After 40 years, Frantz Law Group, APLC has just about seen it all. But just because the legendary California law firm has litigated, tried to verdict, or settled nearly every imaginable type of personal injury, professional negligence, commercial, and mass tort claim, it doesn’t mean Frantz Law Group and its attorneys have lost sight of what drew them to the practice in the first place. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Through careers spent righting the wrongs of carmakers, trucking companies, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, public utilities and more, the attorneys of Frantz Law Group are doing what they can to make sure the playing field becomes ever more level for the everyday people facing a significant tragedy in their lives caused by the recklessness of those corporate (or individual) entities.
But while righting individual wrongs is at the core of the firm’s philosophy, a principal driver of the work anchored by Frantz and his colleagues centers around the concept of broader accountability—in other words, instituting change at the regulatory level to ensure catastrophic events are not reoccurring again. For example, the firm has been directing (with other firms) the litigation stemming from the largest mass tort gas leak case in United States history. Since 2015, the firm has been representing over eight thousand plaintiffs against Southern California Gas Company (and its parent, Sempra Energy,) in lawsuits after an underground storage well at the utility’s Aliso Canyon facility suffered an uncontrollable blowout, causing some residents of the Porter Ranch community to allegedly suffer death as well as significant respiratory and neurological problems, and other health issues as well as significant property devaluation. The sad thing about this catastrophe is that these public utilities knew that the gas wells were in disrepair and this was a disaster waiting to happen.
“We want SoCalGas to repair its wells and inspect and maintain its facilities properly, so this type of blowout never happens again,” says Frantz, who sits on the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee that guides the litigation. “We’re always looking at the broader implications of the cases we’re involved in. What happened in Porter Ranch was entirely preventable, and that is a big part of the tragedy of this event.”
"Every case we take is significant."
Frantz Law Group is certainly no stranger to forcing corporate hands and was the impetus behind the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to permanently ban the sale of ephedra-based dietary supplements because of their link to heart attacks and stroke. The $18.5 million verdict Frantz Law Group won in related litigation—just another result of spending decades honing the art and science of trial law—is just the icing on the cake. “Every case we take is significant,” Frantz says. “There’s a lot at stake for our clients, whether we are working on a case for parents who have lost a dear child or if there are millions on the line in a business dispute. We’re methodical in how we prepare our cases and leave no stone unturned in our strategy and efforts to win.”
