Louis Accurso

Two former Jackson County Courthouse employees sued U.S. Engineering Co. and Jackson County over asbestos dust that spread through the courthouse during a mid-1980s renovation, after a co-worker died of mesothelioma. A trial judge refused to certify a class, and in March 2015 the Missouri Court of Appeals reversed that ruling and reinstated the case. A jury had been selected for an October 2016 trial in Jackson County Circuit Court when the parties settled for $80 million, funded by U.S. Engineering's insurers rather than county tax dollars. The settlement set aside $25 million for attorneys' fees and litigation costs and put the remainder into a medical monitoring fund covering diagnostic testing for up to 7,500 people who worked in or spent significant time in the courthouse. Louis C. Accurso represented the plaintiffs.

A Clay County, Missouri jury awarded $65 million to a child who suffered a permanent brain injury before birth when a UPS delivery truck struck his mother's car while she was 13 weeks pregnant. With prejudgment interest, the judgment came to roughly $75.3 million, and the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed it in May 2025.

Nancy Lopez worked at the Jackson County Courthouse in Kansas City for 27 years, where she was an administrative assistant to a judge, before she died of mesothelioma in October 2010 at 56. She had sued U.S. Engineering Co. and Jackson County, alleging the contractor mishandled asbestos wrapped pipes and air handling units during a 1983 and 1984 courthouse renovation and let asbestos dust spread through the building. Her family settled the wrongful death claim on November 18, 2011 for $10 million, with Jackson County's share reported at $400,000, after the case had been set for a lengthy jury trial. Her attorney, Lou Accurso, said it was the largest asbestos settlement in Missouri history at the time. The settlement did not cover a separate class action later brought by other courthouse employees.

Roger Ross was driving a farm tractor north on K-7 Highway in Doniphan County, Kansas in March 2014 when a Jeschke Ag Service tractor-trailer driven by Donald Shaw tried to pass in a no-passing zone as Ross began a left turn. The truck struck Ross's tractor mid-turn and threw him from it, causing a traumatic brain injury, a fractured skull, a fractured pelvis, and a cerebral hemorrhage that left him with permanent memory loss. A Jackson County, Missouri jury assessed Jeschke 65 percent at fault and Ross 35 percent at fault, and awarded $3.9 million in economic damages and $2.4 million in non-economic damages. After Kansas's cap on non-economic damages and Ross's share of fault were applied, and punitive damages were added, the court entered judgment for $3,535,000, which the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed in full in 2018.