Health Care Other

Practice Areas: Insurance Litigation, Bad Faith, Products Liability, Ciguatera Poisoning, Establishing Insurance Coverage As one of the few Triple Board Certified attorneys, Mr. Stewart’s practice involves complex litigation in both Federal and State Courts, including helping individuals and businesses who’s insurance companies have abandon them. Mr. Stewart also assists individuals who have been poisoned with a fish borne toxin known as Ciguatera. In addition to receiving dozens of multi-million dollar awards, he received the largest collectible punitive damage verdict in State history, the largest Ciguatera settlement in the Country, what was reported as the largest Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy verdict in Florida, and the largest personal injury verdict ever in Okeechobee County. He also took on the automobile insurance industry for its practice of under-reimbursing health care providers. Mr. Stewart was the first attorney in many years to defeat GEICO in a Powell type Insurance Bad Faith case. Mr. Stewart has been recognized with awards by many organizations for the work he has done, including as a Florida Super Lawyer (given to the top 5% of attorneys) since 2007, Top 100 Trial Lawyer by National Trial Lawyers since 2013, Top Lawyer in Florida by The Legal Network since 2013, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum since 1996 and he and his firm have attained the highest rating possible, AV, with the Martindale-Hubbell legal directory of exemplary lawyers. He has published and frequently speaks to lawyers, paralegals and law students across the Country. He has taught several courses at Stetson Law School. He also has served as an Adjunct Professor of Constitutional Law at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College. Mr. Stewart stays active in his community; including Harmony House, the Miami Project, Habitat for Humanity, The American Cancer Society and public television and radio. However, he has spent most of his time as a member of Palm Beach County Special Olympics’ Steering Committee, where he coordinated the community volunteers for more than ten (10) years. With a proven track record as a trial attorney and multiple a significant victories to his credit, Mr. Stewart’s career has been dedicated to the pursuit of justice. If you have any questions regarding a matter for which you believe Mr. Stewart can assist, he welcomes you to contact him at TStewart@ForTheInjured.com.

Michael Rose has spent his entire career representing accident victims. He has tried numerous cases to verdict and settled many claims resulting in tens of millions of dollars in recovery for clients. Many of these cases have resulted in seven-figure jury verdicts and settlements. During a recent six-month time span, Mr. Rose tried three cases; each independently resulted in a seven-figure jury verdict. In both 2010 and 2011 he was responsible for securing four of the top one hundred personal injury results in the State of New York for personal injury claims as reported by the New York Jury Verdict Reporter. In 2012 he was responsible for securing the largest jury verdict in the State of New York for Construction Site Accidents as reported by the New York Jury Verdict Reporter. This jury verdict was in excess of thirteen million dollars.

John Fisher is a lawyer in Kingston who focuses on Birth Injury cases. He has tried cases involving delay in cancer diagnosis, heart attack misdiagnosis, nursing home negligence, suicide prevention, undiagnosed infections, cerebral palsy, placenta abruption, VBAC, premature delivery, and more.

The firm is based on the belief that our clients' needs are of the utmost importance. Our entire team is committed to meeting those needs. As a result, a high percentage of our business is from repeat clients and referrals. Principal attorney Charles Chester has served thousands of clients successfully because of his background with judicial clerkships, jury trials, lobbying of public officials, appellate arguments, and years of counseling clients on their options. He has lectured and written extensively on many topics for both bar associations and various industry trade groups. He has been asked to serve on various boards, commissions and committees for county and state governments, bar associations and community groups. His local health care cases were reported on throughout the print and electronic media, including The Washington Post and DC area television stations, and his national election litigation in Florida was covered by CNN and MSNBC.

