Business and Civil Litigation
Simms Showers delivers effective, responsive, and sophisticated litigation solutions for clients in complex business and civil litigation, at a quality and value exceeding many larger firms.
We practice in federal and state courts across the country, in cases ranging from antitrust to insurance coverage, from personal injury to contract disputes, and from intellectual property to real property. In order to ensure control of litigation costs, we work in appropriate matters according to litigation budgets, guaranteeing that fees and expenses do not exceed an agreed percentage of the client’s. Our work in the area of complex litigation includes:
- a Medicare fraud case with a U.S. $8.6 million settlement paid by a national medical testing laboratory, which was the nation’s third largest False Claims Act recovery; and
- a complex international insurance fraud case, resulting in a judgment for our client of US $1.4 million
We have successfully defended a range of complex business matters in the area of professionals’, officers’, and directors’ liability. We advise our clients about how to avoid liability, as well as how to assure that they receive coverage from their insurers. Our work in the area of officers’ and directors’ liability includes:
- Successful conclusion of a US $4 million lender and directors’ and officers’ liability civil racketeering claim;
- Successful conclusion of a US $5 million suit alleging civil RICO and legal malpractice after a financial institution collapsed; and
- A defense verdict in favor of the former Chief Financial Officer of Maryland’s largest health insurer in a $50 million action brought by that insurer’s subscribers.
Simms Showers also represents clients whose litigation matters are considerably more basic than the examples described above, ranging from basic contract and business disputes to motor vehicle accidents.
Health Care / Nursing Home Law and Litigation
Simms Showers’ health care practice extends to virtually all aspects of health care law. We advise and counsel health care providers and suppliers that wish to achieve Medicare and Medicaid certification, state licensure, certificates of need, and federal payment recognition of new medical devices. Because we are a leading firm in False Claims Act litigation, we also offer counsel to health care providers and practitioners in establishing operations and payment policies that comply with federal and state laws targeting fraud and abuse.
Our attorneys have extensive experience in the federal government’s nursing home quality of care regulations and assist families, residents, and care givers in identifying quality nursing homes. The Firm also assists families and residents in ensuring that nursing homes provide the level of services mandated by federal and state law.
Products Liability, Casualty, and Insurance Coverage Litigation
The firm’s insurance coverage litigation practice focuses on the representation of excess and umbrella liability insurers in “long-tail” risk coverage disputes, such as those for environmental claims.
The Firm’s successful defenses of these carriers includes Keene v. Columbia Casualty, in which the court upheld the insurer’s refusal to extend coverage against asbestos-related claims under $15 million of general liability excess policies, two of which, the insured argued, had unlimited defense obligations. (11 No. 7 Mealy’s Litig. Rep.: Ins. 3, Nov. 27, 1996).
Mr. Simms’ writings and presentations in this area include Homeowner’s Insurance, Directors and Officers’ (“D&O”) Liability Coverage, Insurance Law: Third Party Coverage in Maryland (Nat’l Business Inst. 1996) and Insurance Requirements in AIA Contracts, ABA-TIPS 1996 National Institute on Insurance Coverage for Defective Construction.
