Biography
Wayne Hogan, a Jacksonville native, has been with the firm since 1977. He graduated from Florida State University, where he received both his bachelor’s and J.D. degrees. He specializes in all areas of personal injury law. In addition to participating in many professional associations, he and his wife, Pat, are also actively involved in the community.
He was among the lawyers representing the State of Florida in its historic lawsuit against the cigarette industry on behalf of Florida's taxpayers and children resulting in a $17 billion settlement and, among other terms, removal of all billboard advertising and retirement of Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man in Florida. The settlement agreement not only helps the children of today, it will go on preventing addiction and disease for decades to come. It also led to the national tobacco settlement and set the stage for significant changes in Florida’s tobacco control laws.
Wayne Hogan has extensive experience in the field of punitive damages having obtained punitive damage verdicts in trials of 26 cases against manufacturers of defective products and having represented the plaintiffs in Florida’s first asbestos disease punitive damages trial and successfully handled the precedent-setting appeal reported as Johns-Manville Sales Corp. v. Janssens, 463 So.2d 262 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). This case upheld the right of plaintiffs to receive punitive damages in such toxic tort litigation and also sustained the right of plaintiffs to obtain multiple exemplary damages awards in order to punish wrongdoers. In another of the firm’s cases the Florida Supreme Court held that a successor by merger is liable for punitive damages for the recklessness of its predecessor corporations in Celotex Corp. v. Pickett, 490 So.2d 35 (Fla. 1986).The firm represents thousands of victims of asbestos exposure statewide.