Born in the tiny coal-mining community of Williamson and raised in Parkersburg, West Virginia, by blue-collar working-class parents who placed a premium on hard work, honesty, and personal integrity, Bernie Layne of Mani Ellis & Layne, PLLC learned from an early age that his path to success would have to be paved with over achievement. While both of his parents grew up in abject poverty that can only be understood or imagined by those who have experienced day-to-day life in ‘coal camp’ housing in southern West Virginia, they became acutely aware of the value and necessity of education and sweat equity as a means of rising above their circumstance. It is from this culture and environment that Bernie’s parents instilled in him, and his two sisters, to never forget where they have come from and to always use their God-given talents and abilities to help people around them who are disadvantaged, hurting, disabled, destitute, or who are being abused by those in a more powerful position than themselves in society. Growing up in Parkersburg, just across the river from Marietta and Belpre, Ohio, he gained a deep, abiding respect for the hardworking people on both sides of the border. Rising from the social position of an ‘underdog,’ it isn’t hard to understand how Bernie has come to embrace these roots by becoming a highly successful legal advocate and defender of the rights of injured working-class West Virginians and Ohioans. A Strong Competitive Spirit As you can imagine, it takes tremendous family support and lots of competitive spirit to become one of only a few college graduates in his family and to become the first lawyer in his immediate or extended family. That love for competition was introduced to him as a child, by his father, an accomplished sportswriter at the Williamson Daily News. Bernie developed a love for the game of basketball and baseball and eventually earned a baseball scholarship to attend the University of Charleston in Charleston, West Virginia. As a college student-athlete, Bernie was introduced to the importance of academic and athletic discipline, teamwork, handling success and overcoming failure. As his dream of playing professional baseball faded, his commitment to personal development and higher education strengthened. Before leaving UC, Bernie was named the Ivor F. Boiarsky Award Winner, which annually recognizes the top Political Science Student in the graduating class, won a statewide award for his senior thesis, in the area of Public Law Policy, on the pitfalls and environmental evils associated with an inadequate and corrupt strip mine permitting system in West Virginia, was voted by his peers as the Student Body President and was chosen by the administration to deliver the commencement address on behalf of his graduating class, while sharing the stage with the late Senator Robert C. Byrd. Inspired to help the disadvantaged Using his undergraduate success as a springboard, Bernie went on to attend graduate school at The Ohio University, where he received a Master of Arts Degree in Sociology. After graduate school, Bernie returned to Appalachia where he worked with elderly and disabled individuals through the Title 19 Medicaid Waiver Program in Southern West Virginia. The year spent working with catastrophically injured people through Title 19 firmed his resolve and commitment to make a difference in the lives of the hardworking citizens of this state. This experience made Bernie aware of the obstacles that face disabled and poverty-stricken individuals and the myriad of statutory and legal hurdles they face, while unable to afford adequate legal assistance to address their needs. Bernie’s disappointment in the legal system and its treatment of handicapped, disabled, and elderly individuals led him to attend law school at The University of Dayton School of Law where he graduated with his Juris Doctor in the Spring of 1999. After finishing law school, Bernie remained in Dayton as a judicial extern for The Honorable Barbara Gorman, the first female judge of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas. In the years following his law school graduation, Bernie has remained committed to preserving the rights of injured and disadvantaged citizens of our state and has limited his practice to cases which involve people who have been injured due to the negligence of another person, corporation or governmental body. Throughout his career, he has successfully taken on big corporate asbestos producers who exposed plant workers and pipefitters to deadly and cancer-causing asbestos fibers. He has successfully confronted coal mining companies that deliberately injured workers through a neglect of OSHA regulations and state laws designed to protect this state’s workers. Further, Bernie has successfully resolved wrongful death cases involving children, medical malpractice and poorly designed products by large corporate interests who chose to place profits as a priority over the safety of our citizens. In 2021, Mani, Ellis & Layne, PLLC expanded to a new office in Columbus, OH. For Bernie, who earned both of his graduate degrees in Ohio and has many close family members in Columbus and the surrounding towns, this was a homecoming of sorts, an opportunity to advocate for hardworking people throughout both Ohio and West Virginia. Recognized by his peers Bernie’s success and achievement have been greatly rewarded as he and his partners have built an accomplished law firm at Mani Ellis & Layne, PLLC. His professional attributes and success have also been noticed by his trial lawyer peers. In 2005, he was given the Distinguished Service Award by the West Virginia Association for Justice (WVAJ), which is a group that represents the interests of the injured and disabled in West Virginia. Attorney Layne has been a member of WVAJ and the American Association for Justice for more than a decade. He is past president of WVAJ, serving from June 2013 to June 2014. He has also served on the WVAJ Executive Committee (nine years), the WVAJ Board of Governors and as a member of the LAWPAC organization. He was recently invited to join the prestigious, Southern Trial Lawyers organization and has been apponted to The Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center where he serves on its Executive and Building & Grounds Committees. Additionally, he served a two-year stint as a member of the West Virginia Bar Association’s Judicial Campaign Advertising Committee, which sought to regulate unfair, unethical and untruthful advertising during judicial campaign election cycles. In 2013, he was appointed to the University of Charleston Board of Trustees and served on the Executive and Outreach Committees within that board. He is now serving his twelfth year on the board. In 2014, he was named Alumnus of the Year at the University of Charleston. In 2017, he was appointed chairman of the Welch Challenge Campaign, an $8 million fund-raising initiative at the school. Also in 2013, Mr. Layne received an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest rating attorneys can achieve from that organization. Only 2% of all practitioners nationwide earn that rating. In 2018, Bernie was selected to the West Virginia Super Lawyers list by his peers. Bernie has obtained several significant verdicts and settlements and has been granted membership in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. On a community level, Bernie recently completed a seven-year term on the Putnam County Career and Technical Center’s Healthcare Advisory Board, on which he worked with other community leaders to design, implement and guide the LPN Nursing Program at the school. His efforts in this area are consistent with his desire to work toward broad based community and rural health care initiatives which support healthcare for the underprivileged throughout our state’s communities.

