Steve Tucker is listed in Best Lawyers in America in the categories of Personal Injury Litigation and Railroad Law, and was recently named Best Lawyers’ 2014 Birmingham Railroad Law “Lawyer of the Year.” An Alabama native, he attended law school at the University of Kentucky College of Law, graduating in 1984. While attending law school, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Kentucky Law Journal.
Mr. Tucker practices in both federal and state courts. His law practice is devoted primarily to personal injury litigation, and includes substantial work defending clients in cases involving claims for both traumatic and occupational injury, as well as toxic tort claims. He serves as a national trial counsel for a large corporation in connection with occupational and toxic tort litigation. He successfully defended a railroad in what are believed to be the first Federal Employers’ Liability Act (“FELA”) cases alleging asbestosis which went to trial in both Alabama and Mississippi. Much of his practice involves defending railroads in grade crossing cases, trespasser cases, employee traumatic injury cases, and employee claims of occupational illness or injury.
Mr. Tucker has served as lead or co-counsel in a number of appellate cases, including a case which clarified in the State of Alabama that statements taken by a railroad claim agent following a grade crossing accident are privileged as work product, a case which explained that under the Federal Railroad Safety Act a railroad cannot be required to install equipment on locomotives which is not required by the Federal Locomotive Inspection Act, and a case which applied and affirmed the doctrine of federal preemption in grade crossing cases in Alabama. In addition, he has served as lead or co-counsel in a number of cases in which courts have granted and affirmed summary judgment on behalf of his client in grade crossing cases.
Mr. Tucker is a member of the American Bar Association, the Alabama State Bar, and the Birmingham Bar Association, and is admitted to practice before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. He is a member of the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel, the Alabama Defense Lawyers Association, and the Defense Research Institute. He is a member of the Litigation Section and the Science and Technology Section of the ABA.
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