Robert Kerrigan | Pensacola Personal Injury Lawyer

Born in Highland Park, Michigan, Robert G. Kerrigan graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Florida State University. As a Certified Public Accountant, he worked for Price-Waterhouse as a staff accountant. In 1971, Mr. Kerrigan  graduated with honors from Florida State University College of Law. Following graduation, he assumed a position with the Public Defender’s Office 1st Judicial Circuit of Florida, where he was later named Chief Assistant. In 1973, Mr. Kerrigan went into private practice with an emphasis on criminal defense trial work. In 1975, he formed a partnership with George Estess and began to focus on civil litigation. Mr. Rankin, Mr. McLeod and Mr. Thompson later became partners in the firm as it is presently constituted.

Mr. Kerrigan was one of nine trial lawyers selected by the Governor of the State of Florida to prosecute the State’s claim for Medicaid recovery against the tobacco industry, the case settled during jury selection for, at the time, the largest civil judgment in the history of the United States.

Mr. Kerrigan has tried to verdict many felony and several capital murder cases from 1973 to 1983. In civil practice he has obtained numerous multi-million dollar jury verdicts including a national top 100 jury verdict in 2005 ($25 million for the death of a 17 year old young woman.) A member of the Florida Justice Association, Mr. Kerrigan is also a Florida Bar Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer. In the 2000 Presidential election involving Bush-Gore, Mr. Kerrigan was legal advisor to the minority caucus of the Florida Senate. Mr. Kerrigan is a member of the Florida Association of Attorney-CPAs and a member of the International Bar Association.

Selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America for 15 years, Mr. Kerrigan was named Lawyer of the Year in 2014 by Best Lawyers in America for Pensacola. In 2017 Best Lawyers named him the top plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer for Northwest Florida-Tallahassee region. Florida Trend has designated him an Elite Florida Lawyer in civil litigation. In 2012 Mr. Kerrigan was named as one of the top 500 Lawyers in America by Law Dragon, an independent listing of the nation’s best lawyers. Martindale-Hubbell AV rated. Awarded the 2011 State of Florida Bar Association Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award providing legal services for the poor.

Mr. Kerrigan  served as co-counsel in two recent ATVA and ATS trials, Ford v. Garcia representing families of the nuns who were killed in El Salvador and the Estate of Winston Cabello, et al. v. Armando Fernandez-Larios for the death of Mr. Cabello caused by military officers working for Augusto Pinochet, the former President of Chile.

Mr. Kerrigan endowed the Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights.

Position	Organization	Location	Duration
Attorney	Kerrigan, Estess, Rankin, McLeod and Thompson, LLC	Pensacola, FL	Present

School	Degree	Major	Graduation
Florida State University College of Law	J.D.	Law School	1971
Florida State University	Bachelor of Science	Accounting	1967

State / Court	Date
Florida	1971

• Member | Florida State Bar Association

• J.D. with Honors | Kerrigan Estess Rankin McLeod & Thompson, LLP
  Lawyer Of The Year | Best Lawyers | 2017

• Verdicts
  Our Successes — our past record of recovering large jury verdicts and settlements on behalf of our clients. Whether it’s in the courtroom or out, proven past experience counts. This is a partial list of verdicts obtained for our clients over the last forty years… $1, 200,000 – Jury verdict for a welder who sustained burns to over 50% of his body when a tank exploded spewing acid onto his body. Sowell v. American Cyanamid, U. S. District Court, Pensacola, FL Case No. 84-4463-RV $56,001 – Verdict. Resmondo v. Mason and Erickson, Santa Rosa Co. Circuit Court Case No. 83-C-364 $1, 500, 000 – Jury verdict in a medical negligence action where the physician installed a prosthetic patella femoral joint in an upside down position. Sewell v. Flynn, 459 So. 2d 372 (Fla. App. 1 Dist. 1984) $35,000 – Verdict. Brenita Price v. General Electric Co., et. al., Escambia Co. Circuit Court Case No. 82-3967 $250,000 – Verdict. Wynn v. Division of Corrections, Escambia Co. Circuit Court Case No. 80-1960 $650,000 – Ball, et al. v. First Floridian Auto and Home insurance Co., Car Accident, Personal Injury, 2017 $5,000,000 – Jury verdict in a products liability action against a crane manufacturer awarded to a man who was badly injured in a crane accident. The crane operator was working with a ground crew to attach a four-part line to a heavy load. The operator inadvertently moved the crane boom out far enough to break a single line holding a large hook and ball (“headache ball”) that was pulled up out of the way. The “headache ball’ fell and struck our client. This is a well-known crane hazard called “two-blocking”. The defendant crane company had developed an anti-two-blocking device, but made it an extra cost option. The defendant in the case made only a modest pre-trial offer, relying on its defense that the operator and our injured client were both at fault. This case prompted a worldwide change in the crane industry. Sidner v. Harnischfeger, Escambia Co. Circuit Court Case No. 82-50 $500,000 – Verdict in a product liability case where the defense never made a pre-trial settlement offer. The decedent, who was killed when he fell from a ladder, was the only one present when the ladder was being used and thus, there were no witnesses to his fall. After the trial court was upheld by the 1st DCA, the defendants paid the full judgment plus costs and interest. Lang v. White Metal Rolling & Stamping Co. and Sears Roebuck, Okaloosa Co. Case No. 87-2126 $3,698,664 – Jury verdict as a result of an unnecessary and negligently performed medical procedure resulting in irreversible anatomical and neurological damage. Camp v. Kimbell, 526 So. 2d 691 (Fla. App. 1 Dist. 1988) $900,000 – Jury award in product liability action against the manufacturer of a water heater for the death of a woman who died from carbon monoxide poisoning. The verdict was substantially more than the defendant offered pre-trial. The defendant claimed that the death was caused by improper venting during installation. Plaintiff successfully argued to the jury that the manufacturer had substantial warnings that the water from the heater would be hot, but failed to adequately warn about the carbon monoxide hazard, which could have steered sales towards an electric water heater. Comptom v. Rheem Manufacturing Co., Escambia Co. Circuit Court Case No. 90-0520

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