Mr. Murphy’s legal career emphasizes management labor, corporate, and litigation matters. Selected in the publication of Best Lawyers in America, Mr. Murphy represents many large and small businesses, including Fortune 500 corporations, and serves as counsel to a variety of trade associations as well as major governmental agencies in all areas of labor and employment law. Mr. Murphy has presented and argued hundreds of cases including labor and employment matters in proceedings at the administrative, state, and federal levels. He has successfully argued labor and employment cases at both the state and federal levels, including the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Mr. Murphy is a former member of the Governor’s Task Force on Labor-Management Relations and past President of the Boston Chapter of the Industrial Relations Research Association and advisory counsel to the American Arbitration Association. In addition, Mr. Murphy is a member of the Labor Relations Advisory Committee, a select panel of the nation’s leading labor relations attorneys and he has served on a national team of seven lawyers that advises an association of 1,200 hospitals across North America. Mr. Murphy is a former Chairman of the South Shore Chamber of Commerce, former Advisory Director of the Bank of Boston, and a Director of Quincy Mutual Insurance Company and other profit and non-profit corporations and trade associations. In December 1989, Mr. Murphy was honored as a recipient of the Cushing-Gavin Award for management representation in the field of labor relations. In 1996, Mr. Murphy was elected as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Law. Mr. Murphy was one of only fifty practicing attorneys in the nation honored with the Fellowship appointment and was the only attorney in Massachusetts to receive the Fellowship. Mr. Murphy is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Suffolk University Law School. He is admitted to the Bars of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Mr. Lawler has over thirty (30) years of experience in representing business clients in formation, organization, corporate governance, corporate finance, reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, contracts and transactions. Mr. Lawler’s expertise in corporate law has helped him build a successful practice with clients throughout the United States and as well as clients in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Canada, United Kingdom, Greece, Brussels, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Israel, Bermuda, Belize, Nicaragua and Panama. Mr. Lawler’s Corporate/Business Law practice includes the following types of legal work: Evaluating and reviewing domestic and international investment opportunities that are consistent with the client’s stated business objectives and needs; Mergers & Acquisitions, including corporate structuring, restructuring and reorganization; Preparing and negotiating numerous types of contracts including commercial contracts, joint ventures, partnership agreements, purchase and sale agreements, employment contracts and service agreements. Advising Boards of Directors and Board Committees on various corporate governance issues including vetting and selection of executive officers, assessing shareholder rights and responding to business combination proposals; and Organizational matters, including formation, operating agreements, bylaws and shareholder agreements. Estate Planning Mr. Lawler discovered that many business clients also need legal assistance in preparing their estates to provide a plan that will protect their assets, their family and their legacy. Mr. Lawler, in response to such needs, has developed an estate planning practice for both families and business owners. Mr. Lawler’s Estate Planning practice includes the design and preparation of the following: Revocable Living Trusts; Irrevocable Trusts; Living Wills; Durable Powers of Attorney; Health Care Power of Attorney; and Trust Administration; Mr. Lawler is a member of a number of professional associations, including the American Bar Association, and is licensed to practice law in the States of Arizona and California. Born in California, Mr. Lawler received his B.S. Business Management, from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in 1984, and received his Juris Doctorate degree from the USC Gould School of Law in Los Angeles, California in 1988.

