Fort Myers / Bonita Springs / Port Charlotte Personal Injury Lawyers
Viles & Beckman, LLC is a four-attorney Fort Myers personal injury and consumer rights law firm that has represented accident victims and consumers since 1995. The firm's principal office is located in Fort Myers, Florida, and enjoys a reputation as Southwest Florida's premier plaintiff's firm - the Florida firm with a national reputation.
About our practice
Viles & Beckman, LLC, represents consumers and accident victims in cases involving serious injury or death, such as automobile accidents and truck accidents, SUV rollovers, tire tread separations and blowouts, construction accidents, and premises liability cases, fires and fall down accidents. Our firm is a recognized national leader in defective drug litigation involving Fen-Phen, Vioxx, and others, and we pursue the makers of defective medical devices such as Sultzer hip and knee implants. We also specialize in consumer protection cases involving overcharging by insurance companies, rental car companies, hospitals, banks, mortgage companies, and used car dealers.
Our work involves the representation of individual victims on a case by case basis, as well as mass tort and class actions involving widespread abuses and injuries. We have handled thousands of auto and other personal injury cases, and through our class action practice have secured refunds and other benefits for millions of clients. Our firm has secured some of the largest jury verdicts and settlements in the State of Florida, and we possess sophisticated legal expertise and the funding necessary to handle even the most complex and difficult cases.
Landmark Litigation
Viles & Beckman has been significantly involved in some of the most important individual and mass tort cases in the country and in Southwest Florida. The firm's partners led the fight in the Bridgestone/Firestone tire tread separation and Ford Explorer rollover litigation resulting in over one hundred fifty confidential settlements and culminating in a landmark jury verdict of $5.4 million against Ford Motor Company in September 2004. This verdict, in a single off-road rollover death case, was unprecedented in that Ford had won eleven (11) Explorer rollover jury trials in a row (against other lawyers) until Viles & Beckman put an end to their winning streak. The case was settled after verdict for a confidential amount while the jury considered an even greater award of punitive damages.
Viles & Beckman regularly litigates against the largest insurance companies in the world. Insurance companies frequently overcharge consumers a few dollars a month in hopes of getting away with it. Viles & Beckman has waged war with the insurance industry over its premium financing overcharges and has prevailed in over twenty class actions in Florida alone resulting in refunds and corrected billing practices benefiting millions of Floridians who save several dollars per month, each and every month, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars in savings to consumers. The firm also specializes in insurance coverage litigation against companies that take premiums and then refuse to pay claims.
Viles & Beckman, LLC also filed one of the first Fen-Phen class actions, and represented hundreds of victims, and was appointed by the Honorable United States District Court Judge Bechtel to serve as State Liaison Counsel for the State of Florida. The firm's several hundred Fen-Phen cases were successfully resolved, and now Viles & Beckman is taking on the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Inc. in claims by persons who have ingested Vioxx.
Automobile and truck crashes are a part of everyday work at Viles & Beckman, and we have secured many 7 and 8 figure verdicts and settlements, including a $35 million jury verdict in a drunk driving case in September 2004, as well as settlements for $3.4 million and $3.3 million for injuries to children seriously injured in car crashes. Viles & Beckman utilizes the latest courtroom technology. We consult with experts all over the country to bring the best expertise available to assist judges and juries in understanding our cases and the suffering endured by Fort Myers burn injury, spinal cord injury and brain injury victims and their families. Marcus Viles, a Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney and founding partner, has personally tried more than a hundred jury trials to verdict, and participates in every case at the firm, with the assistance of his partners and attorneys.
Community Service
Viles & Beckman partners and attorneys are actively involved in the community as part of our commitment of social service. The firm regularly provides pro bono legal work to the poor and oppressed who would otherwise have no access to excellent legal help. Our work has encompassed representing women and children who are the victims of domestic violence, crime victims, and persons who require legal help due to hurricane related losses. Each Christmas the firm serves as Santa Claus to the children of Lee County who are homeless and between foster homes, and each Thanksgiving Viles & Beckman provides a traditional 'turkey and dressing' catered dinner to the women and children of the local abuse shelter.