Ervin A. Gonzalez Recognized By LawDragon as One of the Top Litigators in the Country.
- Gonzalez Among the Best and Brightest of the Legal Profession-
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Miami, Florida, June 26, 2006 – Attorney Ervin A. Gonzalez has been recognized by Lawdragon as one of the 500 leading litigators in America. This year, the editorial staff at Lawdragon conducted an extensive search to select the top litigators in the Country for the prestigious Lawdragon 500. Their search included phoning thousands of legal professionals to solicit opinions about the best lawyers in America and conducting an online ballot where votes were collected to produce the final results. Less than .01 percent of all lawyers in the U.S., which totals 1.1 million, were named members of the Law Dragon 500.
Ervin A. Gonzalez, a Plaintiff’s Lawyer, was just 28 years old when he won his first multi-million-dollar verdict - $4 million in a conversion case against a health care company. In all Gonzalez, now 46, has landed 23 verdicts of more than a million dollars during his 20-year legal career. “Not bad for the son of Cuban Immigrants”, stated Gonzalez, who has dedicated his career to protecting the rights of consumers.
In 2004 Gonzalez represented over 750 individuals in a class action against the world’s largest funeral chain, Service Corporation International (SCI). SCI was accused of desecrating Jewish cemetery sites, misplacing bodies, overselling plots and removing bodies from their burial sites at two of its Broward and Palm Beach Menorah Gardens Cemeteries. The case settled for $100 Million and SCI’s admission of wrongdoing.
Despite his past successes, 2005 was Gonzalez's most successful year to date, with two verdicts in excess of $60 million each.
The first was a $65 million verdict in June for the family of a sixth-grader who was electrocuted when he took refuge in a bus shelter during a rainstorm. Although a criminal jury had already found the defendant company, Eller Media, not guilty, Gonzalez was able to prove in a civil jury trial that Eller Media’s gross negligence resulted in the boy's electrocution. The $65 Million verdict was one of the top 10 verdicts in the nation in 2005.
Gonzalez's most recent victory was a $61 million verdict in November, 2005 on behalf of a boy who was severely brain damaged at birth. Because the malpractice occurred at a Naval hospital, the case fell under the Federal Tort Claims Act and had to be tried before a federal judge instead of a jury - which typically results in much smaller verdicts.
The $61 Million verdict is the largest verdict ever under the Federal Tort Claims Act, demonstrating that federal judges, like jurors, can view evidence and award large awards for pain and suffering.
Sandwiched in between to two monster verdicts was a verdict of $1.5 Million for a breach of contract case. Gonzalez represented a towel manufacturer who supplied goods for the Martha Stewart line of Towels distributed in K-Mart retail stores.
In all, Gonzalez spent 25% of 2005 (13 weeks) in trial; an impressive amount of time that resulted in impressive verdicts – qualifying him as one of Law Dragon’s 500 Leading Litigators in the Country.
