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Watch as Sacramento personal injury attorneys at Kershaw Cook & Talley describe their approach to handling client cases. For a free consultation, call today!

A veteran attorney with well over 40 years of experience, William “Bill” A. Kershaw is the managing partner at Kershaw, Cook & Talley. His decades in practice and the results he has secured are evidence of just how much of an influence a committed attorney can have for a client, particularly in the field of personal injury law. He has focused exclusively on representing the injured and wronged since 1983.

Over the past 22 years, Stuart C. Talley has built a name for himself as a talented and aggressive litigator. Primarily focusing his practice on mass torts, consumer class actions, and other complex litigation, Stuart has worked across the country in state and federal courts to protect his clients’ interests. He has gained national attention for his prosecutorial skills and the results he has been able to achieve against large corporations and their subsidiaries.

October 21, 2019 is the deadline to file a claim in bankruptcy court. Do not let this deadline pass. Call Kershaw, Cook & Talley at 530-531-8862 for more information on the claims filing process.

Stuart Talley gives an update on the ongoing Camp Fire litigation involving Pacific Gas & Electric's recent bankruptcy filing.

In a recent order, the court set forth a procedure for the selection of what is often referred to as “bellwether cases.” In a case where there are thousands of individual cases pending in one court, judges will often use the bellwether trials as a way to achieve a global settlement. The “bellwether trials” or “bellwether cases” are the cases that are selected to go to trial first. The idea is that if you obtain jury verdicts in 5-10 “typical” cases, reasonable parties should be able agree on a global settlement program that can be used to resolve or settle the remaining cases. Presently, the first bellwether case is scheduled to be tried in January 2021. Here, the process used by the court to select the bellwether cases is unique. First, 150 plaintiffs will be randomly selected to be included in the bellwether pool. After this is completed, each side (the defendant and plaintiffs) will select an additional 25 cases to be part of the pool. Second, after the 200 cases are chosen, each plaintiff will fill out what is a called a Plaintiff Fact Sheet, or “PFS”. A PFS is essentially a long questionnaire where each plaintiff is required to provide detailed information about their treatment, background, and injuries. After the fact sheets are submitted, the parties and the court will then narrow down the pool to a much smaller group of cases. At that point, the parties will then begin the process of deposing witnesses and doctors and getting the cases ready for trial.

Today the court entered an order that is designed to organize the plaintiffs attorneys in the TDF litigation that is now pending in the San Francisco Superior Court. Specifically, the court has entered a series of orders establishing Liaison Counsel, Lead Counsel, a Plaintiff’s Steering Committee, and a Plaintiff’s Executive Committee. The reason these orders are required is that there are several hundred individual plaintiffs’ law firms who have TDF cases pending in the court. The appointment of liaison and lead counsel is designed to create efficiencies and provide “one voice” when plaintiffs are dealing with the court and the defendant. Liaison counsel is appointed to ensure the orderly communication between the court and the numerous plaintiff’s attorneys around the country who have TDF cases. Kershaw Cook & Talley has been appointed to serve as Liaison counsel in this litigation. Lead counsel in the case oversees the overall litigation strategy. Lead counsel presides over the Plaintiffs’ Steering and Executive Committees and determines what actions will take place on the plaintiff’s side of the case. The Steering and Executive committees serve two primary purposes. First, they all contribute money to help fund the overall litigation. Cases against large pharmaceutical companies require the expenditure of millions of dollars in expenses for discovery and experts. By pooling resources, these two committees are able to match the unlimited resources at the disposa

Today the court in the TDF cases pending in the San Francisco County Superior Court entered an order regarding the manner in which plaintiffs can file “complaints.” A complaint is essentially the lawsuit that is filed to initiate an action against the defendant. The complaint provides all of the factual allegations against the defendant and puts them on notice of the various claims or “causes of action” that are being asserted by a plaintiff against it. In a case such as this, where there are hundreds lawyers and plaintiffs, the case can become unwieldly if each firm files their own individual complaint with their own factual allegations. To avoid numerous individual issues and to streamline the litigation process, the court approved a process whereby plaintiffs can simply adopt a “master complaint.” The master complaint contains a uniform and thorough recitation of the facts of the case and contains a list of all the causes of action that could be asserted by individual plaintiffs. This order will make it easier for new plaintiff to file claims against the defendant.