, and Ryan MacLeod successfully secured a confidential $97 million settlement for refinery workers injured during a fire. Arnold & Itkin attorneys fought against some of the largest corporations in the world to seek justice on behalf of clients. By winning the fight, Arnold & Itkin was able to ensure that the workers received the medical attention they needed and financial security moving forward. The cases settled shortly before trial.

Attorneys Jason Itkin, Kurt Arnold, and Ryan MacLeod won an $87 million settlement for a young man who suffered life-threatening burns while working at a refinery. The companies defended the case by attempting to blame the injured worker for his injuries. Arnold & Itkin overcame these tactics and secured a massive settlement that will help the client and his children receive the best possible medical care. The lawyers hope that this result makes other corporations think twice before endangering their workers.

Attorney Jason Itkin, Kyle Findley, and the team from Arnold & Itkin, including Santana McMurrey and Cory Itkin, won a $76.6 million jury verdict against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceutical. Jason and Kyle represented a family that sued J&J for failing to warn them that J&J’s antipsychotic medicine Risperdal could cause young boys to grow female breasts. By winning the verdict, Arnold & Itkin held J&J accountable for disfiguring their client.

The defendants fought at every turn. They argued that this was the only drug that worked, that he continued to stay on the drug after being informed of the risks, and that the drug does not cause gynecomastia (female breasts growth on males). During trial, the Arnold & Itkin attorneys also uncovered evidence through cross-examination that became known in the case as "Tab 4." The information in Tab 4 had never become public until the trial. Tab 4 included scientific data showing a link between Risperdal and gynecomastia. J&J intentionally kept Tab 4 secret, withholding it from the FDA and keeping it out of published scientific studies.The jury found that J&J intentionally falsified, concealed, or destroyed material evidence.

After an 11 day trial, the Philadelphia jury unanimously found that the defendant failed to warn of the side effects associated with the drug and that the failure to warn was a substantial factor in causing gynecomastia. The jury awarded Arnold & Itkin’s client $76.6 million. This is the largest single verdict in a Risperdal-gynecomastia case.

Attorneys Jason Itkin, Cory Itkin, and Kurt Arnold won a potentially record-setting settlement for our client, who was severely injured in an oilfield accident. Multiple companies were responsible for the incident that led to his suffering—specifically, the loss of his arm and other life-altering injuries. When he needed someone to stand up for him against these negligent companies, he chose our firm. Thankfully, we resolved the case in less than 2 years—with only 7 days left before trial was set to begin. Our relentless pursuit of our client’s health and well-being will allow him to enjoy lifelong financial security and medical care. In addition, the companies responsible for his injuries have changed their policies to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Attorney Kurt Arnold represented a construction superintendent who sustained catastrophic injuries after a serious crane accident off Memorial Drive in Houston, TX. On the job, Berkel & Company had been hired to drill auger cast pilings. One of their crane operators had been operating a machine owned by Maxim Crane Works while completing deep foundation drilling when the auger became stuck; at that time, a Berkel superintendent instructed the crane operator to attempt to unstick the auger. The operator attempted to stop the job at least five times. The crane eventually collapsed.

At the time of the collapse, our client had been standing behind a safety fence approximately 100 feet from the auger when a piece of crane equipment struck him and pinned him down. It took a crane to lift the equipment off of him. He was then rushed to a hospital where an above-the-knee amputation was performed.

The trial took place over a three week period during which Kurt helped to show the jury that standard safety practices had been violated multiple times by Berkel in an attempt to finish the project quickly. Kurt also argued that Maxim was responsible for poorly inspecting the crane. The jury deliberated and found both companies to be negligent. They awarded damages for medical expenses, loss of earning capacity, physical impairment, physical pain, and mental anguish. They also awarded $8.5 million in punitive damages.

This case was listed #43 in The National Law Journal's Top 100 Verdicts of 2015.

Arnold & Itkin LLP attorneys Kurt Arnold and Jason Itkin won a $41 million jury verdict on behalf of their client, Richard Foreman, a Houston investor who was secretly cut out of a deal to acquire Honsador Lumber Corporation, one of Hawaii's largest lumber suppliers. The jury found Key Principal Partners LLC and its parent Key Corporation guilty of breaching their fiduciary duties, intentionally interfering with Foreman's efforts to acquire the Honsador Lumber Corporation, and violating Hawaii's unfair competition statute. Read more about the trial and verdict as covered in the press by the Houston Business Journal.

Kyle Findley, Kala Sellers, and Adam Lewis represented a worker who was severely burned in a dust fire and explosion at a Georgia-Pacific plywood plant in Corrigan, TX. In 2004, Georgia-Pacific hired Aircon, Inc. to design and install a dust collection system to carry highly combustible dust from an industrial sander to a baghouse where filter bags could clean it out of the air. The system also incorporated a spark detection and suppression system manufactured by GreCon, Inc. to prevent fires and sparks from being carried into the baghouse.

