Smith Phillips Mitchell & Scott ...when results count.

FEATURED ARTICLE

$30 Million for Brain-Damaged Teenager

Bob Morris, Smith Phillips Trucking Litigation Attorney, Featured in Lawyers USA

Personal injury and wrongful death litigation is a major focus at Smith Phillips Mitchell Scott & Nowak. Since the firm’s inception in 1974, Smith Phillips has been active in Mississippi personal injury litigation. Founding partners Briggs Smith and Richard Phillips are both long-time activists in the American Association for Justice (AAJ) and the Mississippi Association for Justice (MAJ). Partner Paul Scott is a past president of the Mississippi Association for Justice (MAJ).

Smith Phillips has handled many "landmark" personal injury cases, including leading cases in the use of demonstrative evidence in wrongful death and railroad grade crossing litigation [Young v. Illinois Central Railroad], and the famous Presley v. Mississippi Highway Commission case that resulted in the abolition of sovereign immunity in Mississippi and adoption of the Mississippi Tort Claims Act.

Mississippi provides a unique venue for personal injury litigation. The state was one of the first to adopt "pure" comparative negligence, rendering viable many claims for personal injury that could not be brought elsewhere.  Mississippi law is also favorable to the plaintiff in areas of venue, statutes of limitations, damages for wrongful death, and punitive damages.

Partner Richard T. Phillips is the author of "Wrongful Death," in the Matthew Bender national treatise, AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT LAW & PRACTICE (1988), and the book, GUIDE TO YOUR CASE FOR PERSONAL INJURIES. Partner Briggs Smith is board certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy as a civil trial specialist, with emphasis on personal injury and wrongful death litigation. Founding partners Phillips and Smith have both lectured extensively on trial practice, personal injury damages, and wrongful death litigation.

Smith Phillips’ personal injury and wrongful death practice is limited primarily to major litigation. It has included cases for injuries and deaths from automobile and truck wrecks, premises injuries and deaths, such as the death of a college student from fall from roof of fraternity house, and deaths [See Prominent Cases] and injuries resulting from defectively designed roads and highways, electrical utilities, railroad crossings, and defective products of all kinds. [See "Products Liability"]