The Great Trials Podcast The Great Trials Podcast

This week, we’re replaying a classic episode where Steve and Yvonne interview Brian McKeen of McKeen and Associates, LP (https://www.mckeenassociates.com/).
 
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Case Details:
Detroit medical malpractice attorney Brian McKeen explains how he secured justice for a two-month-old boy who suffered brain damage resulting in cerebral palsy after William Beaumont Hospital technicians failed to act urgently. The baby turned blue after receiving an IV for an outpatient renal scan and was without oxygen for 12 minutes because nuclear medicine technicians neglected to immediately issue a "code blue" or to begin administering chest compressions. Despite the defense's attempts to convince the jury that the incident occurred due to pre-existing conditions, an Oakland County, Michigan jury returned a landmark $130.5 million verdict.
 
Guest Bio:
Brian McKeen
Brian McKeen began practicing law in 1982. During his career, he has become a powerful advocate for his clients and one of the foremost medical malpractice attorneys in Michigan. He has tried cases throughout the United States. He currently sits on the executive boards of the Michigan Association for Justice (MAJ) and the American Association for Justice (AAJ). Mr. McKeen formerly served as chair of the AAJ Professional Negligence Section, Medical Negligence Exchange Group, and Birth Trauma Litigation Group (BTLG).
Since 2001, McKeen & Associates has generated the year's top verdict in Michigan four times, including securing the state's largest medical malpractice verdict on record in 2001, when a jury rendered a verdict award of $55 million in the case of Hall v Henry Ford Health System. McKeen & Associates also topped all Michigan verdict awards in 2002, with an award of $22.5 million in the case of Blazo v McLaren Regional Medical Center, et al; in 2006, with an award of $16 million in the case of Lowe v Henry Ford Health System; and in 2007, with an award of $35 million in the case of Oppenheim v Aeneas C. Guiney. Mr. McKeen was recently inducted into The Inner Circle of Advocates and named Top Attorneys in Michigan as published by The New York Times in September 2012.
Professional Associations and Memberships:
Inner Circle of Advocates - The Inner Circle of Advocates is an invitation-only group, limited to 100 lawyers of excellent character and integrity, representing people throughout the United States. To qualify, members must have tried at least 50 personal injury jury trials and at least three verdicts in excess of one million dollars or one verdict in excess of ten million dollars.
International Society of Primerus - Primerus is an international network of top-rated, independent law firms that have earned the right to display the Primerus seal of quality. Candidates for membership must have the maximum AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the peer review rating source that lawyers use to find other lawyers. Further, a law firm must submit to a rigorous evaluation, which includes candid assessments from judges, fellow attorneys, current and former clients, bar associations, and malpractice insurance carriers. Firms must also attest to their commitment to the exacting standards of the Six Pillars of Primerus Quality: Integrity, Excellent Work Product, Reasonable Fees, Continuing Legal Education, Civility, and Community Service. And it doesn't end there. Primerus firms are audited annually to ensure that they continue to be the "best of the best," year after year.
American Association for Justice (AAJ)- Chair of the Professional Negligence Section 2006 - 2008; Co-chair of the Birth Trauma Litigation Group (BTLG); Co-chair of the AAJ's Medical Negligence Exchange Group 2005 - 2007 (MNIEG); Board of Governors; Leaders Forum; Sustaining Member; National Finance Counsel; Litigation Group Coordination Committee; Executive Board.
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This week, Steve and Yvonne interview David Yarborough and William Applegate of Yarborough Applegate Law Firm, LLC (https://www.yarboroughapplegate.com/).
 
