News & Publications
September 30, 2016
Dewsnup, King, Olsen, Worel, Havas, Mortensen brings suit against Polaris for UTV fire which injured two Utah passengers, caused blaze over more than 100 acres
DKOW is representing Utah family members who were seriously burned while riding a Polaris RZR Model Utility Task Vehicle, suffering injuries that required skin grafts. The American Fork Canyon fire became so intense that the U.S. Forest Service made water and fire retardant drops on a blaze that spread to more than 100 acres. The fire was not an isolated occurrence, as there have more than 200 recent incidents of fire and burn hazards involving Polaris vehicles, including three deaths, and at least eight recalls by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in three and a half years, including four in 2016 alone. In July this year, members of a Utah family were enjoying a Pioneer Day weekend recreational outing in American Fork Canyon while riding a Polaris RZR Model Utility Task Vehicle, unaware that the back seat was about to burst into flames. Two passengers – the mother and…
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March 02, 2016
Paul M. Simmons was recognized for his work as a mentor
Paul M. Simmons was recognized for his work as a mentor to new lawyers with a Utah State Bar Outstanding Mentor award on February 24, 2016.
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April 15, 2015
Edward B. Havas selected as a member of the Nation's Top One Percent by the National Association of Distinguished Counsel
Edward B. Havas, of Dewsnup King & Olsen, has been selected to the 2015 list as a member of the Nation's Top One Percent by the National Association of Distinguished Counsel. NADC is an organization dedicated to promoting the highest standards of legal excellence. Its mission is to objectively recognize the attorneys who elevate the standards of the Bar and provide a benchmark for other lawyers to emulate.
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February 19, 2014
Mike Worel obtains a $4 million verdict
On January 17, 2014, Mike Worel and Jessica Andrew obtained a $4 million verdict in Mobile County, Alabama against Defendant Kendrick Farms for serious injuries sustained by Gerald Lymon, an employee of the farm who was injured while working with a post-hole digger. While Mr. Lymon was manually handling the post-hole digger as instructed by his employer, an unguarded pin in the spinning auger bit caught Mr. Lymon?۪s clothing and pulled him into the auger, resulting in a severe degloving injury that required multiple surgeries and caused Mr. Lymon chronic pain, ongoing infection, disfigurement and other injuries.
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January 28, 2014
Paul M. Simmons selected for the Mountain States Super Lawyers/Rising Stars list for 2014!
We congratulate our partner, Paul M. Simmons on his recent selection to the Mountain States Super Lawyers/Rising Stars list for 2014!
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January 01, 2014
Colin P. King was honored with inclusion in an exclusive list of Super Lawyers for 2013
Colin P. King was honored with inclusion in an exclusive list of Super Lawyers for 2013! Each year, Super Lawyers recognizes the top lawyers in Utah. These attorneys are selected via peer nomination, independent research and peer evaluation. Those Utah lawyers who receive the highest point totals during the nomination, research and peer review process are further recognized in Utah Super Lawyers Top Lists. Ensure you are selecting the ?best of the best? by turning to one of Super Lawyers' Utah top lawyer lists for guidance.
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October 26, 2013
Amended civil suit alleges abuse, cover-up at former boys ranch
By Pat Reavy The owners of a Utah residential center for troubled teens should never have hired the man convicted of sexually abusing multiple boys at the center, according to prosecutors. And even after they hired him, there were multiple warnings that went ignored by supervisors that could have prevented further abuse, prosecutors allege. Last week, attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the federal civil suit against the Silverado Academy filed a third amended complaint in the drawn-out case. If a judge accepts the updated complaint, at least three primary members of the company and two supervisors from the former Silverado Academy will be added as defendants in the suit.
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(Photo by Wendell Hom) San Francisco ??? Alan W. Mortensen and Jessica Andrew of the Salt Lake City Law Firm of DEWSNUP, KING & OLSEN in Salt Lake City and Robert J. Nelson of the San Francisco law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP and announced that Zhang Xiao Ping, a resident of the U.S., filed a lawsuit today against Asiana Airlines and The Boeing Company for the severe injuries she suffered on July 6, 2013, when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco International Airport. The crash caused passengers, including Ms. Ping, to be jolted in all directions and many were violently thrown about the cabin. Ms. Ping suffered multiple traumatic and life-altering injuries in the crash including neck and back fractures.
