Rob Carey is a nationally recognized trial lawyer who has built his career standing up to powerful corporations and delivering results for people whose rights have been violated. He leads high-stakes class actions involving consumer scams, financial fraud, and insurance and contract abuses—cases where significant sums have been wrongfully taken from the public. Carey also accepts a select number of catastrophic personal injury cases in which the issues are compelling and the stakes life-changing, bringing to those matters the same litigation firepower and trial strategy used in major national class actions.
Carey has been retained by multiple State Attorneys General to represent their states in complex, difficult cases, and has been selected to act as lead trial counsel in a federal MDL bellwether case—one that is chosen to go first, to test the strength of claims and defenses in litigation involving thousands of similar claims.
Lawdragon Honors
He served as lead trial counsel in a landmark case exposing systemic misconduct in the dialysis industry, where corporate misuse of dialysis solutions led to preventable patient deaths. That trial resulted in a $383.5 million verdict—the largest medical-malpractice verdict in the United States that year. He has also secured class certification in consumer and worker cases involving nearly $2 billion in disputed damages and has litigated cases against some of the largest defense firms and top lawyers in the country, and won, through both a jury and by settlement.
Relentless in his advocacy, Carey is known for developing cases that protect people who were misled, overcharged, or exploited, and for earning the trust of juries in complex, high-value trials across the country.
Recent Success
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Secured the largest medical malpractice verdict of the year, a $383.5 million jury verdict against DaVita Inc. on behalf of families of dialysis patients, including three $125 million punitive damages awards.
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Obtained two jury verdicts for the developer of the Madden NFL video game against Electronic Arts over unpaid royalties.
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Working with Hagens Berman partners, led the litigation team that secured a $95 million class-action settlement against Apple for violations of its AppleCare warranties. The court called it an “excellent settlement” involving an “untested theory” on behalf of consumers who received inferior replacement devices.
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Leads Hagens Berman’s nationwide litigation against CNA on behalf of long-term care insurance policyholders challenging allegedly fraudulent premium increases designed to force aging insureds to abandon coverage after decades of payments. With partner John DeStefano arguing, they secured a significant victory before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The firm is pursuing fraud and breach-of-contract claims in multiple cases affecting thousands of policyholders.
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Helped initiate and litigate the Toyota Sudden Unintended Acceleration litigation, resulting in a $1.6 billion settlement, and the Hyundai/Kia fuel-economy litigation, resulting in a $97 million settlement.
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Served as co-lead counsel in the landmark Keller/O’Bannon litigation against the NCAA and Electronic Arts, securing $60 million in settlements that resulted in the first payments to college athletes for the unauthorized use of their names, images, and likenesses. The litigation helped lay the groundwork for subsequent challenges to NCAA restrictions on student-athlete compensation.
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Helped secure a landmark $75 million settlement in nationwide NCAA concussion litigation, establishing a $70 million, 50-year medical-monitoring program for current and former student-athletes, funding concussion research, and requiring sweeping reforms to the NCAA’s concussion management and return-to-play protocols.
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Served as lead counsel in landmark youth-football safety litigation representing Donnovan Hill, who was paralyzed at age 13 while playing in the Pop Warner program. Working with partner Rachel Fitzpatrick, secured a confidential settlement that helped bring about national reforms in youth-football safety rules. OC Weekly described the case as having “forever changed youth football,” while The Washington Post called it “unprecedented.”
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Helped NFL legend Jim Brown recover damages from EA Sports for the unauthorized use of Brown’s rights of publicity following hard-fought litigation.
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Leads class-action litigation against Allstate and its affiliates challenging practices that unlawfully reduce or deny uninsured and underinsured motorist benefits to injured California policyholders. The case, Sundquist v. Allstate, challenges Allstate’s use of workers’ compensation payments to other injured individuals to reduce benefits owed to its insureds, potentially affecting thousands of policyholders. Already prevailed against a motion to dismiss filed by Allstate.
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Leads class-action litigation challenging insurance practices that deprive injured California Uber drivers and passengers of uninsured and underinsured motorist benefits required by law. The case, Bush v. Blue Hill Specialty Insurance, alleges that the Progressive affiliate improperly forces injured drivers and passengers to pursue other insurance coverage before honoring its own primary coverage obligations.
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Working with Hagens Berman partner Michella Kras, leads nationwide consumer class-action litigation against John Paul Mitchell Systems for falsely marketing hair-care products as “cruelty-free” despite allegedly permitting animal testing to enter the Chinese market. Secured class certification and prevailed before the Ninth Circuit on key issues of classwide reliance and materiality. The case is proceeding toward trial following remand. Carey is also pursuing similar claims against Paula’s Choice.