California’s most prominent legal newspaper, the Los Angeles | San Francisco Daily Journal, has named Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger Shareholder, Michael A. Kelly, one of 2022’s Top Plaintiff Lawyers in the State.
Over the past year, Mr. Kelly has served as co-lead counsel the statewide JCCP In RE Paraquat, venued in Contra Costa Superior Court alleging an association between the exposure to Paraquat and the development of Parkinson’s disease in agricultural workers. These personal injury cases involve severely ill clients with a progressive disorder of the central nervous system.
He told the Daily Journal, “One of the things I love most is putting people in a position where they now have the resources to try new and different therapies, to get the best doctors, to not be confined to their insurance, that’s a great thing,”
As a member of the PG&E bankruptcy trust oversight committee Kelly continues to work to improve the efficiency of the claims payment process of the Trust responsible for distributing the monies paid by PG&E as part of the bankruptcy court resolution. The PG&E bankruptcy case, the largest Tort Bankruptcy in U.S. history – still owes money to more than 50,000 people..
In 2021 Mr. Kelly also worked on behalf of families who lost property and loved ones in the Southern California Edison caused Thomas fire. He served as a member of the liability litigation team on behalf of 1,500 individual plaintiffs in the Thomas Fire and debris flow losses in Montecito, successfully concluding multiple confidential wrongful death settlements from those disasters.
For more than 40 years, Mr. Kelly has focused his career on helping victims of auto, trucking, government liability, wrongful death cases, brain injuries, paralysis, and medical malpractice.
