Congratulations to long-time friend and client, Dallas, TX-based attorneys Heygood, Orr & Pearson who recently secured a $1.25M jury verdict in Federal Court in Chicago on behalf of their client, 30-year-old Brandon Stollings. Mr. Stollings lost his index finger and parts of two other fingers when his Ryobi saw experienced a kickback, which occurs when wood pinches a table saw blade and forces it back toward the operator. Technology exists that would render these types of injuries avoidable, yet manufacturers failed to implement the technology.
Attorney Jim Orr talks about the technology in this brief interview:
https://youtu.be/kdG_4qqjMIA
This case is one of more than over a hundred similar table saw injury cases being litigated by Heygood, Orr & Pearson involving defective table saws. During the two-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, David Peot, former chief engineer for Ryobi, told jurors that the addition of a simple piece of curved metal – called a riving knife –would eliminate nearly all kickbacks. Despite this fix, Ryobi and most other manufacturers did not equip saws with riving knives until 2010.
Heygood, Orr & Pearson, a business litigation and personal injury law firm based in Dallas, TX, represents more than 90% of all victims of table saw injuries who have filed lawsuits. By holding these manufactures accountable, the Firm will help to prevent more unnecessary injuries like those suffered by Mr. Stollings. Click here for more details about the case as published in a recent PR Newswire.
Senior Vice President, Client Services
