Wilkes & McHugh, P.A. Named Among Top 20 Firms

Practicing Law With a Passion for the Rights of the Individual

07/26/2004
Hattiesburg American

HATTIESBURG - The law firm of Wilkes & McHugh, PA, which has earned $23.5 million in Mississippi courtroom verdicts in the last two years, has been named one of the top 20 plaintiff’s firms in the nation. Wilkes & McHugh is featured in the just-released National Law Journal’s "Plaintiff’s Hot List" as one of the 20 firms that have done "exemplary" work during the past year.

"I’d like to think we’ve made a substantial difference in the way nursing homes operate," said James McHugh in the firm’s Hattiesburg office. "It’s great to be honored in this way, but it’s really about protecting this country’s elderly and making sure their quality of life is not compromised."

The $23.5 million in Mississippi jury verdicts are part of $64 million that Wilkes & McHugh earned for clients by representing nursing home residents in three states since 2002. The Mississippi cases were:

o Crook vs. Mariner Health Care Inc. - Wilkes & McHugh represented the family of a woman whose left leg had to be amputated because nursing home staff at Clinton Health and Rehabilitation Center in Clinton provided substandard care. A Mississippi jury returned a $10-million verdict March 11, 2004.
o Johnson vs. Magnolia Healthcare Inc. - Wilkes & McHugh represented a woman who had continually been malnourished and left with pressure sores in a bed soaked with urine and feces at Magnolia Healthcare in Greenwood. A Mississippi jury returned a $7-million verdict November 26, 2002, which, according to the firm, is the largest ever in Leflore County.
o Edwards vs. Mariner Health Care Inc. - Wilkes & McHugh represented the family of a man who suffered preventable bedsores and who was persistently covered in his own dried feces and left to die in urine-soaked bedding at Greenwood Health and Rehabilitation in Greenwood. A Mississippi jury returned a verdict of $6.5 million December 19, 2003.
The National Law Journal called Wilkes & McHugh a pioneer in nursing home litigation, saying that the firm's $64 million in verdicts came "despite the tort reform measures and damage caps in a growing number of states…"