William David Turley

William David Turley grew up driving trucks. His Dad drove a bakery truck. His Dad then joined the U.S. Navy.  Bill grew up on the water. His maritime experience started while sitting on his Dad’s lap, driving their boats.

Bill stuttered pretty bad when he was kid.  The stuttering was so bad that he was placed in remedial reading when he was in third grade. Not the best start for a legal career. Bill’s first job was working on a crab boat. After college he decided to go to law school in order to become a maritime lawyer.

Bill began his practice representing workers seriously injured in San Diego’s shipyards and on the waterfront, bays and waterways. He has been handling worker cases ever since.  Not long after Bill started to practice maritime law, there began a gradual attrition of San Diego maritime lawyers.

This was due to a variety of reasons including either going to the Bench or retiring from practice.  The long and short of it is that at a relatively young age, Bill rose to become the preeminent Plaintiff’s maritime attorney in San Diego. He continues to be such today.

Since early in his career, Bill has handled all sorts and types of maritime personal injury and death cases. Bill has handled cases involving: Jones Act seaman, shipyard workers, cruise ship passengers, boat accident victims, personal watercraft, to unsafe maritime products.

In 1989, one of the biggest products liability cases in San Diego’s history occurred at one of San Diego’s shipyards. A crane dropped 13 workers onto the deck of the U.S.S. Sacramento.  Tragically, six of the workers died.

Bill represented 5 of the workers and families involved. At the time, he was only a three year attorney. Bill Turley has been handling unsafe product, catastrophic injury and death cases ever since.  Soon word quickly spread to other lawyers and the public about Bill’s talents in handling products liability cases.

Bill is Plaintiff’s counsel in the landmark 2012 California Supreme Court case – Brinker vs. Superior Court. This is the case that established workers rights to meal and rest breaks in California. Today, Bill represents more truck drivers than any lawyer in California. Bill’s firm also represents more Defense Base Act workers than any law firm on the west coast.