CIVIL LITIGATION

          Capell & Howard’s litigation attorneys have the depth of knowledge and manpower and the experience to bring the appropriate resources to bear on its clients’ problems and, through thorough and efficient preparation, to provide aggressive, effective, and ethical representation whether at the administrative law level, in court, or in the context of an alternative dispute resolution process. See Alternative Dispute Resolution.

          The Firm’s attorneys regularly engage in the trial of lawsuits in many Alabama counties, in the United States District Courts in the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Alabama and, when necessary, in other jurisdictions and courts such as the United States Court of Federal Claims. Its appellate lawyers are experienced in the Alabama and federal appellate processes and have prosecuted, defended, and argued cases in the United States Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Alabama, other state courts of appeal, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

          The cornerstone of the Firm’s litigation practice is commercial and business litigation, although the Firm has continued to develop its insurance defense and workman’s compensation practices. The Firm’s litigation practice complements the Firm’s business, tax, real estate, and other administrative and transactional practices with its experience in civil and, on occasion, criminal litigation, related to: insurance laws, including coverage questions, marketing practices, and ERISA; commercial fraud and business torts and contracts; antitrust; trademark, copyright, and unfair business practices and competition; communications and public service laws; health care; employment and labor law, including workers compensation and negligent hiring; banks and other financial institutions; products liability and personal injury; construction disputes; securities and corporate governance matters; state and federal taxation; probate and trusts; real estate title, financing, and land use controversies; state and federal environmental laws; and state and federal constitutional issues which may bear on these or other areas. See also Construction and Government Contracts, Environmental, and Employment and Labor Relations, and Administrative and Governmental Affairs.

          The Firm has developed expertise in a number of specific areas of its civil litigation practice. For example, Connie Barker, former counsel to Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County (Alabama), devotes substantial attention to matters involving education law. Other attorneys have experience in matters of constitutional law and ERISA litigation. In the latter category, the Firm has from time to time represented employers defending ERISA-based claims and, on other occasions, the Firm has represented plan participants and beneficiaries pursuing such claims.

                    The Firm has considerable experience in analyzing unusual and complex cases, including state and national class actions and multiple action litigation, and developing creative responses. For example, the Firm recently devised and secured approval of an innovative strategy leading to the consolidation of over 170 cases filed against an insurer client in 15 separate counties before a special judge appointed for the sole purpose of handling discovery and pretrial matters in those cases. The Firm’s goal is to deliver first class, cost efficient litigation services in every case that it undertakes, whatever the stakes, and whether it is called upon by clients of long standing or, as has so often been the case, by out-of-state parties who find themselves ensnared in disputes that must be resolved in Alabama.