Best Lawyers in America
Nelson G. Wolff has been selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2012 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the practice of Railroad Law.
Missouri Lawyers Weekly, Verdicts & Settlements
by Rebecca Boyle
A train conductor whose locomotive collided with a semitrailer won a $1.75 million verdict from a rural Oklahoma jury to compensate for her injuries and lost wages. The plaintiff's lawyers say the case was unusual because the semitrailer driver had a previously undiagnosed heart condition, but the attorneys were able through document review that he was awake and aware at the time of the collision.
by Debi DeSilver, The Express-Star

In what could be one of the largest verdicts in Grady County in recent history, a jury awarded Plaintiff Terrie L. Smith, Chickasha, $1.75 million for lost earning capacity and medical bills from a March 2009 accident.

Missouri Lawyers Weekly

A 4 mph jolt translated into a $3.18 million verdict for a Burlington Northern engineer who injured his back. A unanimous St. Louis County jury made the award to John Walsh after a four-day trial. Walsh was injured when another train struck the one he was working on.

by Kelly Wiese, Missouri Lawyers Weekly

An injured railroad worker has reached a nearly $2.3 million settlement with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. in St. Louis City Circuit Court.

St. Louis Daily Record
An injured railroad worker has reached a nearly $2.3 million settlement with the railroad in St. Louis Circuit Court.
Missouri Lawyers Weekly
Special Issue: Top Verdicts & Settlements
Whether due to tort reform or some other influence, it gets harder every year for trial lawyers to win big verdicts and settlements for their clients.
News Release, Schlichter Bogard & Denton

Timothy Sorrell, a railroad trackman, was injured on November 1, 1999 when the dump truck he was driving for his employer, Norfolk Southern Railway Company, was forced off a county road by a worker driving a truck. Mr. Sorrell's truck, filled with 15 pounds of asphalt, rolled off the road causing him to sustain neck and back injuries. We tried Mr. Sorrell's case in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis and a jury awarded Mr. Sorrell $1.5 Million in damages on November 7, 2003.

Missouri Lawyers Weekly
Verdicts & Settlements

In one of the first railroad cases to reach trial since the state changed its tort laws, a $1.05 million jury verdict has attorneys split on how St. Louis County will handle a deluge of corporate injury cases.

Missouri Lawyers Weekly

A $4.5 million settlement has been reached in the case of a Union Pacific railroad employee who suffered severe injuries, including an above-the-knee amputation of his leg, when he became trapped beneath the wheel of a locomotive and dragged for 20 feet or more.

Press Release, Schlichter Bogard & Denton

In January, Partner Nelson G. Wolff won a verdict in the City of St. Louis, Shepherd v. Union Pacific, on behalf of a conductor who fell and suffered foot injuries while walking down the steps inside his locomotive. The engine, like many engines in service in North America, was not equipped with hand rails or grab irons. The railroad claimed that since the FRA did not require handrails to be installed, it did not need to install any device to protect workers, even though it knew that some workers would slip and could avoid injury if a handhold were provided. The railroad also accused its employee of causing his own injuries by failing to keep a careful lookout. The jury's verdict exceeded $700,000.

News Release, Schlichter Bogard & Denton

On October 1, 2007, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of another Schlichter Bogard & Denton client, affirming a $6 million judgment for an injured Union Pacific track worker, thus ending a 4 year long saga. The employee had been struck in the hand by an AMTRAK train after he was forced to get out of his Union Pacific track machine on an adjacent track to fix a defective clamp. The worker required surgeries to his hand, shoulder and spine, resulting in permanent disability. During the years leading to the trial, the railroads denied responsibility and accused the worker of contributory negligence. After overwhelming evidence of the railroads' negligence was introduced at trial, the defendants attempted admit partial responsibility. However, the jury held the railroads to be 100% responsible.

News Release, Schlichter Bogard & Denton

In a major victory for railroad workers nationwide in the U.S. Supreme Court, Schlichter Bogard & Denton was successful in preserving the favorable law on causation of injuries to railroad workers. In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court adopted the arguments made by our firm in ruling that the FELA law for injured railroad workers should not be changed to be more restrictive to those workers.

