Alex has experience in several areas of personal injury and wrongful death litigation, including the high-profile ignition-switch litigation against General Motors. HMG represented injury victims and families of those killed in accidents caused by GM’s defective ignition switch and their concealment of safety defects. This multi-district litigation is considered the single largest product liability litigation in US history, resulting in a $575 million settlement.
Alex was recently appointed to serve on the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the Astroworld Litigation MDL No.: 21-1033 in the 11th Judicial District Court, Harris County, Texas. Further, in September 2018, Alex was appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Litigation Committee for the MSU/Nassar Class-Action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan.
In addition to the record-setting GM settlement, Alex has been involved in several notable verdicts and settlements.
In 2018, Alex was part of the HMG trial team in a product liability case against Yamaha Golf-Car Company, involving a golf cart that tipped over on a child causing a severe traumatic brain injury. After four weeks of trial, the jury verdict returned a verdict of $33 million in damages.
In December of 2019, and HMG’s most recent jury trial, Alex tried a case with HMG attorney John Duff involving wrongful death in a premises liability case against I&R Trucking. Our client was the widow of Juan Perez, a trucker and handyman, who died after falling through a roof after his employer asked him to replace a rooftop skylight. Despite the employer’s knowledge of the dangerous hazard, which had existed on the roof for years prior to the incident, the employer willfully failed to provide Mr. Perez with any fall protection training, instruction, or equipment.
The jury in San Patricio County, Texas, a notoriously conservative county, unanimously agreed that I&R Trucking was grossly negligent for its callous disregard of the safety and welfare of its employee. After only three days of trial, the jury returned a record breaking $18 million verdict, including $10 million in punitive damages. The verdict remains the single largest wrongful death verdict in a premises liability case in the history of San Patricio County, Texas.
Currently, Alex is part of a class action litigation team that represents diesel truck owners fighting against U.S. auto manufacturers — Ford, General Motors, FCA (Chrysler) — for allegedly selling millions of diesel trucks equipped with defective CP4 fuel injection pumps that disintegrate and destroy the truck’s engine, leaving consumers with repair bills that range from $8,000.00 to $20,000.00 per vehicle.
In addition to his successful verdicts and settlements, Alex has also had numerous court room successes as he’s fought to obtain justice for his clients.
Recently, Alex took on the corporate giant, Wal-Mart, fighting to obtain key smoking gun documents in a premises liability case involving a crane tip-over in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Corpus Christi, Texas. Plaintiffs alleged that Wal-Mart deliberately withheld the documents and further engaged in an attempt to deny their existence. However, Alex was successful in requiring Wal-Mart produce the documents in question after successfully obtaining a court order allowing Plaintiffs to forensically examine Wal-Mart’s Computers and Integrated Workplace Management System.
A Texas trial court in Nueces County later granted Plaintiffs’ Motion for Sanctions for Discovery Abuse against Wal-Mart ordered the corporate giant to pay $35,000 in sanctions for the discovery abuse. Alex stated, “Wal-Mart’s actions unequivocally demonstrate a well-orchestrated campaign designed to bury evidence in an effort to derail Plaintiffs’ carefully designed discovery program. Their “hide-and-seek” tactics illustrate Wal-Mart’s pre-meditated attempt to abuse the discovery process by denying the existence of certain crucial and relevant evidence. Unfortunately, nefarious conduct is all too common in lawsuits in which Wal-Mart is a party. Wal-Mart has chosen extreme discovery abuse as a litigation strategy. This case is just another example in a rapidly growing list of Wal-Mart’s egregious approach to discovery, a pattern that can no longer be ignored.”
He is also a sought-after speaker and he regularly presents on cutting-edge legal topics. This year, Alex will address audiences across the country about how law firms can improve results by conducting in-house mock trials. In the past year, Alex has lectured at the Advanced Personal Injury Law Conference in Dallas, on the latest tactics in the financial aspect of budgeting a personal injury lawsuit and was a featured speaker at the Texas ALP 2018 Fall Education Conference. Alex regularly speaks at continuing education events for the Texas Bar College and the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Civil Trial, Civil Appellate, and Personal Injury Trial Law, and was honored to speak at the Litiquest 2018 conference at Google Headquarters in New York.