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Case Details:
Yarborough Applegate secured a landmark jury verdict against Amazon for $44.6 million, including $30 million in punitive damages, after a man was catastrophically injured in a motorcycle collision with an Amazon van on Orangeburg Road in Summerville, South Carolina. This distracted driving case marks the first time Amazon has tested with a jury the issue of whether the online retail and global logistics giant will be held responsible for injuries caused by one of its 285,000 Amazon Delivery Associates (drivers) it calls independent contractors. 
Yarborough Applegate attorneys David Yarborough, Alexandra Heaton, and William Applegate, working alongside Nick Clekis of the Clekis Law Firm in Charleston, represented a motorcyclist who sustained a traumatic brain injury and numerous orthopedic injuries in September 2021 when an Amazon Delivery Associate failed to yield to the right of way and turned left directly into his path. We filed suit against the driver, the local delivery company MJV Logistics, and Amazon, Amazon Services, and Amazon Logistics Inc. Source.
 
Guest Bios:
David Yarborough
David has a history of achieving record-breaking jury verdicts and settlements for his clients. In December 2023, David and partners obtained a $44.6 million jury verdict against Amazon.com, Inc. in the first case to hold Amazon vicariously liable under an agency theory for the vicarious and negligent acts of its delivery drivers, whom Amazon claims are independent contractors. This was the largest personal injury verdict ever awarded in conservative Dorchester County and is believed to be one of the largest jury verdicts in South Carolina history in an injury case not involving death. Read more about this case here.
In October 2021, David achieved the largest dram shop verdict ever in Charleston County, South Carolina, for the sale of alcohol to minors by a Sunoco gas station. David and the firm also achieved one of the top 100 jury verdicts in the United States from their $35.9 million verdict against PEPCO in conservative Montgomery County, Maryland.
David has collected jury verdicts and settlements totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for his catastrophically injured clients in cases involving bad faith against insurance companies; industrial plant injuries resulting in worker deaths; product liability from automobile rollovers and industrial machine injuries; toxic chemical spills by railroad companies; pool drownings; trucking and auto accidents; nursing home and daycare negligence; dram shop and alcohol liability negligence by bars and restaurants; and negligence by retail stores, energy companies, apartment complexes, hotels, and construction contractors for job-site, balcony collapse and premises injuries.
He is a member of the Charleston Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), the South Carolina Association of Justice, the American Association for Justice, the Charleston County Bar’s Mental Wellness Committee, Lawyers Helping Lawyers, and the Board of Regents of TriCounty Family Ministries. For the past twenty-five years, David has been heavily involved in mentoring and counseling people suffering from alcoholism and addiction who are seeking recovery. He places a large emphasis on giving back to the local community through free legal work and generous financial and service contributions to local charities each year. He and his wife, Jessica, are Charleston natives and have four children.
Prior to founding Yarborough Applegate, David was a partner at another Charleston-based law firm, where he was part of a national trial team defending products liability cases in trials across the United States. His experience handling natio

This week, Steve and Yvonne interviewed Lee Hunt of Hunt Law Firm (https://huntlaw.com/).
 
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Case Details:
James Razo, age 55, suffered a spinal cord injury while working on Only the Brave, a movie about a group of elite hotshot firefighters filmed in 2016. Mr. Razo was transporting camera equipment, which tipped over, crushing him. He suffered a spinal cord injury, internal injuries, and brain damage. 
 
Guest Bio:
Lee Hunt
You want to know more about your lawyer than whether he is capable of handling your case. By the end of the case, you and your lawyer better trust each other, know each and honestly care about each other. My belief is that to help a person in a legal crisis, I must know you as a person – not just another case.That means you should know more about me than where I went to school.
I am a husband. My wife Kristi is a native New Mexican who grew up on a cattle ranch in Roy, New Mexico. Her family settled the ranch back in the early 1940s and have raised cattle and kids there ever since.
I am a father. I have three wonderfully full of life children.
I am also a Christian. My faith and my belief in redemption is what drives me to do this work. I don’t think that you have to be a trial attorney to make the world better and to live in the likeness of Jesus, but it is what makes sense to me. If I can help people in crisis and be a calm witness in the midst of the storm, then maybe God can use that to His Glory.
I am also an athlete. I love to get away from everything with a hard run in early morning hours or a solitary bike ride.
I have raced the Hawaii Ironman twice and ran 100 miles at the Leadville Trail 100. I think balance in life is difficult to find, but even harder to get back aligned when out of whack. Trust me when I say, that I work as hard as anyone I know, but I will always find time for my family and for myself. In the end that time away makes me a better lawyer.
As a lawyer, I have always wanted to try difficult cases to juries. To be respected by the other side, they must know that we are willing to fight all the way to the end and get results in Court. Our track record at trial speaks to who we are and how far we are willing to go to make things right.
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Show Sponsors:
Legal Technology Services - LegalTechService.com
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Harris Lowry Manton LLP - hlmlawfirm.com
 
