Railroad Operations & Litigation

The Firm represents some of the nation’s largest railroads involving a wide array of issues and areas affecting their core operations, including crossing accidents, environmental matters, emergency response, claims under the Federal Employers Liability Act (“FELA”), and all other areas of railroad operation.  The attorneys at the Firm have tried well over a hundred cases throughout Texas on behalf of railroads involving damages for death, catastrophic brain damage, coma, loss of limb and paraplegia and quadriplegia, and they have responded to some of the most serious accidents and derailments our clients have faced.  Their FELA experience involves trials for claims of muscular-skeletal injury, trauma, lower extremity disorders, and cumulative trauma.  Our attorneys have achieved a record of success for their clients of which they are justifiably proud.

Our attorneys are often asked to respond to the scene of the accident on the initial response team, side-by-side with our clients, to assist in coordinating the investigation and the immediate response to any safety, environmental, or forensic issues.  We take pride in our 24-hour availability to our clients should an emergency arise requiring our counsel.  Our attorneys try cases in the toughest venues and look forward to the challenge of assisting our clients to resolve their most serious issues in any forum.

Together with their experience in representing railroads in personal injury actions, our attorneys also have developed a wealth of experience in representing our railroad clients in matters involving environmental laws and regulations, hazmat issues and releases and reporting requirements.  The Firm represents its clients in resolving a wide variety of legal issues arising out of impacted industrial properties.  We have assessed hundreds of properties owned by railroads to determine the origination, scope, and identity of potential contaminants from tenants and other parties and have been successful in resolving the attendant clean-up obligations and cost recovery claims both against our clients and on behalf of our clients, including recovering clean-up costs from other responsible parties through negotiated settlements and litigation.  Our attorneys routinely apply their experience in the application of environmental laws to resolving a multitude of issues arising out of operational properties and other real estate holdings involved in railroad operations.

The demonstrated experience our attorneys bring to litigation and its environmental practice makes the Firm ideally suited to handling the complex interplay of various civil and statutory laws that apply to all aspects of railroad operations.