Smith, Charles Nicholas

Mr. Hutchinson is a litigation partner specializing in transportation and product liability litigation.  He has extensive trial experience in transportation cases involving claims by injured railroad employees under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), injuries to railroad passengers and injuries to vehicle occupants in grade crossing accidents.  His experience in FELA cases includes occupational disease cases such as asbestos exposure and noise induced hearing loss cases.  He also has extensive trial experience in product liability litigation, primarily in defense of suits against automobile manufacturers and steam turbine manufacturers.  Mr. Hutchinson has successfully defended toxic tort, medical malpractice and employment cases.

Mr. Hutchinson has tried in excess of 100 civil jury trials.  His past five jury trials have resulted in verdicts in favor of his railroad clients.  He is crisis counsel to two large national corporations and recently supervised the investigation and defense of one of the most catastrophic railroad accidents to occur in California history.  Mr. Hutchinson has extensive class action experience.  He was lead defense counsel in a 21,000 member class action in which plaintiffs sought tort damages for invasion of privacy arising from the use of polygraph examinations in pre-employment screening.  He is presently defending a class action against a national railroad carrier in which plaintiffs allege violations of the Americans Disabilities Act.

Mr. Hutchinson has lectured widely on a variety of trial practice subjects to numerous legal and professional organizations.  Examples include lectures on defense of psychiatric injury claims and mitigation of damages at three recent sessions of the National Conference on Psychological Injury Claims and lectures on demonstrative evidence and defense of Federal Employers' Liability Act actions at various meetings of the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel.

Mr. Hutchinson is past president of the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel and continues to serve on the association's National Executive Committee.  He is also a member of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California, American Bar Association, Alameda County and San Francisco Bar Associations and Association of Transportation Practitioners.