Tony Munter is Washington D.C. based lawyer with a focus on whistle blower law. He has tried cases involving the Dodd Frank Act, false claims act, healthcare fraud, and more.

Darren VanPuymbrouck is a trial lawyer with an active nationwide trial practice. As first-chair, he has successfully tried dozens of high-profile, bet-the-company cases involving myriad issues before juries in state and federal courts around the country. Most of his cases involve complex engineering, science, medical, and financial issues and he has successfully deposed and cross-examined thousands of expert witnesses. Recently, he successfully completed a month-long jury trial as first-chair in Ocean County, New Jersey involving construction defect and professional liability issues resulting in one of the largest verdicts in that county. In the fall of 2014, he successfully tried a high-profile product-liability case that resulted in a $22 Million jury verdict, among the top 100 verdicts nationally. Mr. VanPuymbrouck recently won the dismissal of a RICO class action in the Northern District of Illinois that has been the subject of national press coverage. Mr. VanPuymbrouck has also successfully briefed and argued appeals in state and federal courts around the country, including in the Missouri Supreme Court and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. VanPuymbrouck has litigated and tried cases for well-known companies in the consumer product, pharmaceutical, medical supply, financial services, construction, professional services, electronics, food, gas and electric public utilities, chemical, and many other industries. In addition to trials, those cases have included the defense of nationwide class actions, including MDL proceedings, national litigation strategy, and the trial of bell weather case, arbitrations, and mediations. Utilizing his trial experience, Mr. VanPuymbrouck also advises and conducts investigations for domestic and international clients on risk avoidance, regulatory compliance, and litigation strategy. Mr. VanPuymbrouck is also an internationally recognized leader in the investigation and litigation of catastrophic fire and explosion matters about which he is a frequent nation-wide speaker. He also conducts emergency response exercises for clients in the petroleum, natural gas, electric generation and transmission, and transportation industries. He has specialized expertise in the defense of claims involving lithium-ion and polymer batteries.

David E. Kwartler has focused his practice solely on representing those injured due to the negligence of others, whether that is from a car accident, a slip and fall or from a failed medical procedure. During has career David has secured millions of dollars in settlements for his clients. David ensures that his clients are aggressively represented and fully compensated for the harm that has been done to them due to the negligence of others. David is always easily reachable by his cell phone or email, which he provides to all clients. David has been selected as Super Lawyer Rising Star for the years 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Only the top 2.5% of lawyers under the age 40 years old or younger or in practice for 10 years or less are selected.