About Joe Sam Owen
Joe Sam Owen is admitted to practice in the United States District Court, Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi, the fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court and has been admitted pro hac vice in multiple states. He has participated as counsel for the plaintiff and as counsel for the defendant in Mass Tort Litigation. He has been involved in more than 350 civil and criminal jury and civil non-jury trials during his forty-seven years in the practice of law beginning in August of 1972. He is a member of the Russell-Blass-Walker Chapter of the American Inns of Court, a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Association and a fellow of the American Bar Association.
He served as a member on the Committee for the Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure and is currently a member of the Federal Criminal Rules Advisory Committee for the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi. He is also a Life Fellow of the American Board of Trial Advocates. A Mississippi Coast native, Joe Sam Owen received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi and was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1972. Mr. Owen has practiced in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Tax Court and the U.S. Claims Court.
During his career, Mr. Owen has served as Assistant District Attorney, Second Circuit Court District of Mississippi, a Former Referee with the Harrison County Family Court, and is a Special Assistant Attorney General handling a designated capital murder case. Mr. Owen is listed in the Best Lawyers in America, Strathmore's Who's Who in America, America's Business and Insurance Attorneys, and the National Directory of Criminal Lawyers. He is a member of the Harrison County, Mississippi, and American Bar Associations; Mississippi Association for Justice; American Association for Justice; American Judicature Society; American Inns of Court; and is the State Liaison Chairman for Breast Implant Litigation. Mr. Owen has successfully defended high profile federal and state criminal cases.
His primary areas of interest are personal injury, criminal defense law, medical malpractice and product liability. In recent years, he has represented Georgia-Pacific in the dioxin litigation, Philip Morris in the tobacco cases, Chiquita International and Waste Management. Mr. Owen is very active in his church, youth sports and community projects.
Proven verdicts and settlements at Owen, Owen & Smith, PLLC
These results are credited to Owen, Owen & Smith, PLLC. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
On June 25, 2014 John Williams Jr., a certified crane operator at the VT Halter Marine shipyard in Pascagoula, was in the cab of a Manitowoc Model 16000 crawler crane during a three-crane lift of a ship's bow when the cranes began pulling apart and his tipped. The 18,000-pound steel counterweights stacked on its rear slid forward and struck the cab, throwing him eight feet head-first onto concrete. He survived, permanently incapacitated. A Gulfport jury found Manitowoc never warned operators that could happen and awarded $8,500,000; after fault was split 50/40/10 the judgment against Manitowoc was $3,400,000, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed in 2018.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
