S. Shay Samples
Proven VerdictsSimilar personal injury attorneys in Birmingham
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
About S. Shay Samples
In nearly 50 years of experience as a lawyer, Shay Samples has found that the most important part of his job is understanding. When representing a victim of medical malpractice, he has to understand the medicine as well as any doctor, nurse, or healthcare provider in order to prove negligence. Growing up in a small town east of Birmingham, Shay had little exposure to the practice of law until he stopped in to watch a fiery local trial lawyer, the legendary Tom Radney, arguing a case. Radney took Shay under his wing and encouraged him to attend law school.
While attending Cumberland School of Law, Shay clerked for a major plaintiff's law firm where the senior partner, Roscoe Hogan, became his mentor. He rose to become a partner there for 18 years. Shay's passion for plaintiff advocacy led him to Hare Wynn in 1994 as a full partner.
Over his career, he has tried hundreds of cases across Alabama in both state and federal courts. Although he has handled cases in almost every area of civil trial litigation, his primary focus has been representing victims of medical malpractice and their families. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, limited to 500 members worldwide, and a Senior Counsel Member of the College of Master Advocates and Barristers.
Proven verdicts and settlements
A neurosurgeon performed a lumbar fusion in July 2005 and, according to the Trammells' expert, never examined Thomas Trammell afterward despite classic signs of cauda equina syndrome, waiting ten days to operate again. An Alabama jury in March 2011 awarded Thomas $1,650,000 and his wife Barbara $500,000 for loss of consortium. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the judgment in May 2012.
In August 2019 a Calhoun County jury ordered a former Regional Medical Center emergency physician to pay $2 million to the widow of John Townsend, 60, who bled to death from a ruptured pseudoaneurysm the morning after he was sent home from the ER in 2014. The jury found the doctor responsible for not ordering a color Doppler ultrasound for a softball-sized groin lump. A second physician had settled with the widow before trial.
A nine-year-old girl's sciatic nerve was injured during hip surgery at Crestwood Hospital in Huntsville, Alabama in 1990. Her parents sued the hospital's operator, alleging an inadequately trained operating room technician. A jury awarded $818,000 in compensatory damages against the hospital and found for the surgeon's practice. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed on March 7, 1997.
A jury in 2003 awarded Janann Durham $765,920 against Lloyd Noland Hospital after its nursing staff failed to place and follow standing orders for a preoperative antibiotic before her May 1996 hysterectomy and suspension surgery. She developed a postoperative infection that required rehospitalization and extensive treatment. The award was $333,120 for past and $432,800 for future damages, and the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed it in January 2005.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
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Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.