California Railroad Accident Litigation
Jerome L. Ringler has greater experience in representing victims of commuter rail and freight train mass disasters than any other lawyer in the State of California, if not the country. He has served as lead counsel in every one of the largest commuter rail disasters which have occurred in Southern California in the past 10 years.
In the Placentia Commuter Rail Disaster of 2003, Mr. Jerome Ringler was appointed by the Court as lead counsel for all of the Plaintiffs. He was requested by all of the lawyers representing individuals injured or killed in that incident to try the first case. That case resulted in the largest verdict for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ever rendered by a jury in the United States. That verdict, which was for $9 million, is detailed below in the multimedia section.
In the Burbank Commuter Rail Disaster, which also occurred in 2003, Mr. Jerome Ringler was again appointed by the Court to serve as lead counsel. In that capacity he was given the responsibility to try the entire liability (i.e., fault) case for all of the victims. In other words, every one of the dozens of lawyers who represented individual victims in that disaster trusted Mr. Jerome Ringler to try the liability phase for them, knowing that their clients would only recover if Mr. Jerome Ringler was successful. He was. In fact, Mr. Jerome Ringler not only obtained a favorable verdict for all of the plaintiffs, he obtained a $12 million verdict for his own client as well. This verdict was the largest in the State of California for a person with the type of injuries Ringler Law Corporation's client had suffered. This verdict is detailed below in the multimedia section.
Mr. Jerome Ringler served as lead counsel for all plaintiffs in the Glendale Metrolink Derailment Disaster of 2005. This incident was, before September 12, 2008, the largest Metrolink disaster in history. Interestingly, in that case (which involves 11 deaths and dozens of serious injuries), Mr. Jerome Ringler against all odds, developed testimony proving that, even though a mentally-ill person placed a jeep across the tracks that the Metrolink train was traveling upon, human error on the part of the Metrolink engineer prevented him from stopping the train before hitting the jeep, which caused the train to derail. In other words, while the jeep certainly never should have been on the tracks, the Metrolink engineer would have been able to stop the train before ever striking the jeep had he only been paying proper attention. That case settled for 40 million dollars which given the level of difficulty encountered by plaintiffs was truly an outstanding result.
On September 12, 2008, an unprecedented tragedy occurred in Chatsworth, California when Metrolink Train #111 struck a Union Pacific freight train which was traveling on the same tracks. This tragedy should not have happened. It happened because of human error on the part of railroad employees. Unfortunately, as the lawyers of Ringler Law Corporation know well, human error by railroad engineers is not at all unique as a cause of commuter rail disasters. Mr. Jerome Ringler was appointed lead counsel in this tragedy, the largest commuter rail accident in U.S. history. This case settled for 200 million dollars, the largest settlement allowable under the law.
The verdicts detailed on this page were all obtained by Mr. Jerome Ringler and all relate to railroad litigation. However, Mr. Jerome Ringler has achieved enormous, record-breaking monetary awards across California in a variety of complex areas. Those accomplishments are detailed elsewhere in this website. To see them, click here.
Please feel free to contact us at your convenience. Ask for Mr. Jerome Ringler, or any of his partners, at 805-719-4903.
Selected Results
- $18 million recovered against a commuter rail service for victims who were injured and lost loved ones in a railroad disaster caused by negligent commuter line train operations.
- $13 million recovered against a commuter rail service for victims who were injured and lost loved ones in a railroad disaster caused by a deranged felon who left a Jeep on the tracks and was later convicted of eleven counts of first degree murder and one count of arson.
- $12 million verdict for a paraparetic victim of a truck vs. train collision where there were no lost wages and the plaintiff could walk with the assistance of a walker.
- $8.9 million verdict for a commuter train passenger who suffered facial fractures and post-traumatic stress disorder due to a collision caused by the negligence of another railroad.
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$6.75 million verdict for a commuter train passenger who suffered a closed head injury resulting in PTSD, and personality changes due to the negligence of a railroad.
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$4.5 million recovered for a switchman who lost his leg below the knee due to the negligence of the railroad.
