Rob Ammons

A Starr County jury unanimously awarded more than $1.6 billion combined to the families of two workers killed in a 2023 explosion at the Pecos Liquids Handling Facility, with $812 million going to the Garcia Peña family and roughly $809 million to the Alaffa family, finding owner Upton Assets, LLC grossly negligent, though the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy about two weeks before the verdict and collection remains uncertain.

In February 2022, a federal judge ordered the United States to pay $230 million to survivors and families of the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting after finding the Air Force 60 percent liable for failing to report the gunman's criminal history to the federal background check system.

A Harris County jury found Hanover Compression L.P. (later Exterran Energy Solutions L.P.) grossly negligent in the 2007 explosion of a hot oil heater at a Quicksilver Resources natural gas plant in Hood County, Texas, that killed 27-year-old plant worker Joshua Wade Petrie. The jury assigned Hanover 90 percent of the responsibility and Quicksilver 10 percent, and in June 2010 awarded Petrie's widow, his three young children and his father a combined $82.5 million, a total that included $25 million in punitive damages against Hanover. Rob Ammons and Bennett Midlo of The Ammons Law Firm represented the family. Quicksilver, as Petrie's employer, carried workers' compensation coverage and was not itself on the hook for the damages award.

An Ector County jury found OPG Logistics, LLC and its driver, Biorkys Sanchez Fernandez, grossly negligent in a January 2025 collision on FM 307 near Midland, Texas, that killed 29-year-old Steffan Robert Mick, a husband, father of two young children, and maintenance technician at ProPetro Services. In May 2026 the jury awarded Mick's widow, children, and parents a combined $49 million, including $40.5 million in compensatory damages and $8.5 million in punitive damages, after evidence showed Sanchez had been on duty more than 15 hours and driving more than 12 without a break at the time of the crash. Jurors assigned 65 percent of responsibility to OPG Logistics and 35 percent to Sanchez. Rob Ammons and Elizabeth H. Lawrence of The Ammons Law Firm, with co-counsel Brian Carney, represented the family.