Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) cases are varied.  Those cases handled by section litigators include traditional problems in tort law, such as medical malpractice and other personal injury litigation, as well as seminal issues arising in areas as diverse as regulatory agency activities, wild animal attacks in national parks, and professional malpractice.  The section also handles litigation brought by persons who contracted AIDS allegedly due to government negligence in the course of blood transfusions or other medical procedures.  Section attorneys protect the United States from exposure to excessive liability, and from second-guessing of governmental policy decisions through tort litigation.

Examples of our practice

FTCA attorneys handled Anderson, et al. v. United States, in which the court ruled for the United States finding the decision to set a controlled burn fire, the United States' acts taken in controlling that fire, and its suppression efforts, were all protected by the FTCA's discretionary function exception.  In Fleming v. United States the court ruled that the Mine Safety and Health Administration did not contribute to a massive underground explosion that killed eight coal miners and injured another.  The plaintiffs claimed that federal inspectors overlooked deficiencies during inspections.

In DeValencia v. United States the court ruled for the United States following a seven-day trial in which the issue was whether Department of Veterans Affairs physicians failed to obtain plaintiff's informed consent for disfiguring facial surgery and did not follow VA's national informed consent policies and procedures.  In Harbert v. United States, the court ruled that the discretionary function exception to the FTCA shielded the United States from liability for injuries the plaintiff sustained when she fell while touring an historic fort in St. Augustine, Florida.  The Court held that the Park Service's decisions regarding what safety improvements to make to the historic fort were protected discretionary acts.