Timothy D Wittlinger
Asbestos
Clark Hill attorneys are national and local leaders in asbestos litigation. We represent clients in a variety of issues stemming from asbestos including in personal injury, premises and property damage asbestos litigation.
Our experience with asbestos litigation includes acting as litigation national coordinating defense counsel for a global automotive corporation. In our role as national coordinating counsel, we develop defense strategies, expert witnesses, and supervise and assist local counsel in successfully implementing strategies for the defense of thousands of asbestos-related bodily injury cases litigated nationwide. Additionally, in our role as national coordinating counsel, our attorneys are involved in the oversight of more than 30,000 individual cases throughout the United States. The firm’s state-of-the-art technology allows us to track individual claimants and key data in each of the 30,000 cases.
We also regularly represent other corporations in asbestos-related litigation throughout the state of Michigan.
Clark Hill attorneys are actively involved in the development and implementation of creative motion practice, settlement strategies, strategic appeals and trial strategies for our clients involved in asbestos litigation. We strive to achieve the best possible results for our clients in the most efficient and effective manner possible.
Product Liability
Clark Hill attorneys represent clients involved in product liability cases and issues on national, regional and local levels. Our attorneys' understanding of the nature of this litigation and the serious exposure it represents has resulted in an approach which has proven successful: we partner with our clients to fully understand the issues involved in each case and develop a focused strategy to accomplish the goals of the client.
Our attorneys know how products are engineered and how marketing of those products takes place. In developing a close working relationship with each of our clients, our attorneys are able to establish a deeper understanding of the clients business. Simply put, that which we do not know we will learn quickly and efficiently.
Today's product litigation environment requires a broad variety of services to achieve the goals of our clients. This may be as direct as handling a single case pending in Michigan to the national coordination of discovery, development of national trial teams, identification and development of experts in a number of disciplines, coordination of unique alternative dispute systems, focus group coordination as well as a number of other creative approaches. We act as national coordinating counsel for major manufactures in medical device litigation, toxic torts and asbestos. We act as national trial counsel for several manufactures of industrial equipment as well as others. This level of service also requires us to be on the cutting edge of technology including, but not limited to, the logistics required in document intensive cases and the development and support of computer generated demonstrative aids currently used in courtrooms across the nation.
While we are proud of our accomplishments in trial, several of our attorneys are also members of prestigious professional organizations such as the American College of Trial Lawyers, American Board of Trial Advocates, International Association of Defense Counsel, Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel and the Product Liability Advisory Council, and have been invited faculty members at IADC's Trial Academy and the ABA TIPS Trial Academy, we nonetheless recognize that on occasion a clients needs are best served by resolution through other means. We bring a creative approach to alternative dispute resolution vehicles. We have experience with summary jury trials, mediations, facilitation, case evaluation, formal and informal arbitrations among other techniques. Our attorneys have specialized training in all of these techniques.
When trial is required, we are well recognized for its experience and innovation. We have experience in participating and coordination of jury research such as focus groups, mock trials as well as other means of identifying and narrowing approaches for trial when the situation calls for such resources.
For example, our firm was recently called upon to defend a foreign manufacturer of a consumer product that was alleged to have caused a residential fire that resulted in the unfortunate death of three individuals. Several types of surveys and focus groups were used to narrow the approach to be taken at trial, and the matter resulted in the client being found not liable, and no damages were awarded.
We have had the opportunity to work with corporations and companies of all sizes and on projects of several types including by way of example manufactures involved in the following:
* Automobiles
* Trucks
* Motorcycles
* Aircraft
* Industrial Equipment
* Construction Equipment
* Material Handling Equipment
* Consumer Products
* Chemical solvents and plastics
* Medical Devices
* Tobacco products
* Food products
* Warranty Litigation
We also provide clients with assistance in the area of product liability prevention. This can include working with clients on recall and/or retrofit campaigns, warning labels, operators manuals, disclaimers, indemnity agreements, insurance coverage issues to name a few. Additionally Clark Hill attorneys stand ready to assist its clients when a crisis situation arises involving a product they design, manufacture or distribute. It is then that our innovation, work ethic, creativity and knowledge of the law can assist in building a management strategy based on sound legal principals.
Litigation
Clark Hill prides itself in more than 110 years of successful litigation experience in Michigan as well as throughout the United States. Our current litigation practice group consists of a diverse team of more than 60 attorneys and support professionals who are dedicated to carrying on the Clark Hill tradition of quality legal representation. That tradition is built on unwavering core values such as hard work, integrity, and providing clear and honest advice. It is our litigation team’s dedication to those core values that makes Clark Hill the law firm of choice for all litigation needs.
We have a strong history of vigorous courtroom advocacy on behalf of our clients on both a state and federal level. But we are also mindful that often times, our clients are best served by resolving the matter before it reaches the courtroom through various forms of alternative dispute resolution. Members of our litigation team are skilled negotiators, who have successfully resolved matters at mediation, facilitation, arbitration, and in administrative proceedings before state and federal agencies.
Our experience is as wide and varied as our clients’ businesses and legal needs. Our client base includes public and private corporations, charitable organizations, educational and nonprofit institutions, municipalities, governmental agencies, and individual enterprises. Our attorneys’ widely recognized skills and abilities, along with the depth of our bench, enable us to effectively handle every litigation matter.
Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer - National Board of Legal Specialty Certification
Timothy D Wittlinger
Clark Hill PLC
500 Woodward Ave #3500
Detroit MI 48226-3435
Tel: 313 965-8300
Fax: 313 965-8252
E-mail: twittlinger@clarkhill.com
Areas of Practice
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Asbestos
- Commercial Litigation
- Construction Law
- Insurance Defense
- Insurance Litigation
- Litigation
- Product Liability
- Professional Responsibility
Timothy D. Wittlinger specializes in commercial and complex litigation. His particular specialty is technical contract litigation involving defective products, breach of warranty claims, and other matters involving interface with technical experts and engineers. He gained such technical expertise while studying engineering at Purdue University.
Timothy has represented owners and contractors in complex construction cases, both in litigation and arbitration. He has been involved in a number of real estate litigation matters. He has had experience in products liability matters involving injury and death to plaintiffs as a result of defective products or improper industrial operations. He is certified as a specialist in Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of trial Advocacy.
Timothy maintains a professional responsibility and professional liability practice, specializing in ethics, the rules of professional conduct, risk management and attorney liability issues. He is Of Counsel to the firm having served as General Counsel of the Firm from 1991 through 2007. He has spoken and written on legal ethics and professional responsibility for the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL) and the Institute for Continuing Legal Education. In the professional liability area, Timothy has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in medical, legal and accounting malpractice suits.
Timothy also has an extensive alternative dispute resolution practice. He serves as a case evaluator for the Oakland County Circuit Court, and has been appointed a special mediator by the court in connection with a number of complex litigation cases.
Timothy often lectures on legal matters. He has participated in both live and videotape seminars for the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, the National Business Institute, the Federal Bar Association and the Center for International Legal Studies (CILS).
He has been a lecturer in the Student Trial Advocacy Program at Wayne State University Law School and serves each year as a volunteer "judge" for the Moot Court Program at the University of Michigan Law School. He has written on the Michigan Court Rules for the Michigan Bar Journal, and authored a chapter on evidence for the CILS treatise on International Judicial Assistance in Civil Matters. He has accepted a position as Visiting Professor of International Law at Southern Federal University Law School in Rostov-on Don, Russia for the Fall Quarter, 2008.
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