Edward J. Higgins

Edward J. Higgins has extensive experience in the areas of product liability, trucking and transportation liability, medical device liability, motor vehicle negligence, toxic torts, fire loss litigation, labor and employment litigation, premises liability and commercial litigation. He currently represents several major national and international corporations in matters filed in the state of Michigan.

Mr. Higgins currently serves as the Product Liability Practice Group Leader and is an active member of the firm’s Hiring and Mentoring Committees. He also serves as an editor and frequent author of the firm’s electronic Rapid Reports, through which Plunkett Cooney keeps its clients updated on developments in Michigan law.

Throughout his nearly 20-year legal career, Mr. Higgins has represented foodservice and hospitality industry clients with particular emphasis on claims involving premises liability, liquor liability, criminal acts of third parties, food contamination and deleterious substances, employment discrimination and wrongful discharge.

For the past 15 years, Mr. Higgins has successfully represented a popular international restaurant chain in all matters arising from operations in any of its dozen locations in southeast Michigan. He draws upon his extensive personal knowledge and experience from several years spent managing noteworthy full-service restaurants and working as a chef prior to pursuing the practice of law.

Mr. Higgins currently sits on the Steering Committees of the ALFA International Hospitality Law and Product Liability practice groups, and he speaks at seminars on topics of current concern within the industry.

Representative Client Work

• Represents international hotel and restaurant chains in all aspects of Michigan litigation since 1994, including dram shop/liquor liability, premises liability and food poisoning claims
• Represents national and international transportation companies
• Represents manufacturers of cosmetics and personal care products
• Represents national and international manufacturers of home electronics
• Represents manufacturers and distributors of construction equipment
• Represents manufacturers of exercise and fitness equipment
• Represents health and fitness clubs
• Represents major retail chains

PUBLICATIONS AND LECTURES

• “It Just Keeps Going and Going and Going:  The Post-Sale Duty to Warn,” Author, Product Liability Perspectives, ALFA International, Fall 2005
• “Caps on Damages: The ‘Lay of the Land,’” Author, RiskVue, March 2005
• “Caps on Damages: The ‘Lay of the Land,’” Author, Product Liability Perspectives, ALFA International, Fall 2004
• “The Effects of Weather on Liability,” Panel Guest, Due Process Television Show, WDIV – Channel 4 (Detroit), February, 2002
• “Test Trials: An Anecdotal View” (Mock Trial Presentation), Lecturer, Michigan Adjusters Association Seminar, October, 2001
• “Gone But Not Forgotten: Manufacturers’ Post-Sale Duties to Warn or Recall,” Author, Michigan Bar Journal, June, 1999
• “Manufacturers’ Post Sale Conduct: Is There a Continuing Duty to Warn and/or a Common Law Duty to Recall,” Author, International Legal Strategy, May, 1997 (published in Japanese)
• “So Much Quo for So Little Quid: Time for Michigan to Re-examine the Intentional Tort Exception to Workers’ Compensation Exclusivity,” Comment, Detroit College of Law Review, Volume 1992, Issue I

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association (Circuit Court Committee)
• Oakland County Bar Association (Negligence Law Committee)
• State Bar of Michigan (Negligence Law Section)
• Michigan Defense Trial Counsel
• Defense Research Institute
• American Bar Association (Tort and Insurance Practice Section: Products, General Liability and Consumer Law Committee, and Commercial Transportation Committee)

Publications

• At Long Last, Appellate Court Clarifies Product Liability Reform Statute: Non-Manufacturing Sellers Not Liable for Breach of Implied Warranty Absent Showing of Fault
• Supreme Court Strikes Down Requirement That First Party No-Fault Insurers Must Try to Reconcile Conflicting Medical Opinions to Avoid Award of Attorney Fees
• Sixth Circuit rules Michigan No-Fault Act’s Closed-Head Injury provision not applicable to avoid summary judgment on threshold in federal court actions
• Appellate Court invalidates parents' pre-injury liability waivers for minor children
• No-Fault Threshold Assessment of Plaintiff's Pre-accident Lifestyle may Require Consideration of Lifestyle Prior to Pre-existing Disability
• Plaintiff Must Identify a Specific Manufacturing Defect Involved in an Implied Warranty Claim