In 1989, Willis was hired to represent a young teenager that was rendered traumatically brain damaged in a car-train collision. The family of a teenage daughter suffered traumatic brain damage when a speeding Southern Pacific Freight Train failed to blow its required horn, broad-sided the vehicle our client and her friends were traveling. The other back seat occupant died from her brain injuries.  The family hired Willis to represent their daughter. After almost a three-week trial, a record verdict was awarded in the trial court for over $25,500,000 and later settled for $15,000,000.  At the time of the trial court’s final verdict, it was the nation’s largest single car-train accidents in US History.  

In 1989, Attorney Mark McDonald, the two-time president of the prestigious National Bar Association, asked Willis to take over a tragic waterpark accident case involving his client’s daughter, a young African American girl that was suffered anoxic brain damage in a wave pool in Texas. She was found unresponsive at the bottom of the wave pool by another swimmer and was pulled out and revived, but sadly suffered permanent anoxic brain injuries due to the lack of oxygen while on the bottom of the pool for over five to six minutes.

Willis immediately filed a negligence lawsuit against the water park for negligent lifeguarding, but after a few months the defendant tendered their full policy of insurance limits. Willis realized the amount was not enough to take care of this young girl, as her future medical care were predicted to be millions more that what had been recovered from the waterpark, so Willis turned the litigation into a products liability lawsuit against the wave pool designers, wave generating equipment maker, the pool designers and others. After two years in litigation, Willis obtained at the time, what was the largest wave pool settlement in US history. In fact, due to this lawsuit, many new wave pools in waterparks and notable theme parks across the United States are now equipped the underwater cameras and audible alarms exactly like Willis alleged would have prevented her near drowning and brain injuries.

In 1997, in one of the first of many big cases, Willis would be involved in, was also one of the nation’s first Firestone ATX Radial Tread / Belt Separation and Ford Explorer rollover cases. Sadly, one passenger died, another lost both of her legs and a child was left with a life-changing spinal cord injury. A products liability lawsuit was filed in 1998 against Ford and Firestone due to the Ford Explorer going out of control and rolling over after the back left Firestone ATX radial tire de-treaded. After a long battle with Ford and Firestone a very significant confidential settlement was reached by all parties.

Years later, on July 17, 2001, Mr. Willis was recognized as part of a very select group of products liability attorneys in the nation and were awarded the prestigious Steven J. Sharp Public Service Award for their contributions in investigating and gathering evidence pertaining to tire belt separation and vehicle rollovers and pursing justice for their clients against Firestone Tire and Ford Motor Company. The efforts by them helped lead to one of the largest recalls in U.S. history. This national award was presented to Willis by the President of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA).

In 2005, Willis again got national attention after they were hired by the members of an Iowa family when the family’s Ford F-150 pickup truck erupting into flames in the middle of the night trapping their 70-year-old mother / wife in their burning house on family’s Iowa farm.

The family had interviewed numerous law firms across the United States but chose Willis to represent them and make sure that Ford Motor Company “got what is coming to them.” After extensive fire engineering and accident scene investigation and by some of the top fire experts in the world, it was determined that the Ford truck’s cruise control switch was defective in its design and manufacturer had caught fire in the middle of the night, killing Mrs. Mohlis. It was later discovered that a safer design would have cost Ford less than $5.00 to install.

The pain-staking evidence preservation and scene documentation and aggressive discovery in this lawsuit by Willis helped to provide the needed “ammo” for Mr. Bruce York at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to force Ford to “voluntarily” recall over 8 MILLION vehicles with a similar defective condition, ultimately saving many lives in the future.

In 2005, Willis again got national attention after they was hired by the surviving members of Iowa family due to the family’s Ford F-150 pickup truck erupting into flames in the middle of the night trapping the 70-year-old woman in their burning house on family’s Iowa farm.

The family had interviewed numerous law firms across the United States but chose Willis to represent them and make sure that Ford Motor Company “got what is coming to them.” After extensive fire engineering and accident scene investigation and by some of the top fire experts in the world, it was determined that the Ford truck’s cruise control switch was defective in its design and manufacturer and caught fire in the middle of the night, killing Mrs. Mohlis. It was later discovered that a safer design would have cost Ford less than $5.00 to install.

The pain-staking evidence preservation and documentation and discovery in this lawsuit by Willis helped to provide the needed “ammo” for Mr. Bruce York at NHTSA to force Ford to “voluntarily” recall over 8 MILLION vehicles with a similar defective condition.