WGS works for children and families who have suffered from lead poisoning in lawsuits for money damages caused by a child's lead poisoning.
In doing so, we consult with pre-eminent medical and environmental
experts to best present our clients' cases.
Year by year, as our clients' lead poisoning cases have progressed
through the Courts, WGS has won more children bigger and better
awards totalling more than two million dollars.
In 1992, in a case tried by WGS for a five-year-old girl from
Plainfield, New Jersey, WGS made law by establishing a landlord's
duty to protect children from the harmful effects of lead. This
was a litigation first; the first time in the history of the New
Jersey Courts that this issue was decided and was successfully
argued at trial and on appeal by WGS attorney Barry Sugarman.
This groundbreaking decision has been a springboard for the firm's
success in representing childhood lead poisoning victims. Read
about other WGS Success Stories
in Lead Poisoning Cases.
Whom Do We Sue?
WGS has made claims against many different types of people and
companies responsible for lead poisoning children. These include:
» Landlords/Property
Owners (Individuals and Corporations) » Property
Managers » Lead Removal
Contractors » Court
Appointed Rent Receivers » Municipalities
» Government Entities
Regardless of who the liable party is, your child's lead poisoning
case revolves around the important fact that you have a legal
right to safe, sanitary and habitable housing free from illegal
lead paint.
How Do We Do It?
WGS' success working for lead poisoned children is a direct result
of our commitment to knowing everything about your case and having
the resources to put that knowledge to work. Any lawyer can know
the law. We make it our business to know you and all of the complex
aspects of your case.
We routinely work with environmental experts in Court to help
juries understand how a child gets lead poisoned. WGS also consults
with doctors from the lead poisoning prevention clinics throughout
the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area to best present the
pain and suffering lead poisoned children endure.
We have also retained leading experts to testify in Court for
our clients, those who personally did the scientific research
and pioneered the field of childhood lead poisoning. These include
Dr. Herbert Needleman and Dr. John Rosen.
Public Interest Litigation
As part of giving back to the community, WGS Toxic Tort Department
petitioned the New Jersey Superior Court and became class counsel
to the more than 10,000 lead poisoned children in the City of
Newark to enforce state and local lead poisoning prevention laws.
The lawsuit was done pro bono "for free" as a public
interest class action so that another generation of children did
not have to suffer the effects of lead poisoning, a disease which
reached epidemic proportions in the 1970's and 1980's. In January
1996, after five years of litigation, a settlement was reached
designed to protect the City's lead poisoned children through
stricter medical and environmental surveillance and the commitment
of additional funds and manpower to combat childhood lead poisoning.
Read about WGS Success Stories in Lead Poisoning Cases.
WGS Toxic Tort Department attorneys Christopher Placitella and
Barry Sugarman were honored by the Trial Lawyers for Public
Justice (TLPJ) by being nominated for the Trial Lawyer of the
Year Award in 1996 for their work on this public interest lawsuit.
Your Legal Rights
If your child or your family member has been exposed to lead-based products such as chipping lead paint, or you have experienced lead poisoning symptoms, you may be eligible to file a claim.
