James D. Sill

James Sill has been a leader for more than 35 years in winning compensation for thousands of injury victims throughout the United States. In addition to obtaining more than $200 million in out-of-court settlements for his clients, Jim has prevailed in a series of multi-million-dollar jury verdicts against companies such as Ford, Honda, and Wyeth. He has won pharmaceutical jury verdicts with proof that manufacturers of medication have deceived the public about the risks and side effects of medications. In addition to the product liability, personal injury, and pharmaceutical areas, Jim and the firm have been leaders in a number of class-action suits.

Jim has served as co-lead class counsel in class actions involving prescription medications, including Cafky v. Bayer, perhaps the last case in the United States in which individual personal injury claims were certified for class-action handling. He just completed successful service as co-lead counsel in Dr. Julio Garcia, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated v. Allergan, Inc., a Delaware corporation, Case No. 11-CV-09811, United States District Court, Central District of California, in which a $7.75 million-dollar class recovery was approved. Jim was recently lead co-counsel in national recoveries in Ramer v. Bank of Oklahoma in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, as well as Stokes v. MidFirst in Oklahoma. He has been successful in suits involving injuries and death from Trasylol usage during surgery; Triavil anti-anxiety medication; death due to toxicity from fentanyl patches used for pain relief; and death and injury of diabetic patients from Avandia usage.

Jim currently is working aggressively in cases involving a wide spectrum of prescription medications, including Actos, Reglan, Rituxan, and gadolinium. From 1997 until 2010, Jim was lead counsel in recovering for patients suffering from heart valve damage, in what amounted to the largest group of recoveries in Oklahoma history involving any medication. Jim has also been successful in recovering by both trial and settlement in major auto/truck design cases and aviation accidents.

Beyond the pharmaceutical liability arena, Jim has achieved substantial verdicts and settlements involving other product liability claims with regard to vehicle design, design and warnings of farm and oil field equipment, and consumer products. Jim won the only successful jury verdict against antenna manufacturer Orion Industries for death caused by uninsulated antennas routinely used throughout the country. Jim’s work and verdict, in this case, have been credited with saving lives by pushing the industry to offer insulated antennas.

Jim has a reputation of never giving up a fight. Despite Jim’s success in the 1990s in a suit against a school bus manufacturer for catastrophic injuries alleged to have resulted from the lack of seat belts in school buses, the majority of school buses in the United States are still on the road without seat belts. Jim wants to see this changed, believing schoolchildren are needlessly at risk. Jim has successfully handled many cases involving injury or death to oil field workers from many sources, including defects in frac tanks and swivels, metallurgical defects in swivels, and malfunctioning tongs.

Jim is admitted to practice in Oklahoma and Colorado, as well as numerous federal court admissions, including the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and has been admitted pro hac vice across the country. Jim was recognized as a civil trial advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocates, an achievement achieved by less than 1 percent of lawyers.

Education

Upon graduating from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1969, Jim served for three years as an assistant district attorney. Since that time, his practice has been focused on representing the injured. Prior to the formation of the current firm, Jim was a partner in the leading Oklahoma law firm of Henry, West, Sill & Lombs. He was then a senior partner of Sill, Beadles, Johnson, Biscone, and White before founding Sill Law Group. James Sill is an owner of Sill Law Group, PLLC, and is Of Counsel to Fulmer Sill.

• Juris Doctorate University of Oklahoma College of Law 1969

Past Cases

Jim's Successes Include:

Attocknie v. Carpenter Manufacturing, Inc., 901 P.2d 221 (1995), establishing Oklahoma law on federal preemption, holding that compliance with federal standards for school bus safety did not preclude suit against manufacturer for failure to install seat belts.

Johnson v. Ford Motor Co., 45 P.3d 86 (Oklahoma Supreme Court, 2000), in which the Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld a $5,000,000 jury verdict, clarifying Oklahoma law on expert testimony and enhancement of injury.

Hagy v. American Honda Motor Co., 125 F.Supp.2d, 456 (2002), clarifying diversity jurisdiction in product liability.

Parker v. O’Rion, 769 F.2d 647, C.A. 10 (Okl. 1985), clarifying the district court’s role in reducing judgment by settlement obtained from joint tortfeasors in product liability.