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About Windle Turley

Windle Turley founded the Turley Law Firm in 1973 and has spent more than five decades seeking justice for clients in Dallas, North Texas, and across the country. He is known for innovative communication and demonstrative evidence techniques that help juries understand the real impact of an injury. In addition to his litigation work in state and federal courts at the trial and appellate levels, including the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Turley has written more than 50 articles on trial preparation and litigation and authored two legal treatises, Aviation Litigation and Firearms Litigation (both Shepard's/McGraw-Hill). He also served as an Adjunct Professor of Product Liability Law at SMU Dedman School of Law in 2016. He has been named to Best Lawyers in America for personal injury litigation continuously since 1983, received the Dallas Bar Association Trial Lawyer of the Year award in 2020, and received the Texas Trial Legends Award from the Dallas Association of Trial Lawyers in 2018.

Proven verdicts and settlements

$119.6 million (verdict); $23.4 million (settlement)Verdict

A Dallas jury returned a $119.6 million verdict against the Catholic Diocese of Dallas after finding it grossly negligent and fraudulent in concealing years of sexual abuse by priest Rudy Kos; eight of the eleven plaintiffs, represented by Windle Turley, later settled for $23.4 million.

134th Civil District Court, Dallas County, Texas · 1997Sexual AbuseRead the full story →
$9.5 millionSettlement

Windle Turley filed a $400 million federal lawsuit in Dallas on behalf of former Hare Krishna boarding-school students who suffered rape, physical torture, and emotional abuse as children; the litigation resolved in 2005 through a California bankruptcy court settlement paying $9.5 million to hundreds of victims.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court (California); originally filed U.S. District Court, N.D. Texas, Dallas · 2005Premises LiabilityRead the full story →
$600,000 ($150,000 actual plus $450,000 punitive after reduction on appeal; $10.15 million gross verdict)Verdict

Windle Turley won a $10.15 million jury verdict against Freightliner after the company's lightweight aluminum saddle-tank fuel system ruptured and ignited in a 1974 Texas rollover, killing a husband and wife and leaving their children orphaned. After a decade of appeals, the punitive-damages liability was upheld but the amount was reduced to $450,000.

U.S. District Court, N.D. Texas; 5th Circuit on appeal · 1977Product LiabilityRead the full story →
Verdict

Windle Turley obtained what legal scholars credit as the first jury verdict applying the crashworthiness doctrine to an aircraft, holding Cessna liable for a fuel-system design that allowed occupants, including children, to burn to death in a post-crash fire following a Texas runway departure.

Texas District Court (No. 70-9255-L) · 1973Product LiabilityRead the full story →
View all 5 proven verdicts →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Education

Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law
J.D.
Oklahoma City University
Undergraduate

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Proven verdicts and settlements from other Dallas firms

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$268.6 million (settled confidentially mid-deliberation) · Jury Awards $268 Million After Medical City Gave a 13-Year-Old Girl a Fatal Propofol Overdose
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$2.065 billion · Cobb County Jury Awards John Barnes $2.065 Billion in Roundup Cancer Trial
Dean Omar Branham Shirley, LLP
Dean Omar Branham Shirley, LLP
$966 million · The $966 Million Talc Verdict Against Johnson & Johnson for the Mesothelioma Death of Mae Moore, With the $950 Million Punitive Award Vacated by the Trial Judge in March 2026, Leaving a $16 Million Compensatory Judgment Headed for Cross-Appeals
Miller Weisbrod Olesky
Miller Weisbrod Olesky
$30.8 million · $30.8 Million Verdict Against Navistar for Concealing MaxxForce Engine Defects in 243 Trucks
Loncar Lyon Jenkins
Loncar Lyon Jenkins
$296 million · $296 Million Verdict Against Koch Industries for Butane Pipeline Deaths in Kaufman County