On April 26, 2014, the dust collection system, and related safety systems, failed to protect the baghouse. A fire in the system sent sparks through the ductwork, and the system failed to prevent an ignition source from entering the baghouse—resulting in an explosion and deflagration. At the time of the explosion, our client was unknowingly standing within range of the deflagration and was engulfed by fire. Despite suffering significant burn injuries, our client worked to help alert emergency services of the explosion to help his co-workers who were also seriously injured. Our client was eventually transported by life flight helicopter to a Tier 1 burn unit in Houston, Texas, only after confirming his co-workers had been transported for treatment.

At the time of trial, our client had undergone seven surgical procedures and is projected to have multiple procedures in the future for his deteriorating skin and grafts. The trial took place over a three week period which allowed Kyle, Kala, and Adam to show the jury how the dust collection system was unsafe and failed to adhere to numerous industry standards. Our team also argued that the fire prevention system was installed in an unsafe location in violation of company policies, as well as industry standards.

The jury deliberated and found both defendants negligent for their unsafe design and failure to warn the plant of the hazards associated with the system. The jury awarded damages for medical expenses, loss of earning capacity, disfigurement, physical impairment, physical pain, and mental anguish.

Kurt Arnold, Jason Itkin, and Cory Itkin successfully secured a record settlement for a single family who tragically lost a loved one. It is the largest known settlement for a death that occurred offshore.

Attorneys Kurt Arnold, Jason Itkin, Noah Wexler, and Caj Boatright have secured a massive confidential $28 million settlement for our clients. We are thrilled that our work has given our clients everything they need to be taken care of.

Attorneys Kurt Arnold, Kyle Findley, and Kala Sellers won a verdict totaling $15,458,434.32 on behalf of four injured contract workers involved in the Williams Geismar plant explosion in Louisiana on June 13, 2013. The plant was undergoing a $400 million expansion project. The CEO and board of directors elected to do construction while it remained in live operation. Everyone agrees the safer option was to shut down the plant for a few months during the construction and then reopen; however, the CEO and board of directors overruled the major concerns and decided to operate the plant despite the increased risk.

At the time of the explosion, the contract laborers were working on the expansion project when a reboiler over-pressured and caused an explosion that could be seen for miles. When the blast occurred, all four contract workers were injured and forced to run for their lives; they suffered both physical and psychological injuries as a result. Throughout the litigation process, the Defendants tried to assert various defenses such as blaming a shell company that was a limited liability company that otherwise would not be responsible to pay. The Arnold & Itkin attorneys used their vast resources and knowledge of plant operations to develop the case, and were able to obtain hundreds of thousands of pages of internal documents to discover that a pressure relief valve on a reboiler was not opened.

Despite numerous audits and safety meetings aimed to address the hazards associated with the isolated reboiler, it was never completed. Dedicated to bring justice to the injured workers, the attorneys discovered facts to support that the Defendants knew with "substantial certainty" that a devastating event would occur, which is one of the few exceptions to the workers’ compensation bar to recovery. The attorneys also discovered that the parent company, Williams Companies, Inc., were the real employers of all personnel and otherwise maintained control over the managers at the plant.

At trial, the Defendants tried to hide behind the statutory employer defense and place all of the blame on the holding company of the plant, Williams Olefins LLC. After 3 weeks of trial the jury was not convinced by the Defendants' shell games and awarded a judgment in the Plaintiffs' favor.

The jury rightly assigned 95% of the responsibility for the explosion to the Tulsa-based Williams Companies, Inc. and only 3% to the holding company, Williams Olefins, LLC. The jury also found that the Williams Companies, Inc. and Williams Olefins LLC both knew with "substantial certainty" that the devastating event would occur. In addition, the jury also found that the plant managers responsible for the explosion were actually employees of Williams Companies, Inc. and were not employees of Williams Olefins, LLC as the Defendants claimed, which defeated any defense to recovery.

The jury awarded Shawn Thomas $9.4 million, Christopher Devall $3.6 million, and Eduardo Elizondo and Michael Danton $360,000 and $205,000, respectively. The award of $13,679,933.53, with $1,778,409.79 in pre-judgment interest, brings the total award to $15,458,434.32 for the four injured workers. Arnold & Itkin was proud to represent these four men along with Clayton, Fruge, and Ward in a series of upcoming trials of nearly one hundred workers that Arnold & Itkin represent. The case was filed in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, with the Honorable Elizabeth Engolio presiding as judge.