Stephen A. Weiss Named Finalist for the 2010 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award
June 11, 2010
Seeger Weiss LLP is proud to announce that the Public Justice Foundation has named Stephen A. Weiss a finalist for the 2010 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. Mr. Weiss and his co-trial counsel have been honored for their work in Owens v. ContiGroup Companies, and are among five finalists who are being considered for this prestigious honor. The winner will be announced at a banquet dinner on July 13, 2010 in Vancouver, BC Canada.The nomination comes in the wake of a verdict this past March against giant agro-business Premium Standard Farms, when a Missouri jury awarded $11.05 million to the 15 small family farms neighboring PSF’s large-scale pork production facility in Gentry County, MO. Mr. Weiss and his co-trial counsel Richard Middleton of Savannah, GA and Charlie Speer of Kansas City, MO have led the charge against PSF’s giant factory farms, whose careless and illegal disposal of tens of millions of gallons of hog feces and other wastes degrade the air and land around them. As co-lead counsel for the neighboring farmers’ whose lives and livelihoods had been handicapped by overpowering hog odors produced by some 200,000 hogs annually, Mr. Weiss proved to the jury, seated in Jackson County, Missouri, that Premium Standard Farms had failed to sufficiently address the problem in the 11 years since the Missouri Attorney General issued an order to do so. This verdict – which follows a $4.5 million jury verdict in 2006 against the same defendants – is believed to be the largest monetary award against a hog farm in an odor nuisance case in the United States.
Members of the Public Justice Foundation’s Case Evaluation Committee evaluate nominated cases using the following criteria:
1. The dedication, tenacity, and skill of the trial lawyer involved. This includes the length of the case, the strategic and tactical skill involved, the obstacles and pitfalls overcome, the difficulty of the procedural hurdles, and trial strategy.
2. The public interest significance of the case. This includes the public interest issues that were litigated, the novelty of the issues involved, the importance of the case, whether the case made “new law,” and whether it affected others similarly situated.
3. The harmfulness of the defendant’s conduct. This includes the enormity of the wrong committed by the defendant and the degree of suffering or victimization of the plaintiffs.
4. The result. This includes the specific relief obtained and whether it is final, including the amount of damages and/or the nature and extent of injunctive relief obtained, any other results obtained, the current status of the case, and whether an appeal was taken and won.
5. The extent to which the case advances any of the goals set forth in the Public Justice Foundation’s mission statement: to protect people and the environment; to hold accountable those who abuse power; to challenge governmental, corporate, and individual wrongdoing; to increase access to the courts; to combat threats to our judicial system; and to inspire lawyers and others to serve the public interest.
Mr. Weiss's continued efforts to hold giant corporations accountable for the callous destruction they wreak upon the environment have yielded tangible results and improved the lives of his clients and their communities. We are proud of his work on Owens v. ContiGroup Companies, and his inclusion among the 2010 Trial Lawyers of the Year is a fitting accomplishment. On behalf of the entire firm, we extend our sincerest congratulations to Mr. Weiss for this fitting honor.
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