Environmental & Toxic Tort Practice Group

The Environmental and Toxic Tort practice group of Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin has long been one of the most active practice groups in our litigation endeavors in the states of Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, Delaware and Ohio. Our group focuses on the representation of defendants in toxic tort personal injury actions, environmental property damage claims, environmental remediations and insurance coverage disputes arising out of environmental or toxic tort matters.

Since the inception of toxic tort litigation, we have been heavily involved in a wide variety of such matters. Beginning in the mid-1970's, we represented Johns Manville Corporation, the largest manufacturer of asbestos products in North American, in all asbestos litigation in eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. Since the establishment of the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust in the late 1980's, we have served as Northeast Region Consulting Counsel for the Trust. In addition, we have represented other major corporations in both personal injury and property damage asbestos matters. We also have defended numerous clients in cases arising from exposure to TCE, PCB's, welding fumes, adhesives, pesticides, epoxies, asphalt fumes, silica, lead paint, toxic dusts, formaldehyde, gasoline, commercial lubricants, HVAC contaminants and other allegedly toxic materials, and we have actively participated in class action and multi-district litigation in the toxic tort field.

In addition, our attorneys have handled numerous environmental matters. We have represented a great number of clients in litigation arising out of Superfund landfill clean-ups, private cost recovery actions, soil or ground water contamination, drinking water contamination, leaking underground storage tanks, indoor air pollution (sick building syndrome) and others.

In conjunction with our firm's Insurance Coverage and Appellate Advocacy practice groups, we also represent insurance carriers in insurance coverage matters which arise out of underlying environmental or toxic tort cases and in which a thorough knowledge of the environmental and toxic tort areas is crucial to proper handling of coverage issues.

An understandable concern of every client in significant environmental and toxic tort cases is the extent of legal fees and costs. Our firm began as an insurance defense firm and, although we have expanded our practice areas considerably, we have never lost our sensitivity to our clients' desire to control legal expenses. This is especially true in the environmental and toxic tort areas where multi-party, complex cases make control of expenses all that more important. We always handle cases with a practical, result-oriented approach which balances strong representation of our clients with realistic cost containment. In addition to our fees being very competitive, we work with our clients to develop innovative, alternative approaches to normal file handling which result in considerable savings to our clients without sacrificing quality representation.

We would welcome the opportunity to work with you in handling your environmental and toxic tort litigation. We are also available to give presentations or to conduct training seminars on environmental and toxic tort topics at your location or ours.

Inquirers and referrals concerning environmental or toxic tort matters should be directed to: