Mark C. Blane, Esq.
Attorney of Law/Founding Member and Principal

EDUCATION:

J.D. (Juris Doctorate) Thomas Jefferson School of Law, 1998
B.C.J. (Bachelor of Criminal Justice) Louisiana State University, in Shreveport, 1995
B.S. (Bachelor of Science in Psychology) Louisiana State University, in Shreveport, 1994

LEGAL EXPERIENCE:

Attorney Mark C. Blane founded his law firm in 2005 after a series of successful wins in Mass-Tort Litigation representing injured consumers, but has practiced law in California since 1999.  Today, his law firm has quickly grown to include his law school friend and fellow plaintiff litigator, Attorney Chad J. Maguire, as an “Of Counsel” Attorney Member, and two hard working paralegals with over 33 years legal experience combined.  His  practice area is primarily in personal injury, and some of his early successes have been featured in National Publications and Legal Journals including the San Diego Business Journal, National Jurist Magazine, the ABA Journal, and the Shreveport Times, to name but a few.  He is admitted to the California, Texas, and Minnesota State Bars, and various Federal Bars throughout the United States.

He has litigated, and continues to litigate, cases against some of America’s biggest Corporations including:  Ford/Firestone (Defective Tire/Ford Roll-Over Cases); Amercian Home Products, Inc., drug makers of the once popular diet drug Fen-Phen; Johnson & Johnson, Inc.; and most recently against both Merck, Inc., drug makers of the heart drug Vioxx, and Metabolife, Inc., the San Diego based drug makers of the once popular ephedra based diet-drug of the same name.  He was one of the first plaintiff attorneys in the U.S. to successfully settle against Ford/Firestone in California/Texas in the widely reported “tire defect/roll-over cases” in 2001.  All of his clients in the above litigation suffered from heart valve injuries; spinal cord injuries; liver and brain injuries.

His focal area includes serious injuries of the Brain/Spinal Cord, Loss Motion Segment Integrity of the Spine/Vertebrae, and effectively documenting these injuries for the insurance company, and jury if necessary.  This includes properly digitizing MRI/X-ray findings in order to appropriately document injury “impairment” by utilizing Permanent Impairment Ratings per the American Medical Association (AMA) 5th Edition.  He is a master of the AMA 5th Edition, a medical assessment used world-wide to document medical impairment; and he is in the small majority of personal injury trial attorneys in the United States that have knowledge of utilizing this particular type of  powerful medical documentation to prove medical damages in all injury/accident claims.  Thus, he is proud to have set a “new bar” in terms of representing his injured clients with powerful results.  Moreover, he is very effective in communicating this medical documentation to the jury should litigation become necessary.  He works closely with both medical doctors and chiropractors including an entire spectrum of other doctors that best benefit his clients’ individual injuries and needs. 

He is the author and presenter of How to Document Value Drivers in Personal Injury Cases Today and gives free lectures (with video presentation) to the Southern California medical community approximately every three months live from the conference room of his downtown San Diego law office.  If you are doctor interested in learning more about this, please e-mail Mark here.  He is always mindful that every case needs careful and detailed documentation for not only the adjuster handling the claim, but for the jury that may need to see each aspect of an injury in straight-forward terms.  As he is fond of saying, “appropriately and properly documenting the medical impairment of any given injury makes all the legal difference in the world.”

PRIMARY PRACTICE AREAS:

PERSONAL INJURY
PHARMACEUTICAL DRUG LITIGATION/MASS-TORT (MDL)
AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS
MOTORCYCLE/BICYCLE ACCIDENTS
TRUCK ACCIDENTS
BOATING ACCIDENTS
PRODUCT DEFECTS/LIABILITY
WRONGFUL DEATH
SLIP & FALLS
BRAIN/SPINAL CORD INJURY
INSURANCE BAD FAITH
UNINSURED/UNDER-INSURED MOTORIST
BURNS/CHEMICAL BURNS
DOG BITES/ANIMAL ATTACKS
CONSTRUCTION SITE INJURY
ELDER & NURSING HOME ABUSE
TOXIC EXPOSURE

PHARMACEUTICAL DRUG CLASS ACTIONS:

FEN-PHEN
PROPULSID
REZULIN
METABOLIFE
CELEBREX
VIOXX
AVANDIA

STATE & FEDERAL BAR ADMISSIONS:

State of California, 1999
State of Minnesota, 2001
State of Texas, 2005
United States District Court, Southern District of California, 1999
United States District Court, Central District of California, 1999
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1999
United States District Court, District of Colorado, 2002
United States District Court, District of Pennsylvania, Pro Hac Vice admission
United States District Court, District of Louisiana, Pro Hac Vice admission
United States Court of Appeal for the Armed Forces, 1999

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:

San Diego County Bar Association, 1999
Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, 1999
American Association of Justice, formerly the American Trial Lawyer Association, 1999
Better Business Bureau (BBB) of San Diego, 2007

PRO-BONO

Proud Recipient of the Wiley W. Manuel Award, State Bar of California, for dedicated Pro Bono work for the indigent, 2002
Proud Recipient of the Wiley W. Manuel Award, State Bar of California, for dedicated Pro Bono work for the indigent, 2003
Past volunteer with the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer program, 2000-2003
Past and present volunteer with the San Diego County Bar Association

PAST AND PRESENT MASS-TORT/CLASS ACTION CASES:

Malena Capps-Conner, et. al. v. American Home Products, et. al., California Superior Court, (1999); (Multi-District Litigation)
Jessup v. Ford/Firestone, et. al., U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, (2000); (Multi-District Litigation)
Lilia Casillas, et. al.  v. Metabolife Corporation, et. al., Superior Court of California, San Diego, (2004); (Multi-District Litigation)
John Doe, et. al. v. Merck Corporation, et. al., U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston, Texas (2006); (Multi-District Litigation)