Patton & Ryan Stands Firm on Case Evaluation: Leads to Plaintiff Caving
April 24, 2020
As trial attorneys, we here at Patton & Ryan believe in preparing a case for trial unlike other firms who prepare cases to settle. Because of this philosophy, we are able to successfully resolve matters in our clients’ favor. That was the case when a major steel manufacturer lost an enormous amount of money through its own actions and inactions in managing its Detroit, Michigan Great Lakes Works facility which ultimately resulted in the death of a crane operator. US Steel suffered property destruction and months of operations outage when a downcomer collapsed and a crane overturned. US Steel sought to recoup these damages from multiple parties. One of those parties was Monarch Welding who retained Patton & Ryan to protect them from an egregious claim well in excess of its policy limits where the facts showed that Monarch never even had a chance to perform work before the catastrophe of equipment failure shut down the facility.
Senior Partner John W. Patton, Jr., along with multiple supporting trial team members, fought and received a defense-friendly Michigan Case Evaluation award, Partial Summary Disposition ruling, a successful Daubert motion barring the testimony of a key US Steel expert witness on damages, nearly every single Defense motion in limine, but also a motion allowing us to call the General Litigation Counsel for US Steel as a trial witness. Patton & Ryan continued to push its trial strategy through three court-ordered settlement conferences and always maintained our commitment to trying the case before a Wayne County, Detroit, Michigan jury. John flew from jury selection in one case in Pennsylvania to attend the third court-ordered settlement conference when the judge threatened to jail our adjuster for contempt when he held firm on Patton & Ryan’s trial evaluation.
Ultimately, every chance we got, Patton & Ryan ensured that US Steel knew we had every intention of trying the case and would do whatever it took to successfully and zealously defend our client. Accordingly, because Patton & Ryan tries cases, on the eve of trial with just a few days remaining before jury selection, the Plaintiff accepted a very low offer which was a mere fraction of a percentage of what they were seeking from our client.
Because Patton & Ryan prepares cases for trial beginning even at the pre-suit stage all the way to verdict, we are able to successfully resolve cases in a manner which benefits our clients. It is quite clear to our opponents from the time we enter a case until we win that Patton & Ryan does whatever it takes to get a case ready for a victorious defense leaving no stone unturned and no defense argument unexplored.