News Release, Schlichter Bogard & Denton
The firm argued before the Supreme Court in Washington D.C. on October 10, 2006 against Norfolk Southern Railroad's challenge of a Missouri jury's verdict in a railroad injury case against the railroad.
News Release, Schlichter Bogard & Denton
Schlichter Bogard & Denton will defend a decades old standard of proof before the United States Supreme Court on October 10, 2006. In response to an injury case against Norfolk Southern Railroad Co., Sorrell v. Norfolk Southern Railroad Co., the railroad company is challenging the standards for proving the causal connection between a railroad's negligence and an employee's injury.
Business & Farm, Arkansas Online
www.ardemgaz.com
A Sheridan man won a $1.2 million verdict against Union Pacific Railroad in St. Louis, according to a statement by St. Louis law firm Schlichter Bogard & Denton.
St. Louis Daily Record
Vol.293, No.229-95

A St. Louis jury awarded $1.5 million in damages on Nov. 7 to a railroad trackman that suffered injuries to his neck and spine after his dump truck rolled over.

Lawyers Weekly USA
www.lawyersweeklyusa.com

Jerome Schlichter and his six-lawyer St. Louis law firm have amassed quite a courtroom record over the past two years — 12 jury trials against railroad companies and 12 victories.  

Missouri Lawyers Weekly
A Norfolk Southern Railway employee who suffered a back injury filed a Federal Employer Liability Act case.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When an unhinged metal flag smacked conductor Greg Haskin in the head, his employer, Union Pacific Corp., dismissed the injury as a superficial scalp wound.

DAILY UNION
Junction City, Kansas

A jury in Wichita awarded a Junction City resident more than $800,000 on Monday for injuries caused while working for Union Pacific Railroad.

Pine Bluff Commercial, No.30
A jury has found Union Pacific Railroad liable for injuries a Pine Bluff man sustained on the job.
St. Louis Daily Record
Vol.294, No.77
A St. Louis City Circuit Court jury awarded $3 million to a 31 year-old injured railroad worker who was hit in the head with a sign, causing him recurring severe headaches.
St. Louis Daily Record & St. Louis Countian

A St. Louis City Circuit Court jury recently awarded a Missouri resident $2.975 million against a trucking company, whose truck caused an accident that injured him and ended his career.

Paragould Daily Press, Vol.121, No.45-44,
Paragould, Arkansas

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - An incident that left one man dead and another seriously injured in Paragould on. Aug. 18, 2000, was settled by a trial jury Friday in the. St. Louis, Mo., Circuit Court.

Missouri Lawyers Weekly

St Louis law firm, Schlichter Bogard & Denton, receive top 3 railroad injury verdicts.

St. Louis Daily Record
Vol.293, No.249

"It's kind of like a tug of war – the other side lets go unexpectedly so you fall backwards," described Richard Zalasky, an attorney for an injured railroad switchman who recently received a $1.6 million award from a St. Louis jury.

Herald-Whig City/County
A St. Louis jury has awards $4.75 million to a rain engineer injured in a head-on crash in 1993.
The Zephyr
Calesburg, Illinois

Thomas Ramsey, 52, an engineer for the railroad, fell on the ice on the platform of a locomotive and seriously injured his back.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Shopping for Justice"
One railroad worker was injured in Illinois, the other in Arkansas. Their awards totaling $6.45 million came from juries in St. Louis Circuit Court.
St. Louis Daily Record
Vol.293, No.169
In what could be the largest verdict in a railroad litigation suit, a St. Louis jury recently awarded a railroad laborer $5.5 million.
Omaha World-Herald

A $1.9 million judgment has been handed down by a Scotts Bluff County District Court jury for a former Union Pacific engineer who was injured on the job.

The Herington Times
Osawatomie, Kansas

ST.LOUIS, Mo. - The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld a jury's verdict that awarded Kenneth C. Holley just over $1 million against Union Pacific Railroad for injuries received Jan. 2, 1990 in a Little Rock, Ark., shop.

St. Louis Daily Record, Vol.293, No.93

A St. Louis City jury awarded $4.1 million to a Clinton, Iowa, locomotive engineer who was injured in a slow-motion train derailment.

STAR-HERALD
Scottsbluff-Gering, Nebraska

A Scotts Bluff District Court jury Thursday awarded a Morrill man $900,000 for an injury he sustained in 1994 while working for Union Pacific Railroad.

Herington, Kansas

ST.LOUIS, Mo. - A jury in St. Louis has awarded $1.7 Million to injured railroad conductor, Tommy Calloway. The Jury reached the verdict after a one week trial which ended Friday.