Janet Hickson

Janet Hickson’s practice focuses on product liability litigation. She has significant experience representing the manufacturers and distributors of automobiles, motorcycles, food products, consumer products, industrial equipment and medical devices.

She has also represented entertainment and amusement park venues, in addition to handling a range of commercial litigation matters.

Janet has successfully defended cases of all sizes, including catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. She has also overseen national and regional defense counsel programs implemented to manage repetitive litigation involving design, manufacture and warnings defect claims.

Janet has considerable experience acting as national discovery counsel for her clients. She regularly advises clients on a variety of discovery issues including the development of effective, efficient and defensible electronic discovery procedures.

Representative Matters:

• Obtained unanimous defense verdict in jury trial of product liability case involving energy drinks—the first such verdict in any energy drink case in the U.S. (December 2018).
• Obtained favorable settlement in the middle of jury trial in product liability case involving energy drinks (February 2018).
• Obtained defense verdict after two-week jury trial involving a bus rollover (April 2015). (Named among CVN’s Top 10 Defense Verdicts of 2015)
• First chair trial of premises liability action representing entertainment restaurant venue; obtained defense verdict (October 2012).
• Obtained summary judgment on behalf of motorcycle manufacturer in product liability case (May 2012).
• Second chair of eight-week jury trial involving design defect and failure to warn claims; obtained defense verdict on behalf of motorcycle manufacturer (December 2011).

Education:

• J.D., University of Southern California Gould School of Law, 1998
• B.A., University of California, Irvine, 1994 (Criminology and Law & Society)

Bar Admissions:

• California

Memberships:

• Defense Research Institute
• Product Liability Advisory Council
• State Bar of California