Douglas Berger
About Douglas Berger
Douglas E. Berger is a Partner at the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin, focused on workers' compensation law. He is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation - one of fewer than 200 such specialists in North Carolina.
Berger earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Speech Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982 and a Teaching Certificate in Social Studies in 1985. He received his Juris Doctor from the UNC School of Law in 1989.
His distinguished career includes serving as a Deputy Commissioner at the North Carolina Industrial Commission for 10 years, presiding over 500 workers' compensation hearings. He served as advisor to the NCIC fraud unit and as Head Administrator of the Department of Claims. He was elected to four terms (8 years) as a North Carolina State Senator beginning in 2005, co-chairing the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.
He is admitted to the North Carolina Bar and has been recognized in Best Lawyers for Workers' Compensation Law - Claimants (2021-2026).
Berger serves as Chairperson of Franklin County Senior Democrats and is a former member of the Franklin County Social Services Board (1999-2002).
Proven verdicts and settlements at Law Offices of James Scott Farrin
These results are credited to Law Offices of James Scott Farrin. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
Farrin co-lead counsel Gary Jackson won an $8 million class settlement for roughly 6,500 residents forced from their homes by the 2022 ammonium nitrate fire at the Winston Weaver fertilizer plant, with a separate $4.5 million for affected businesses.
A Johnston County jury awarded $5.1 million to the family of Joan Drake, killed when a driver going 98 mph struck her car as she turned into a Clayton Walmart, after Farrin attorneys Coleman Cowan and Donald Clack tried the case without putting on a single medical bill.
A mother and her two teenage daughters were seriously hurt in an October 2018 head-on crash on North Carolina Highway 49 with a company truck driven by an unlicensed man. After the injury claims were resolved by agreement, a federal court held that the construction company's commercial excess policy covered the accident and that interest was owed on top. The Fourth Circuit affirmed in August 2025, and the family's total recovery reached $2,861,458.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