Free Resources:
Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 1
Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 2

This week, we're replaying a classic episode where Steve and Yvonne interviewed Kyle Farrar and Wesley Ball of Farrar and Ball, LLP (http://fbtrial.com/).
 
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Case Details:
Farrar & Ball trial attorneys Kyle Farrar and Wesley Ball share how they secured justice for Shanika Brown and her infant daughter, who underwent arm and leg amputations, respectively, after being ejected from a car that hit a blown truck tire from a concrete mixer owned by Silvi Concrete on I-295 in New Jersey. The failed Bridgestone L315 tire, which was poorly retreaded by McCarthy Tire and negligently maintained by Silvi Concrete, was left in the roadway and caused the car Brown and her daughter were riding in to swerve and crash. Bridgestone, the original manufacturer of the tire, settled pre-trial. McCarthy Tire settled early in the trial and Silvi Concrete settled with the infant daughter before the case was presented to the jury. A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania jury ultimately assigned 85 percent of the blame to Silvi Concrete. It returned a verdict of $10.6 million to Shanika Brown and $65,000 to Shanika's mother, who was driving the vehicle. Combined with delay damages, the verdict totaled $11.7 million.
 
Guest Bios:
Kyle Farrar
Kyle Farrar is a veteran litigator with an active trial caseload in state and federal courts across the country. He has secured record jury verdicts and settlements on behalf of individuals injured by dangerous products and reckless and negligent parties. In addition, he has taken leading roles in high-profile multidistrict litigation (MDL) in cases involving dangerous and defective medical products.
Kyle began his career at one of the nation’s largest law firms, representing Fortune 500 companies in multimillion-dollar lawsuits. He founded his firm to focus on representing individuals who have suffered catastrophic injuries caused by tire blowouts, tread separation, and tire failure linked to defective tires and automotive products.
Kyle is a national thought leader regarding tire and vehicle safety, and his work has helped spur manufacturers to improve safety and recall defective products. In this capacity, Kyle routinely assists peers and helps educate lawyers at product liability litigation conferences nationwide. He is often asked to assist as trial counsel in cases and trials, having appeared in Courts in over twenty different states and trying cases to a successful outcome in ten different states.
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Wesley Ball
In 2005 – three years after graduating from Baylor Law School – Wesley Todd Ball co-founded Farrar & Ball, LLP, and built it brick by brick to what it has become today. In 2013, the firm joined forces with Kaster & Lynch, LLP to create Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball, LLP, one of the top product liability law firms in the nation.
Mr. Ball’s work is concentrated on automotive defect cases, including tire failures, rollover incidents, airbag failures, seat failures, fuel-fed fire cases, and related design and manufacturing defects.  In addition, he has extensive experience handling major multiparty products liability litigation against virtually every major domestic and international vehicle manufacturer, tire company, and automotive component manufacturer in both state and federal court.  As such, Mr. Ball has tried cases to successful outcomes in eight different states, including Texas, Kentucky, Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Minnesota, California, and New Mexico.
Mr. Ball has earned some of the highest honors in the legal profession, including being selected by peer attorneys to Texas Super Lawyers every year since 2014. From 2009 to 2014, he was one of a very small number of Texas lawyers to be recognized by Texas Super Lawyers and its companion Rising Stars publication simultaneously.  The National Trial Lawyers organization has named him to its 40 under 40 and, most re

This week, Steve and Yvonne interviewed Matt Cook of Cook Law Group LLC (www.cook-lawgroup.com) and Shane Lazenby of Lazenby Law Group (lazlawgroup.com).
 
