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INJURY LAW

Read a guide to the legal rights of the injured.

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Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, represents people injured in tire and other vehicle accidents. Click here to submit your case.

VIDEO

Lieff Cabraser attorneys Robert J. Nelson and Scott Nealey discuss a wrongful death lawsuit based on a transmission defect in millions of Chrysler vehicles.

Vehicle Safety News

June 23, 2008

Nashville Post, "Local attorney takes on Ford over vehicle fires"

The big cases that plaintiff's lawyer Mark Chalos is pursuing right now are all about switches and ashes. Chalos, a partner at the local office of the national litigation firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, has filed suit against Ford Motor Co. on behalf of Nicole and Duanisha Mathews, who narrowly escaped from a burning Goodlettsville home one morning in June of last year. The lawsuit, filed in Davidson County Circuit Court on June 13, claims that a 2000 Ford Expedition - parked in the home's garage with its engine off - started the fire.

A faulty switch in the cruise-control mechanism set off that fire, the complaint asserts. And it says Ford knew the switches it had installed in millions of cars were dangerous but failed to correct the problem. It lays out in extensive detail what Ford's engineers supposedly knew and when they knew it regarding the tendency of the switches, manufactured by Texas Instruments Inc., to generate heat as they corrode.

In two other cases Chalos has brought against Ford, fires blamed on the switches caused fatalities. A 76-year-old man in San Antonio and a 4-year-old boy in Atlanta each died in house fires that started in parked Fords. More than 100 lawsuits over the switch fault have been filed in Texas alone, and Chalos was recently named to the plaintiffs' steering committee as a judge consolidated those cases. In a switch-related case brought against Ford by other lawyers in Laurens County, South Carolina, a jury last year awarded the plaintiffs $3.59 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

Learn more about Ford cruise-control switch fire injuries and your legal rights.

DEFECTIVE VEHICLES - PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEYS

We are committed to providing the very best representation and support possible for our vehicle injury clients, and to obtaining the highest compensation available under law for their claims.

Contact an attorney at Lieff Cabraser to discuss your legal rights at no cost or obligation.

OUR PROMISE TO YOU

Our lawyers have years of experience successfully representing clients in personal injury cases.
There is no charge or obligation for our review of your case.
In death and serious injury cases, we are pleased to visit you where you live, at no cost, to discuss your legal rights and answer your questions.
We have retained automotive safety and medical experts nationwide to assist our clients with their claims.

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, is a national plaintiffs' law firm of over 50 lawyers with offices in San Francisco, New York and Nashville. Our attorneys are recognized for the successful prosecution of lawsuits involving deaths, personal injuries and property damage due to defective products, including dangerous and defective vehicles.

In 2007, in Mraz v. DaimlerChrysler, Lieff Cabraser attorneys, with local co-counsel, obtained the fourth-largest verdict in California for the year. At trial, plaintiffs showed that a defective transmission was responsible for making a Dodge Dakota pickup shift into reverse and run over Richard Mraz.

To learn more about the firm, click here.

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