DLD Lawyers handles civil appeals in all five Florida District Courts of Appeal:
• First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th and 14th Circuits)
• Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland and Tampa (6th, 10th, 12th, 13th and 20th Circuits)
• Third District Court of Appeal in Miami (11th and 16th Circuits)
• Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach (15th, 17th and 19th Circuits)
• Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach (5th, 7th, 9th and 18th Circuits)
Additionally, the firm represents clients in:
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• Florida Supreme Court
Members of the firm have been involved in hundreds of published and unpublished opinions.
Representative Appellate Cases*
• The firm obtained a significant 2017 appellate victory in Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal. That court, by unanimous decision, affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of a legal malpractice case after only one amendment had been allowed by the trial court. The defense relied primarily on the judgmental immunity defense and lack of proximate cause. The suit had sought seven-figure damages against a prominent local attorney and sought to make the attorney a “guarantor of results” in the underlying LLC member dispute litigation.
• DLD Lawyers litigation partner successfully argued a take-home asbestos case before the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2015. In an issue of first impression in Georgia, a mesothelioma Plaintiff sued both the manufacturer and distributor of a product that she had never worked with or around, but from which she claimed exposure through the work of her father. After conducting an extensive analysis of scientific, regulatory, and historical factors relevant to the state of the art and knowledge of the respective defendants, the court concluded that there was no evidence that the distributor, as opposed to the manufacturer, knew, or should have known, of the potential dangers of asbestos to take-home plaintiffs during the relevant time frame. As such, it affirmed the motion for summary judgment provided to the distributor, represented by DLD Lawyers, but overturned the one provided to the manufacturer. In so holding, the Appellate Court ruled that the Georgia Supreme Court case of CSX v Williams, 608 S.E. 2d 208 (Ga. 2005) did not apply to design defect cases. The reported decision is Fletcher v Water Applications Distribution Group, Inc., et al, A15A0527, July 16, 2015.
* Disclaimer: Every case is different. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Kenneth Drake is the practice chair for the appellate practice.
