Wayne Parsons:

Safety Prevents Injuries

American democracy gives the people a role in making our communities safe. The jury trial–where an independent citizen jury decides important issues of “wrong” and “right”–is an important part of the American system. Wayne Parsons and his clients play an important role in that process. If you or a family member has been wrongfully injured, have you thought about the fact that if you hire a lawyer and do something about it, you will be protecting others in the future from being harmed? Of course, not every injury is the result of wrongful conduct, and Wayne will not bring a claim unless a serious avoidable mistake was made and someone deserves to be held accountable. If a case lacks merit, Wayne will not take it. He believes in representing only those who have suffered real injuries as a result of real wrongdoing.

Wayne (yellow shirt) being recognized by Governor Abercrombie at Queens Hospital child safety event, 2012.

Safety and preventing injuries is the mission of Hawai‘i attorney Wayne Parsons. Changing harmful behavior and practices happens when an injured person or family stands up to the person, corporation or government entity that wrongfully caused an injury or death. At the same time, getting the medical bills paid, getting the injured person back on their feet and back to work, if possible, is an immediate and important part of what Wayne Parsons and his staff do for every client they represent.

Wayne Parsons believes that “Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ‘Āina i ka Pono” – the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness – and he uses his experience and skills to help rebuild the lives of the people he represents, throughout the Islands, who have been wrongfully injured. No one in Hawai‘i wants to get embroiled in a lawsuit or legal controversy, and Wayne Parsons  will do everything possible to avoid litigation. But if the wrongdoer, or the insurance company, refuses to accept responsibility for their conduct and make it right, a lawsuit and, if necessary, a trial will be prosecuted on your behalf to collect fair compensation and make up for your losses. That is the American way. And it all goes back to safety and injury prevention: “if no one is accountable, no one is safe”.

Injuries and death are caused by an increasing number of behaviors: car and truck crashes, ocean injuries, defective drugs or medical devices, medical treatment errors, sexual abuse, crime, government or corporate wrongdoing and many other causes. Wayne Parsons has handled every type of injury case in his 40 years as a personal injury trial lawyer, and his reputation as a trial lawyer with an engineering and science background is well known to those who work for the insurance companies and defendants in these cases in Hawai‘i.

Wayne, right, participating in a community service project in New Orleans, LA.

Wayne Parsons believes that justice is the most important concern of man on earth.  In his trial experience, Mr. Parsons has been involved in virtually every type of litigation, earning a reputation for ethics, hard work, excellence and success in complex cases.  His clients in the 1990s Benlate litigation recovered over $40 million from corporate giant DuPont in a defective product lawsuit. Wayne Parsons is recognized by Hawai‘i personal injury lawyers as the founder of their organization the Hawai‘i Association for Justice (HAJ). In 2006, Mr. Parsons was elected President of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association, and he is the founder of the People’s Law School, a six-week adult education course offering non-lawyers basic legal information. He has also served for nearly 26 years as one of two Hawai‘i attorneys on the Board of Governors of the American Association for Justice (AAJ), the powerful organization that counts as members all of the great personal injury attorneys in the United States.

Wayne Parsons takes a service-oriented approach to the practice of law, working directly with each of his clients instead of passing them off to paralegals or associates.  He strives to be accessible, returning calls and responding promptly to inquiries as the case progresses.  For a free initial consultation with an attorney dedicated to injury prevention and safety, and who believes in justice for every client, contact the Wayne Parsons Law Office today.

Biography

Wayne standing in front of the Apollo 11 moon landing exhibit at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in DC. Wayne designed an experiment for the mission that involved shooting the world’s most powerful solid-state–Ruby rod–laser at a Corner Cube mirror you can see in this photo behind him.

In addition to Wayne Parsons’ wealth of experience in personal injury law, he actually began his career in the sciences, earning his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Engineering – Physics and Engineering – Mathematics, with a minor in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan.  Coming to Maui with the University of Michigan Mt. Haleakala Observatory in 1967, he worked on the 1969 Apollo moon landing with scientists based on the Island of Maui. Having fallen in love with surfing and the people of the Islands, Wayne returned to Ann Arbor and attended the University of Michigan Law School, returning to Hawai‘i permanently in 1975.

Wayne honed his trial advocacy skills in the public defender’s office, and in his early years had the opportunity to work with some of the country’s premier trial attorneys, including Melvin Belli, F. Lee Bailey and Robert Shapiro and Hawai‘i legendary trial lawyer Hyman Greenstein.  In 2014 Wayne served as President of the Melvin M. Belli Society, a national organization of noted trial lawyers that perpetuates the memory of Melvin Belli. One of his early cases with Mr. Greenstein was to represent several members of the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana who had been charged with trespass by the United States Government for occupying the Island of Kahoolawe in protest of the military use of the island for bombing practice.  Since 1983, Wayne has focused exclusively on representing plaintiff’s personal injury matters and consumer advocacy in the construction industry, assembling a talented staff and a network of outside expert consultants while working on some of the largest and most significant cases in Hawai‘i’s history.

Wayne has been selected for inclusion to SuperLawyers, a listing of attorneys in each state who received the highest point totals, as chosen by peers and through the independent research of Law & Politics magazine.  In the late 1980s, Wayne formed the Hawai‘i Association for Justice (HAJ) and successfully obtained accreditation of HAJ by the 25,000-member American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America).  In 1988, Wayne founded the People’s Law School in Hawai‘i, a six-week adult education course offering non-lawyers basic legal information – he calls it “real law, for real people”.  In 1994, Wayne was honored with the Founder’s Award for creating the Consumer Lawyers of Hawai‘i (CLH) the predecessor organization to HAJ.  He has been elected to a number of leadership roles in the local legal community, including serving as the President of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association in 2006, and he regularly writes legal articles at the Legal Examiner as a member of InjuryBoard, the Melvin M. Belli Society, the Roscoe Pound Foundation and the Federal Bar Association. In July 2016 Wayne took over as the President of the Hawai‘i chapter of the Federal Bar Association.