by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Wayne Hogan feels deep in his heart that the best lawyers and legislators should expand on Hippocrates’ caution to “do no harm.”
Their goal should be to eliminate the harm before it has a chance to fester.
That has been the overriding benefit of several cases tried by the man labeled one of the state’s “Most Feared Lawyers” by Florida Trend magazine in 1999.
Two cases in particular highlight Hogan’s belief that it is more efficient, and humanitarian, to prevent pain than hand out pain-killers after the damage has been done.
The “Janssens” asbestos disease trial in 1981 upheld the rights of plaintiffs to receive punitive damages in toxic tort litigation. The 1984 opinion from the District Court of Appeals set the standards for proving punitive damages in those kinds of cases.
Hogan was also a member of Gov. Lawton Chiles’ “Dream Team” that won a $13.1 billion judgment in 1997 in the State’s suit against the tobacco industry.
For his many years of representing “the highest standards of protecting the integrity of Florida’s trial system, both in and out of the courtroom,” Hogan was named Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Florida Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates (FLABOTA).
Donald Moran Jr., chief judge of the 4rth Judicial Circuit Court, was named FLABOTA’s Jurist of the Year at the ceremony.
It is the first time both winners have come from the same city in the same year.
“It’s especially nice to have that happen at the same time when Judge Moran received the award as Jurist of the Year,” said Hogan. “It said not so much about me necessarily as it did about our local trial bar and the judiciary we work with.”
Despite his love for the practice of law, Hogan did consider changing his line of work last year in a run for Congress as the Democratic candidate.
“But 60 percent of the voters said I should keep practicing law,” he said with an easy laugh.
Had he been elected, Hogan reasoned, he would have been able to continue working for people from a larger platform.
“A lot of what we do is about the individual person’s case,” he said. “But it also has to do with prevention of harm because it can result in safety measures being taken to prevent the next similar event.
“On the other hand, if a person were in a policy-making position in Congress or the State Legislature, you have the ability to help in a broader way to prevent harm. Investing in education . . . crime prevention . . . preventing the development of disease by appropriate mechanisms as opposed to the treatment of the disease.
“You need to have and be able to use your resources for the good of everyone.”
Hogan knew from an early age that he wanted to be a lawyer. He remembers the day he made up his mind: ninth grade civics class at St. Augustine High School.
The speaker for a Career Day presentation was Frank Upchurch, a local trial lawyer who later became an appellate judge.
“I had never seen a lawyer in real life,” Hogan recalled. “I was interested in political matters. Coming out of his talk, I said to myself, ‘If you’re going to be involved in political life, and you come from a working-class family . . . being a lawyer would probably be the best way to do that. And you help people at the same time.’”
Hogan went to St. Johns River Community College before transferring to Florida State University in his junior year. He stayed at FSU for law school.
Hogan initially took on commercial and personal injury cases for Bedell Bedell Dittmar Smith & Zehmer. In 1977, “Tom Brown and Jim Terrell were looking for someone to come in as the third person in the practice. We’ve been together ever since.”
Keeping any sort of partnership together that long can be a challenge, whether it’s a law firm or a rock ‘n’ roll band.
“You know,” said Hogan, “you work real hard against your opponents. You put together your team. You struggle.
“But internally, in the firm, you try to be real flexible with each other. Over the years, we’ve managed to do that.”
That same understanding and flexibility have led to the camaraderie that distinguishes local firms from those that practice in other regions across the state and around the country, Hogan said:
“I’ve heard Judge Moran say how much he respects the way in which the trial bar in North Florida, in the Jacksonville area, has managed to retain the level of professionalism and respect for one another where we are able to work real hard against each other but are also very civil with each other, both in and out of the courtroom.”
The showdown looms for what will be another high-profile case to contest caps on non-economic damages in the medical malpractice bill approved by the Legislature on Aug. 13.
There was little light and less heat thrown up during debate over the bill, suggested Hogan, who has no doubt what will happen to the “reform” measure.
“First, those non-economic damages,” he said. “They’re for the enjoyment of life. You ask people, ‘Do you live to work, or do you work to live?’ If they work to live, there’s this other time in their life when they’re not on the job that’s pretty important to them.
“These are the non-economic damages they’re talking about capping.
“But in 1986, a cap was put in place. It was held unconstitutional because it violated the Constitution, which guarantees Floridians the right of access to courts to redress injuries.
“That will be the same result here. Any way you cut it, the Legislature just passed a bill that deprives any person reading this article of their rights if they happen to be the victim of medical malpractice.”