Our Litigators of the Week are Philip Sieff and Tara Sutton of Robins Kaplan who represent more than a dozen families of people killed in motor incidents involving drivers high under the influence of aerosol dust removers—a practice commonly referred to as huffing. 

In their first case to go to trial against CRC Industries, federal jurors in Minnesota handed down a $7.75 million verdict for the family of Cynthia McDougall, who was killed when a driver who had huffed CRC Duster struck her car head-on. Jurors awarded no punitive damages in a second trial phase, but attached a note to the verdict urging the company to “spearhead an effort to address inhalant abuse.”