When a church group rented a 15-passenger van in West Virginia to attend a convention in New York, they had no idea that the vehicle they rented had been the subject of multiple consumer advisories by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration due to its poor handling ability during emergency accident avoidance maneuvers. Tragically, as the group headed to the convention, the vehicle was involved in a catastrophic rollover accident, during which multiple passengers were injured and/or killed.
Florida product liability attorney Hampton Keen was requested by West Virginia counsel to take over as lead counsel on the case after the case had been in litigation for four years with no offers from the defendants and no trial date. Having handled multiple 15-passenger van cases in the past, Mr. Keen requested critical documents from the defendants in moving the case toward trial. Ultimately, the defendants settled all of the cases within 18 months of Keen taking over the litigation.