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October 01, 2013
$3.5 Million Awarded for Product Liability Action
Ralph Dewsnup, David Olsen and Jessica Andrew of the Salt Lake City law firm Dewsnup, King & Olsen, obtained a verdict of over $3.5 million in a products liability action against Terex USA, LLC, the manufacturer of a defective rock crusher that caused permanent injury to Mr. Larry Kirkbride. The rock crusher, which was operating at a sand and gravel pit in Salt Lake County at the time of Mr. Kirkbride?۪s injury, crushed large rocks into small rocks by means of two manganese-lined jaws. The jaw crusher was equipped with a failsafe safety device, a toggle plate, which was designed to act as a safety fuse and break when the crusher encountered uncrushable material, thus releasing stored energy that could build up even when the crusher was turned off. When an uncrushable 60 pound dozer ripper tooth became wedged in the jaws of the crusher, the toggle plate did not…
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September 27, 2013
Engineers admit fault, fined $100G for their role in Utah mining tragedy
After years of denial, a trio of corporate consultants have finally admitted their role in a deadly 2007 coal mine collapse in Utah -- though, for families of the victims, the victory is more of a moral than a monetary one. The negotiated settlement comes with just a $100,000 fine. The company Agapito Associates had been faulted by the federal government for their shoddy engineering analysis. But as small as the final penalty is, the deal with the feds closes a painful chapter in Utah?۪s checkered coal mining history. ???It does seem like a shockingly low number,? Ed Havas, an attorney representing a majority of the families of the victims, told FoxNews.com. ???But it is a victory in the sense that there is finally some acknowledgment (by Agapito) and it finishes up the last bit of pending litigation.?
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September 18, 2013
Alan Mortensen has been retained by victims in the Asiana San Francisco plane crash.
An Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul crashed on landing at San Francisco's airport Saturday, killing two passengers, injuring more than 160 and and forcing dozens of frightened passengers and crew to scamper from the heavily damaged aircraft before it was engulfed in smoke and flames.
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Ralph Dewsnup, David Olsen, Edward Havas, Paul Simmons, Alan Mortensen and Michael Worel have been recognized by Super Lawyers, a rating serice of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 different practice areas who have attained professional acheivement and peer recognition, as Super Lawyers in 2013. Colin King has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Mountain States Super Lawyers of 2013. He is one of the 100 Utah Lawyers who received the highest point totals in the nomination, research and review process.
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June 16, 2013
Clyde Cancer Cluster Plaintiffs Represented by Dewsnup, King & Olsen File a Lawsuit Against Whirlpool Corp (2)
A federal class action lawsuit was filed on Tuesday against Whirlpool Corp. regarding the Clyde Cancer Cluster. The lawsuit points to a new possible cause for the cancer cluster, linking the cancer cases to exposure to benzaldehyde, a compound that was found in the attics of five different homes within a mile of Whirlpool's plant in Clyde. Whirlpool uses the compound in the porcelain process of manufacturing appliances at their Clyde plant. The families involved in the recently filed suit hired a consultant who collected dust samples from their homes. Their attorney, Alan Mortensen of Dewsnup, King & Olsen, said the dust samples revealed levels of benzaldehyde far above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. He goes on to say that the results provide the parents of these families some hope that they are going to get the truth now, but it's devastating to the city of Clyde.
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Colin King of Dewsnup, King & Olsen, was recently sworn into the U.S. Supreme Court and are now admitted to practice law in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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May 21, 2013
Clyde Cancer Cluster Families' Response to the Ohio Department's Newly Created Data Sheet Regarding Benzaldehyde
On May 16, 2013, the Ohio Health Department (???OHD?) created and published a material data sheet on Benzaldehyde, calling it a ???case study? on its web page. Both Clyde City and the Sandusky County Health Department (???SCHD?) have created links on their web pages to this material data sheet. The material data sheet was created and posted yesterday, several weeks after the families testing results were provided to the USEPA, the Ohio EPA, and the OHD with no response. The Clyde Cancer Cluster Families are not aware of the OHD doing any ???case study? on Benzaldehyde in Clyde and would actually invite that such a ???case study? be performed.
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Whirlpool Children?۪s Park used as a PCB filled Dumping Ground Several members of the families of children who have died or been stricken with cancer in what has become known as the ???Clyde Children?۪s Cancer Cluster? are devastated to learn the results of a United States Environmental Protection Agency report that was recently released. The report discloses that Whirlpool Park, built for children in the Clyde area to play, is also a dumping ground full of PCBs and Toxic Metals filled sludge. The sludge is described in the EPA Report to be over nine feet in depth in places. The families are equally outraged to learn that the fact that the Whirlpool Park was used as a dumping site was not disclosed by Whirlpool itself, but rather was discovered once the US EPA set up a confidential hotline where people could call and inform the EPA of toxic dumping…
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