Randy W. James, Attorney

Randy James has devoted 27 years to legal practice representing individuals and families in serious personal injury and wrongful death actions.  Focusing primarily on cases involving dangerous products, aircraft crashes, automobile and truck collisions, and defective premises, he has represented individuals in actions against large corporations including General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Goodyear, Bridgestone/Firestone, B.F. Goodrich, Continental/General Tire, Cooper Tire, Wal-Mart, Hardee's Food Systems, Turbomeca, S.A., Teledyne Continental Motors, Cessna Aircraft Company, Great Dane Trailers, American Family Insurance and Waste Management, Inc.

Randy established a reputation nationwide for his representation of individuals injured or killed by defects in transportation related products.  Settlements in 1995 of a Life Flight helicopter crash case against Turbomeca, S.A. for $25 million and a Firestone multipiece wheel explosion case for $13 million rank as two of the largest reported single personal injury settlements in Missouri history.

Randy's 1997 rear underride case against Great Dane Trailers, in which he performed crash testing of alternative bumper designs, represented a breakthrough in litigation against that company.  The case resulted in a confidential settlement for his quadriplegic client who had sustained past and future economic damages of more than $9 million.

In 2001, Randy was instrumental in securing a $28.5 million settlement from Teledyne Continental Motors and another defendant resulting from the crash of a skydiving aircraft, which experienced a catastrophic engine failure near Kansas City.  The settlement followed Randy's discovery that a critical piece of missing evidence may have been tampered with by Teledyne in the post crash investigation.  The settlement also required Teledyne to provide appropriate warnings and instructions in its overhaul manual of the problem that caused the crash. 

In 2003, Randy concluded a 3 year case against Ford Motor Company and Continental/General Tire with a confidential settlement for two young boys who were seriously injured when the Bronco II in which they were riding suffered a tire tread separation and rolled over multiple times on Interstate 35 in Oklahoma.  Also in 2003, Randy successfully represented another young boy who was badly burned when a defective space heater caused a fire in his home.

2005 marked another milestone against Teledyne Continental Motors.  More than three years of intensive investigation and legal work by Randy and his staff culminated in a $26.05 million settlement on the eve of trial for the family of David and Anne Drye, prominent North Carolina real estate developers.  The settlement is reportedly the largest of its kind ever recorded in North Carolina.

In 2006, the firm secured a confidential settlement from General Motors on behalf of a young lady who was seriously burned in a post collision gasoline fire involving the notorious GM C/K pickup truck equipped with a side saddle fuel tank.

In 2007, Randy obtained a jury verdict for $15,000,000.14 against Goodyear/Dunlop Tires North America, Ltd. in favor of a woman who was seriously injured when the defective rear tire on the motorcycle she was riding blew out on the highway and caused a crash.

• Wolf v. Goodyear 1991

• Vallejo v. Osco Drug, Inc. 1987

• Rowland v. Skaggs Companies, Inc. 1984

• Germanio v. Goodyear 1990