Rick’s practice focuses on helping clients and their families when their lives have been irrevocably harmed by defective products and corporate wrongdoing. Whether it’s a dangerous tire, reckless trucking company or neglectful nursing home, Rick is a consumer safety advocate, fighting daily to ensure unsafe conduct and manufacturing practices are changed. During the 25 years he’s practiced law, Rick’s relentless efforts have forced the automobile & tire industries to issue product warnings & recalls, saving countless lives. By battling in the courtroom to provide medical care & compensation for injured clients, Rick has successfully garnered over $100 million dollars in settlements and verdicts.
Rick earned a national reputation as the “Tire Lawyer” for his experience in litigating more than 40 cases against every major tire manufacturer. Cases involving defective tires are challenging. They require a detailed knowledge of not just how tires are engineered, but also the tire makers’ practices & how they defend their unsafe products.
In addition to speaking regularly, Rick’s been interviewed by NBC, CBS, CNN & ABC news about tire safety. He’s also been featured in numerous periodicals, including Lawyers USA, Bloomberg News, the Akron News Journal and Strategic Safety.
Rick is admitted to the State Bar in Alabama & Mississippi and has been admitted on a case by case basis to 14 other state and federal courts. Wherever your case may be, Rick can help you! He is a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent-Rated attorney.
Rick is an honors graduate of Huntingdon College where he played baseball and also served as the as the Student Government President. He then went on to Cumberland School of Law of Samford University and graduated cum laude in 1991. At Cumberland, Rick served on the Editorial Board of the Cumberland Law Review & is a member of Curia Honoris.
Immediately following law school, Rick worked for a prominent Mobile defense firm, and it was here, he had his “Jerry MacGuire” moment & realized he didn’t want to defend companies who had no desire to fix their defective products. Rick’s early experience as a defense attorney gives him insight into how the “other side” thinks & is part of the reason he’s litigated cases so successfully. Previous to starting his own firm, Rick spent more than twenty years with a large Montgomery, AL plaintiff’s litigation firm. Initially, Rick handled consumer and insurance fraud cases, several of which resulted in seven-figure settlements and verdicts.
Rick’s desire to help the “little guy” steered his focus towards products liability & personal injury cases. In addition to the numerous cases Rick has handled against tire manufacturers, he has also represented clients with their cases against automobile manufacturers concerning defective seat belts, seats and seat backs, fuel systems, airbags, structural integrity and other vehicle components. He has also represented clients who were harmed by defects in motorcycles, saws, tractors, presses textiles and ATVs and large industrial machines. He also handles trucking and other catastrophic personal injury cases.
Over his career, he has litigated more than 40 product and personal injury cases resulting in seven-figure settlements and verdicts.
Rick is the past Chair for the Products Liability Section of the American Association for Justice and serves on the Executive Committee for the “Association”. In addition to conducting seminars relative to tires, Rick is a regular speaker at various national and state seminars concerning product liability issues and updates. He is the author of various papers and articles relative to Product Liability issues, including “The Hidden Dangers of Cargo Vans, The Overlooked Hazard,” “What you don’t know may kill you – Dangers of Aged Tires,” and “Unreasonable or Reckless: Tire Retailers’ Failure to Follow Aging Guidelines Can Cause Severe Injury or Death.”
Rick is a lifelong resident of Montgomery. He and his wife, Estee, have two children.
