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About James Butler
James E. Butler Jr. is the founding partner of Butler Prather LLP and has built a national civil trial practice spanning 33 states. He earned his B.A. in Journalism from the University of Georgia in 1972 and his J.D. cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1977, where he served on the Georgia Law Review and was named Best Oralist in the Southern Moot Court Competition. He was admitted to the Georgia and Alabama bars in 1977. Butler has served as lead counsel in more than 10 cases that produced verdicts exceeding $100 million, including a $2.5 billion verdict against Ford Motor Company in 2025 (Brogdon v. Ford), a $1.724 billion verdict against Ford in 2022 (Hill v. Ford), a $454 million collected judgment in Six Flags v. Time Warner, and a $279 million False Claims Act verdict.
He has set the Georgia verdict record six times across four different case types and has obtained 57 verdicts exceeding $100,000. He served as President of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association from 1988 to 1989 and on the State Bar Disciplinary Board from 1993 to 1996. He received the State Bar of Georgia Tradition of Excellence Award in 2002 and the American Board of Trial Advocates Civil Justice Award in 1993. He founded the Flint Riverkeeper Inc. and funded a Veterans Legal Clinic at the University of Georgia School of Law.
Proven verdicts and settlements
A federal jury in Columbus, Georgia awarded $30.5 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 billion in punitive damages against Ford Motor Company for the deaths of Herman and Debra Mills, killed when the roof of their 2015 F-250 Super Duty crushed down on them in a rollover. Butler Prather LLP tried the case, with James E. Butler Jr., Ramsey Prather, Daniel Philyaw, and Allison Bailey on the trial team. The honest frame: Ford called the verdict impermissibly extreme, moved for a new trial, and in September 2025 settled this case and the related $1.7 billion Hill case on confidential terms, so the verdict was never collected as awarded.
A Gwinnett County jury awarded roughly $24 million in compensatory damages and $1.7 billion in punitive damages against Ford Motor Company for the 2014 rollover deaths of Melvin and Voncile Hill in a 2002 F-250, with James E. Butler Jr. of Butler Prather LLP as lead trial counsel; the Georgia Court of Appeals vacated the judgment in November 2024 and ordered a new trial, and Ford settled the case on confidential terms in September 2025 before a third trial could begin.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
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