Christine D. Spagnoli

For 37 years at personal injury firm Greene, Broillet & Wheeler LLP, partner Christine D. Spagnoli has honed her skills at representing plaintiffs in auto defect litigation.

In the early days, when she was assigned to be firm co-founder Bruce A. Broillet's law clerk, she worked on cases involving Volkswagen door latch problems. "It piqued my interest in the field," Spagnoli said.

That case turned on jurisdiction questions, which persist, sometimes making it hard for plaintiff lawyers to sue. "But the Supreme Court gave us a big win with the Montana v. Ford case," she said. That 2021 outcome, Ford Motor Co. V. Montana Eighth Judicial District Ct. et al., 19-368, dismissed the company's argument that it could not be sued in Montana because the cars at issue were designed, manufactured and originally sold elsewhere.

"Ford wanted a new jurisdiction test and the Supreme Court rejected it," Spagnoli said. "It was a relief. The justices put to bed more aggressive efforts by manufacturers to shrink their exposure."

Due to the pandemic, Spagnoli hasn't had a trial in over two years. "The lack of trial dates has hurt plaintiffs more than the defense, because dates drive settlements," she said.

Even so, her work has had an impact, she added, in promoting safer vehicles. "Tire separation cases were the bulk of my portfolio for years, but now tires are much better as the industry adapted better designs that plaintiffs' experts had been calling for."

The change followed Spagnoli's $73 million jury verdict in 2011 against Ford Motor Co. after a van rolled over, killing two and injuring two, when a rear tire came apart.

"A benefit of our system is that we have been able to keep putting pressure on these companies for years," Spagnoli said.

Due for safety updates, she added, was auto seat design. "We have a case in which a woman got rear-ended on the freeway and the impact broke her back. She's a quadriplegic. That's unfortunately very common."

However, rollover cases have been greatly diminished by new electronic stability control systems. "You used to have roof crush cases with permanent spinal injuries. I haven't seen one in years," she said.

More broadly, the trend toward computerized safety technology like automatic breaking is bringing a new set of problems, Spagnoli said. "Advanced computers figure in personal injury complaints because they are faulty or when plaintiffs assert that they should have been installed in newer models. That's a trend in its early stages, but it opens up a whole different kind of approach. We'll need different kinds of experts."

- John Roemer