Personal Injury/Torts
Peter H. Woodin, Esq. is a highly skilled dispute resolution professional with extensive experience in the negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and settlement of complex, high stakes, multi-party litigation. He has practiced full time as a mediator and arbitrator since 1993, and has served as court-appointed special master, with responsibilities for settlement efforts and/or discovery oversight, in a variety of federal litigations.
He has served as both private neutral and court-appointed special master in numerous personal injury and tort matters, many involving multiple parties and implicating complex issues of insurance coverage and allocation of settlement monies among multiple parties.
Representative Matters
- Mediated settlement of claims alleging design and manufacturing defects against machine manufacturer, distributor, and component parts manufacturers, arising out of a factory accident in which plaintiff sustained second and third degree burns
- Mediated settlement of claims arising out of the alleged explosion of a soda bottle, resulting in the loss of plaintiff’s eye
- Mediated settlement of claims arising out of the rollover of a van resulting in the death of the driver’s son; issues of choice of law and the application of different jurisdictions’ seatbelt laws complicated the case
- Mediated settlement of claims asserted by multiple plaintiffs against a municipal transportation agency and bus and component parts manufacturers, alleging injuries sustained in bus accident where the bus was driven into a passenger depot
- Mediated settlement of claims by plaintiff who alleged injury as the result of the abrupt termination of a new drug study
- Mediated settlement of claims of numerous juvenile incarcerated plaintiffs against a private prison company, where plaintiffs alleged that they were the victims of abuse and other mistreatment by the privately employed prison guards
- Mediated settlement of medical malpractice claims asserted against hospital in connection with care of elderly patient whose treatment for a fractured hip led to decubitus ulcers and eventual death
- Mediated settlement of thousands of asbestos claims in ongoing nationwide settlement program of asbestos company defendant
- Served as court-appointed temporary special master for appeals in the administration of the Agent Orange class action settlement from 1989-93; reviewed and made recommendations to the Court with respect to several thousand appeals taken by claimants from eligibility and claim award decisions made by the claims administrator
- Served since 1993 in New York as the federal and state court-appointed settlement master in the DES (diethylstilbestrol) product liability litigation; mediated group and individual settlements in over 1,000 cases brought against some 15 pharmaceutical company defendants
- Served since 2003 as a court-appointed mediator and settlement master in In re Baycol Products Liability Litigation (D. Minn.), a multi-district litigation involving thousands of cases asserting claims of personal injury arising out of the use of the drug Baycol; mediated the resolution of hundreds of cases, in both group and individual settlements
- Served since 2004 as court-appointed special master for discovery in In re Zyprexa Product Liability Litigation (E.D.N.Y.), a multi-district litigation involving thousands of cases asserting claims of personal injury arising out of the use of the drug Zyprexa; heard and ruled on numerous discovery disputes and issued many case management orders
