Attorney Bios

Ernie's practice reflects his 30 years of trial experience and focuses on the representation of individuals who have suffered life-altering injuries as a result of medical malpractice, defective products, catastrophic motor vehicle collisions, or sexual abuse.

Ernie's trial career began in the Loyola University Law Clinic in New Orleans. After moving to Connecticut and beginning his private practice, he focused on criminal defense and civil trial work.  Since then, he has tried numerous civil and criminal cases to verdict, achieving successes for his clients.  Recently Ernie served as President of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association. One of his main objectives as President was the formation of a consumer safety task force. This task force will help coordinate providing parents with information dealing with safe playgrounds, safe bicycle routes, and school safety. In addition, patient safety and reduction of medical errors will be a focus of the task force.

Ernie consistently obtains fair compensation for his clients' losses in catastrophic cases of personal injury and medical malpractice, such as physicians' failures to timely diagnose breast and colon cancer, failures to monitor patients during anesthesia and failures to properly perform surgery.  He has also won numerous awards in jury trials, where jurors have fairly compensated victims for suffering and losses. 

As an example, in a recent trial, Ernie obtained a favorable jury verdict in a case involving a physician's failure to detect a heart condition in a young child. The award has enabled the family to fully provide for the child. In another recent trial, a jury awarded Ernie's client a favorable verdict in a case involving a physician's failure to recognize a complication a woman suffered following the delivery of her baby girl. As a result of the failure the woman died and the jury verdict adequately provides for the welfare of the child for her lifetime. Most recently he obtained a settlement for the wife and children of a man whose care following hernia surgery was grossly mismanaged resulting in his death. This was the largest reported settlement in Connecticut for a wrongful death case. Also Ernie championed a brain-damaged child who was injured in an unwitnessed fall down a stairway.  Before the trial began, the defendant refused to make any settlement offer.  During the trial, the defendant offered a settlement that allowed the family to buy a house in a safe community and enables them to provide the necessary care and therapy for their child throughout his lifetime. Other recent examples of cases Ernie has handled include a settlement before trial on behalf of an 18 years old Eagle Scout killed by a driver who was a Subway employee that was furnished alcohol on the job; a settlement in a product's liability case for a twenty one years old male who was found suffocated in a piece of defective camping equipment; and a wrongful death case where the family used settlement proceeds to establish a scholarship fund to help troubled youths.

Ernie has also handled and settled cases on behalf of sexual abuse victims.  Not only did he bring media attention to the cases, but also obtained just compensation for the victims. As a result, the victims felt as though their ordeals helped other victims of sexual abuse and that the perpetrators and others responsible organizations in fact acknowledged the abuse. The ultimate goal: to prevent future abuse.

Ernie's cases have been notable not only for the equitable amounts his clients have received for their losses and the substantial beneficial impact to their quality of life and future needs, but for their impact on Connecticut law.  One of his cases resulted in the Baxter Rule, a legal doctrine called upon by Connecticut lawyers in nearly every multi-defendant medical malpractice action that ends up in court.

Since the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, Ernie has volunteered legal services to Connecticut families of victims of 911 and represented them at hearings before Governmental Adjudicators; and in part because of that work received the 2004 Pro Bono Award from the Connecticut Law Tribune.

Ernie lectures frequently for the Connecticut Bar Association, National Institute of Trial Advocacy and the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association. In May of 2006, he joined the faculty of the American Association for Justice (formerly American Trial Lawyers Association) Damages College. Ernie has published articles and has taught Trial Practice and Advanced Trial Practice as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University School of Law since 1987. Ernie has donated his salary back to the law school for the past 15 years. He also serves as Chairperson of the Dean's Counsel of the Quinnipiac University Law School, and received an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the school in 2003 and the Barrister's Award for Outstanding Service to Students from the school in 2005.  Ernie has been inducted as a fellow in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, as organization that is limited to five hundred lawyers worldwide. He is also a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and is listed in Best Lawyers in America.

Ernie was also a member of the Connecticut Bar Association Task Force on the future of the legal profession. Ernie has been listed in Westchester Magazine as one of Connecticut's Top 5 Personal Injury Trial Lawyers. In addition, he is listed in Connecticut Magazine and Connecticut Super Lawyers as one of Connecticut's Super Lawyers for 2006 and 2007, and is also listed in the 2007 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, a listing which will also appear in New York magazine.

He received his law degree from Loyola University in New Orleans and his undergraduate degree from Bethany College.