Our Practice

Toxic Spills and Toxic Torts


Sidley’s toxic tort lawyers have handled hundreds of toxic tort suits in dozens of states. We have vast experience in all phases of complex litigation arising out of major explosions, releases, and spills, including multiparty and multijurisdictional cases, class actions, and MDL proceedings. We have tried numerous toxic tort cases asserting property damage, personal injury, and medical monitoring claims based on allegations of groundwater, water, surface, or air pollution from ongoing and historical operations and industrial accidents. In addition, our lawyers have worked on cutting-edge public nuisance cases brought by states and environmental advocacy groups, including claims for damages and injunctive relief from contamination of rivers, and for alleged contributions to global warming from emissions of carbon dioxide. We also have negotiated and implemented creative and cost-saving individual and global settlements.

Our lawyers know the science involved with particulates, SO2, Nox, PCBs, mercury, benzene, asbestos, chlorine dioxins, hydrogen sulfide, TCE, formaldehyde, heptane, methacrylates and many other chemicals. We work closely with a large number of the prominent defense experts in the field – and oppose many of the most well-known plaintiffs' experts, frequently obtaining Daubert exclusion orders.

Our lawyers frequently use new case management strategies, client-friendly extranet facilities, as well as the latest document management and trial presentation tools. We have developed a wealth of resources invaluable to the successful defense of these complex claims such as Daubert motions, expert databases, scientific publications, computerized litigation support, and trial presentation technology.

We litigate and try individual cases, but believe that our greatest value to our clients lies in our extensive experience in developing and implementing strategies for resolving multiple cases arising out of the same catastrophic event before trial. As our record demonstrates, there are also many ways to prevail in litigation, independent of trial. Our clients appreciate our ability to develop and successfully implement novel and cost-conscious approaches, such as Lone Pine orders, effective Daubert and dispositive motion practice, value protection programs, mandatory classes, and innovative settlement structures.

Sidley toxic tort lawyers have substantial experience in responding to and helping clients manage emergency situations where rapid response, strategic insight, and litigation know-how are critical. For example, clients have called on us in the earliest phases of plant explosions, chemical spills, and groundwater contamination. We have provided counsel on community relations, media interaction, coordination with emergency response teams, and insurance issues. We have assisted in information flow, document control, and relations with regulatory agencies, law enforcement agencies, and potential litigants.

Increasingly, toxic tort litigation problems involve not only civil litigation, but also interaction with state and federal regulatory agencies and criminal authorities. Our lawyers have experience in all phases of the regulatory and criminal-litigation interface. We have negotiated on behalf of our clients with agencies and prosecutors. We have participated on behalf of our clients at hearings and negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice, many State Attorneys Generals, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (and state environmental agencies), the U.S. Department of Interior, the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Trade Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Highway Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Railroad Administration, and other state and federal agencies.

Representations
  • Sidley represented a manufacturing company in the defense of more than seventy suits filed in the aftermath of a tank car explosion in Alaska (on the heels of the Valdez rupture). Our lawyers obtained summary judgment and reimbursement of all attorneys’ fees, including in-house counsel’s expenses.
  • Sidley represented a refinery in an Indiana class action seeking damages for personal injuries, property devaluation, and medical monitoring following a flood that caused groundwater infiltration into homes. A defense verdict following a lengthy jury trial was secured and preserved through an appeals process that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • Sidley obtained a defense verdict in a jury trial representation of a manufacturing company in a personal injury matter in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, where Plaintiff claimed her child’s birth defects were due to alleged exposure to chemicals in an industrial setting.
  • Sidley represented a pipeline company in multistate class action involving claims for property value diminution and personal injuries due to alleged PCB spills. Sidley defeated class certification and the claims essentially disappeared shortly afterward.
  • Sidley represented a lead-paint manufacturer in connection with purported class actions potentially involving tens of thousands of plaintiffs seeking medical monitoring costs. Sidley argued the case on behalf of the entire defense group and obtained dismissal of the complaint in its entirety.
  • Sidley represented a petroleum company in connection with federal and state class actions arising out of groundwater contamination from former refinery. Plaintiffs sought injunctive relief, punitive damages, and compensation for alleged lost property value and impaired regional economic development. Sidley negotiated an innovative settlement creating a mandatory class for injunctive relief and cost-effective ADR procedure for damage claims. Sidley successfully defended the settlement in the Eighth Circuit against attack by over 100 objectors. Sidley also tried a two-week jury trial brought by opt-outs.
  • Sidley represents a carbon black manufacturing company in class action lawsuits in Alabama and Oklahoma brought by cities, businesses, and property owners alleging property damage from particulate emissions from carbon black facilities. The Alabama case settled, and some of the Oklahoma cases settled and others are in discovery.
  • Sidley represented a defendant in thousands of formaldehyde lawsuits across the United States and Canada, including 10 consecutive defense verdicts in the U.S. and another in Canada following a trial that extended over seven years.
  • Sidley represented a food and textile company in connection with a major toxic tort case involving alleged contamination of public drinking water with Cryptosporidium, which was resolved in a structured class action settlement.
  • Sidley represented an oil company in connection with class action suit brought by neighboring property owners for diminution in property value due to alleged air and groundwater releases into the community from petroleum terminal. Sidley worked with experts and local counsel to develop aggressive proactive response to plaintiffs’ allegations. The suit was voluntarily dismissed after the named plaintiff’s deposition.
  • Sidley represented a utility in connection with a suit brought by residents and owner of municipal water supply alleging that chemical discharges from a facility had contaminated the community’s drinking water. On a motion to dismiss, we were able to successfully narrow the case and eliminate potentially significant statutory and punitive damage claims.
  • Sidley represented a landfill owner in Maryland against suit brought by an adjoining property owner and developer seeking clean-up costs, civil penalties, diminution of property value, lost profits, and punitive damages based on alleged releases into groundwater. Sidley obtained dismissal of several counts, which then resulted in a favorable settlement for the landfill owners.
  • Sidley defended a food products company in connection with more than a dozen suits filed in Nebraska claiming property damages (nuisance) and personal injuries as a result of hydrogen sulfide emissions from wastewater lagoons at a beef processing facility. In the first trial, following rulings on Daubert and dispositive motions that favorably narrowed the issues, the jury returned a verdict of only $17,500 even though plaintiff’s counsel had requested $1.2 million in closing arguments. Following a successful appeal by Sidley’s lawyers, the remaining cases settled.
  • Sidley represents a pharmaceutical company in nuisance, trespass, and property damage claims arising out of a 2008 flood that caused a wastewater pond to overflow into a creek, allegedly causing PCB-laden sediment to be deposited onto neighboring property.
  • Sidley represents a pharmaceutical company in a neighboring landowner’s claims related to the company’s ownership and operation of landfills, which allege groundwater contamination and underground debris.


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