South Carolina
Kevin R. Dean
Member
Kevin Dean focuses his litigation efforts on catastrophic injury, products liability, and wrongful death cases. As co-leader of Motley Rice's catastrophic injury practice group, Kevin represents individual victims and families affected by tragic events caused by hazardous consumer products, occupational and industrial accidents, fires, premise injuries and other incidents of negligence. He served as lead plaintiffs' counsel in In re Charleston Firefighter Litigation, a wrongful death and negligence case against Sofa Super Store, contractors and multiple furniture manufacturers on behalf of the families of the nine firefighters lost in the June 2007 warehouse fire in Charleston, S.C.
Since the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, Kevin has been helping people and businesses pursuing litigation, as well as those needing help filing and negotiating their claims. He served as a member of the oil spill MDL's GCCF Jurisdiction & Court Oversight Workgroup and is now helping victims file claims through the new claims programs established by the two settlements reached with BP.
Kevin has maintained a leadership role since 2005 in litigating hundreds of cases alleging illegal organ harvesting, as well as potentially diseased human tissue and organ transplants. He is actively involved with malpractice, defective medical devices and drug litigation. Additionally, Kevin litigates vehicle defect cases, including against "the Big Three" automotive manufacturers in cases involving defective brakes, door locks, door latches, seat belts and roll overs. He was trial co-counsel in Guzman v. Ford (2001), the first case brought to trial regarding a hidden defective outside door latch handle, as well as in the vehicle rollover case Hayward v. Ford (2005).
Prior to joining Motley Rice, Kevin was a partner with the Law Offices of J. Edward Bell III, LLC. Before moving to South Carolina, he was a member of the William S. Stone, P.C. law firm, and he began his career as an associate with The Bennett Law Firm. His experience includes the health insurance fraud and post-claims underwriting case Clark v. Security Life Insurance Company, the largest civil RICO case in Georgia history, and Wiggins v. Parsons Nursery, one of the largest environmental and health contamination cases in South Carolina. Kevin also served as a County Commissioner on the Early County Georgia Board of Commissioners and still has the distinguished honor of having been the youngest elected commissioner in county history.
Kevin frequently appears in local and national broadcast and print media discussing legal matters of workplace safety, fire prevention and other products liability, as well as specific casework and efforts for changes and improvements in various industries. The 2012 and 2013 editions of Benchmark Plaintiff, The Definitive Guide to America's Leading Plaintiff Firms & Attorneysrecognized Kevin as a "Litigation Star" in its national rankings in mass torts/product liability, as well as its South Carolina rankings in product liability. Martindale-Hubbell® recognizes Kevin as a BV® rated attorney.
He is a member of the American Association for Justice, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association and South Carolina Association for Justice. He co-authored "Dangerous Doors and Loose Latches,"published in Trial Magazine (2004) for the American Association for Justice (formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America), and authored "The Right to Jury Trial in ERISA Civil Enforcement Actions" published in The American Journal of Trial Advocacy (1989).
* Please remember that every case is different. Any result we achieve for one client in one matter does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.