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Case Details:
On April 23, 2016, a fatal crash resulted in the loss of Taliah Freeman, a 32-year-old resident of Gainesville, GA, who lost her life in a devastating collision along Interstate 85 in Gwinnett County. Sandra Gallo, Freeman's mother, brought the case on behalf of her six-year-old son. The defendants in the case were C&T Durham Trucking Company of Greensboro, North Carolina, and ACE American Insurance Company. The case ended nearly eight years later, with a settlement totaling $10 million between the parties, with approximately 95% of the settlement amount going to Freeman's family. Source 
 
Guest Bios:
Matt Cook
Matt grew up in Northeast Georgia, the son of a single mom. While he and his mother had very little worldly means, they had grit, determination and a commitment to decency and fairness. Matt’s upbringing gave him a healthy respect for hard work and for standing up for the underdog. Matt spent three years working in cotton mills and other manual labor jobs before graduating college and attending law school. After graduating law school, Matt joined a nationally renowned trial lawyer firm where he spent six years as an associate and five years as a partner handling a broad range of complex, catastrophic injury and death cases across the United States ranging from trucking collisions to product liability claims and everything in between. Matt is a frequent speaker at trial lawyer seminars, has published numerous articles, and has served as an expert witness in several cases. Matt is an aviation enthusiast and has his private pilot’s license. Matt’s unique style, genuine empathy, ability to relate to juries, and fearlessness have led to hundreds of millions of dollars of recoveries for clients. Matt has secured more than $225 million for clients in just the past 10 years.
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Shane Lazenby
Shane Lazenby is the founder and managing member of Lazenby Law Group. After more than a decade of defending those accused of negligence in personal injury cases, Shane decided to reverse course and help the victims of serious injuries. With unparalleled compassion and limitless commitment, Shane quickly learned how much more rewarding and uplifting service as a victim’s advocate can be. Shane now focuses his practice on helping the victims of catastrophic personal injury and the families whose loved ones have passed as a result of the negligence of another.
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Show Sponsors:
Legal Technology Services - LegalTechService.com
Digital Law Marketing - DigitalLawMarketing.com
Harris Lowry Manton LLP - hlmlawfirm.com
 
Free Resources:
Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 1
Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 2

This week Steve and Yvonne interview Jude Basile of The Basile Law Firm (https://www.basilelaw.com/).
 
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Guest Bio:
Jude Basille
Jude first began practicing law in 1982. Over the years, he has earned numerous awards as a result of his fierce dedication to protecting families and people. Jude has been named Trial Lawyer of the Year four times, and Outstanding Trial Lawyer nine times by various trial lawyer organizations. He is the only lawyer between Los Angeles and San Francisco to be part of the prestigious Inner Circle of Advocates, a national invitation-only organization that includes only the 100 top plaintiff trial lawyers in the United States. In addition, he has earned the highest rating among his peers in the legal community while enjoying the friendship and gratitude of his clients. 
Nothing gives him more satisfaction, however, than finding out and overcoming injustice in the form of abuse of power and corporate greed - a mission he began in childhood. Those who know Jude best will tell you he demonstrates a depth of intensity that even those who oppose him in the courtroom cannot deny. He is simply the very best at what he does, and believes in quality over quantity when it comes to caseload, spending time with his clients in order to better understand each unique situation.
Jude is an invited speaker and presenter at numerous State Bar Associations and invited to teach at various Trial Lawyer programs. 
EDUCATION
University of Notre Dame
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania B.A. Social Science
Indiana University of Pennsylvania M.S. Business
Thomas Jefferson School of Law J.D. with honors
BAR ADMISSIONS 
US Supreme Court
California 1982
Georgia 1982 (inactive)
US Federal Court
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Show Sponsors:
Legal Technology Services - LegalTechService.com
Digital Law Marketing - DigitalLawMarketing.com
Harris Lowry Manton LLP - hlmlawfirm.com
 
Free Resources:
Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 1
Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 2