Hal Meltzer

Hal Meltzer has successfully defended manufacturers in litigation involving consumer, commercial, and professional products and appliances, heavy equipment and component parts, motor vehicles, and pharmaceuticals. He has also successfully defended physicians and other healthcare providers, pharmacists, lawyers, insurance agents, and others in professional liability cases, commercial motor carriers and their operators in transportation related accident cases, and governmental and private sector entities in civil rights and employment matters. Hal has managed and tried lawsuits in the state and federal courts of Kansas and Missouri as well as other state and federal jurisdictions involving a broad spectrum of subjects and legal issues. Those myriad of cases have afforded him a keen understanding of jurors and juries, and he effectively brings that experience to bear on behalf of clients.

In addition to Hal’s defense of catastrophic and serious bodily injury, wrongful death, and major property damage claims, his civil trial practice includes commercial litigation, telecommunications, premises liability and security cases, insurance coverage, and the defense of bad faith claims.

Hal collaborates with each client to determine their ultimate goals and develop individualized strategies for each case which will accomplish those objectives. His passion is in the analysis and courtroom presentation of complex and technical facts and the application of medical, scientific, engineering, and technologic principles. Comprehensive analysis, innovative strategies and unique, but proven, trial tactics are his fundamentals for actual and anticipated success in the courtroom.

Having an exceptional history and reputation of trying civil jury cases to verdict – both in number, variety, and results – provides him the inherent practical leverage of credibility and strength as an adversary which manifests in significantly better, if not noteworthy, negotiated, or mediated resolutions outside of the courtroom when the clients’ interests, directives, and ultimate objectives so dictate.

Hal currently serves as a member of the Baker Sterchi’s national coordinating and trial counsel teams for pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, and he has been appointed as Special Assistant Attorney General for the state of Kansas to represent the Kansas Healthcare Stabilization Fund in claims and lawsuits involving or affecting the state’s compulsory healthcare provider liability fund.

Because of his development and use of innovative trial strategies and proven trial tactics – as well as his trial experience, Hal has been an invited presenter and speaker at numerous national, regional, and local CLE seminars, college medical school programs, and private sector programs for in-house counsel, risk managers, liability claims directors and handlers, and safety directors.