Civil Litigation Attorney

What is Civil Litigation?

Generally, there are two types of cases in the law: civil and criminal.  Civil disputes are non-criminal conflicts between two or more people, businesses or other entities.  In civil litigation, the parties do not and cannot obtain criminal sanctions, but instead may be awarded money damages, specific performance (where a Judge orders a party to perform a specific act), or other relief.  Some misconduct or events can involve both areas of law and result in two separate proceedings.  For example, if a crime is committed it could lead to a criminal trial of the defendant (brought by the government), with the victims filing a separate civil suit against the defendant to recover damages caused by the crime.

Civil litigators are attorneys that have the experience and knowledge to take a civil dispute all the way to trial if a settlement cannot be reached.  Civil litigators are attorneys who should be comfortable with conflict, controversy and most importantly, the courtroom.  In fact, an attorney who practices in civil litigation is often referred to as a “trial attorney.”

What types of cases are civil?

There are many types of civil cases.  For example, civil cases may include business or contract disputes, contested wills, employment discrimination, divorces and family disputes, as well as injuries stemming from automobile accidents, medical malpractice, defective products or harmful medical drugs and devices.  However, in cases involving injuries, most civil litigators represent the plaintiffs (the injured party) or the defendant (the party alleged to have caused the injury), but not both.

How are civil cases resolved?

When a civil dispute cannot be resolved without intervention of the court, one party (called the “Plaintiff”) files a complaint against another (called the “Defendant”).  This is the filing of a lawsuit.  The Defendant receives notice of the lawsuit and is given an opportunity to answer.  The parties then “discover” relevant information and evidence to support their respective claims or defenses.  Depositions may be taken.  Depositions involve the taking of an oral statement of a witness under oath. Often the Court will try to facilitate a mutually agreeable resolution or a “settlement.”  If the parties cannot agree, however, the matter will proceed to trial.  The trial may include a jury. To learn more about how lawsuits and courts work, visit the American Bar Association’s public resource center by clicking here.

Why is it important to retain an aggressive and experienced civil trial attorney?

Retaining an aggressive and experienced trial attorney is important as many types of civil claims can be difficult, expensive and lengthy. Even relatively straightforward issues can quickly escalate into a complex matter.  A competent trial attorney should not assume a case will settle.  Instead, the trial attorney should begin preparing the case for trial from day one. This preparation often helps in settlement negotiations, as the opposing party understands that the attorney is ready, willing and able to take the matter all the way to trial if needed.

Attorney Pamela Borgess is an aggressive and experienced civil trial attorney.

Attorney Pamela A. Borgess, the founder of Borgess Law, LLC, handles various types of civil litigation, including personal injury, defective medical drugs/devices or recalled consumer products, car & truck accidents, wrongful death, product liability, nursing home litigation, and contract/business disputes .

Ms. Borgess has extensive experience with numerous national high-profile cases.  For example, Ms. Borgess received national attention when she was the first attorney to file suit regarding the tainted drug, Heparin, which was manufactured by a U.S. drug company at an uninspected facility in China and took the lives of hundreds of innocent Americans in late 2007 and early 2008.  In April of 2008, she was honored to have three of her clients speak before Congress at an investigational hearing entitled, “The Heparin Disaster: Chinese Counterfeits and American Failures.”  Their stories have been featured in various news media, including, but not limited to, ABC Nightly News, Nightline, Time Magazine, CNN and Bloomberg News. As a result of her work in contaminated Heparin litigation, Ms. Borgess was appointed a top leadership position in In re Heparin Products Liability Litigation, MDL 1953 and helped lead the litigation against Baxter, SPL and other Defendants.

Attorney Borgess has also been involved with many other national litigations/mass torts/class actions including litigation involving Yasmin/Yaz®, Syngenta GMO corn, Actos®, Benicar®, DePuy ASR® Hips, Granuflo®, Lipitor®, Force Placed Insurance, Ford Crown Victoria, Power Morcellators, SSRI Antidepressants, Small Smiles Dentistry, Stryker Hip Implants, antitrust litigation, Testosterone, Transvaginal Mesh, Zimmer Knees, Xarelto®, Implanon®, Mirena®, Vioxx®, Zofran®, and Depakote®.

As a result of this extensive experience, Ms. Borgess is well-versed in all aspects of civil litigation, from the early stages of data collection and review, to depositions, Daubert hearings, trial and appeals. Attorney Borgess also has an understanding of complex medicolegal issues, including, but not limited to, understanding and simplifying complicated mechanisms of injury and successfully establishing generic and case-specific causation in mass torts.  Her experience has involved many disciplines, including pharmacology, pathology, epidemiology, immunology and biochemistry.  Her knowledge and experience in civil litigation has proved invaluable, allowing her to obtain sizable settlements and verdicts for thousands of clients locally and throughout the country.

In light of her knowledge and experience, Ms. Borgess has been repeatedly invited to speak on the Heparin litigation and other topics at the annual national conventions held by the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”) and Mass Torts Made Perfect.  In 2009, AAJ honored Ms. Borgess by asking her to act as moderator for their annual “Litigating Toxic Tort, Pharmaceutical and Medical Cases” seminar.  She has also been invited to speak at multiple legal and medical seminars on a variety of legal or medicolegal topics, including, trial strategy, mass torts/MDLs, establishing causation, expert testimony, legal/medical ethics, medical records, termination of the physician-patient relationship, sexual misconduct and harassment in the practice of medicine, Ohio’s “Good Samaritan” and related laws, and physician censure for expert witness testimony.

Attorney Borgess has been admitted to numerous Courts including the Ohio Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.  She has also been admitted pro hac vice or allowed under special order to appear in the California Central District Court, Indiana Northern District, Louisiana Eastern District, Massachusetts District, Minnesota District, Mississippi Northern District, New York Southern District, Texas Northern District, and West Virginia Southern District. She routinely works with attorneys across the country.

For more information about civil litigation, feel free to contact Borgess Law, LLC at (567) 455-5955.  You can also contact Borgess Law, LLC, by submitting an online inquiry or email Attorney Pamela Borgess directly at pborgess@BorgessLaw.com.  Borgess Law never charges a fee for an initial consultation. If your legal matter is not one that we handle, we will help you find an attorney who does.