Chris Jayson heads the civil litigation department at Cohen, Jayson & Foster, a position he has held since 1992. Only three years after joining the firm, Cohen, Jayson & Foster won $500 million for the parents of a boy killed by toxic fumes, which ranked at the time as the largest wrongful death verdict in the United States. With Chris' leadership, the firm has won over $1 billion in verdicts and settlements in a variety of civil cases.

 

At the firm, Chris handles a wide range of personal injury and wrongful death actions, with an emphasis on premises liability, products liability and medical malpractice. In addition, he represents businesses in complex commercial litigation disputes. He excels at strategy, with a talent for unraveling convoluted fact and legal patterns and distilling them to their essence. Among many multimillion-dollar wins, Chris played an essential role in the $10.8 million verdict against Shands Hospital for a botched operation on an infant, resulting in severe brain damage. Other recent successes: a $15.7 million verdict in 2004 against an apartment complex for a tenant who had been carjacked, shot and left for dead; over $10 million settlement for a man who was electrocuted by a live wire while helping to clear a road; and settlements totaling more than $25 million in the deaths of nine passengers on an airplane that crashed.

 

Prior to forming Cohen, Jayson & Foster, Chris spent seven years as a commercial litigator at a prominent St. Petersburg law firm. His years as a corporate lawyer give Chris insight into the litigation tactics and strategy of business defendants, and an adeptness in the complex financial arrangements that typify the firm’s commercial litigation matters.

 

 

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