Stuart R. White

Mr. White is a frequent guest lecturer to his peers on his representation of victims of heavy truck crashes and oilfield, pipeline and industrial incidents. His practice focuses heavily on catastrophic truck wrecks and oilfield/pipeline in New Mexico and Texas.

Mr. White has never advertised as he believes his work is his advertisement. This has led him to receive client referrals from judges, from jurors that have sat in cases he’s tried, from defense lawyers he’s done battle against, from experts that have been hired in past cases, and from other lawyers. More importantly, a significant portion of his work at Liles White is focused on representing people referred to him by his current and past clients, who are proud to spread the word about his work for them. The best compliment he’s gotten as a lawyer is that he doesn’t act like, talk like, or dress like a lawyer. Mr. White understands that most people are fearful or not trusting of lawyers, so he takes great pride in understanding what clients are going through when the other side does not and that clients want honesty – that includes the good, bad and ugly about their case so they can get the best advice to make the best decision for their family.

Despite his primary office being in Texas, Mr. White was asked to author the New Mexico Truck Crash Law Overview for the AAJ Interstate Trucking Litigation Group.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. White was a law clerk for the Honorable Andrew S. Hanen, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas. While clerking, he gained invaluable insight into legal writing and research, as well as the daily activities of the courtroom.

Mr. White was a member of the Silver Spurs, an honorary service organization, during his undergrad at the University of Texas at Austin. After graduation, he attended Baylor Law School and graduated with honors. During law school, Mr. White served as Senior Executive Editor of the Baylor Law Review. His article “Guitar Holding: A Judicial Rewrite of Chapter 36 the Texas Water Code?”, published in the Baylor Law Review, was selected as the best student-written article on agriculture by the American Agricultural Law Association.

When not helping those in need in his law practice, Mr. White’s passions are his wife, three young kids and rescue dog. In addition, Mr. White loves spending time at his family ranch in Uvalde when he can. He likes to golf, but isn’t very good.

Notable Experience

In 2023, Mr. White tried two commercial wreck cases to jury verdicts resulting in jury verdicts of $4.9 million (on a $1.2 million offer) and $7.0+ million (on a $670,000 offer).

In 2018, Mr. White was part of a trial team that received are more than $100,000,000.00 jury verdict for wrongful death and personal injuries arising from an improper attempt at hot tapping an oil and gas pipeline.

In 2017, Mr. White obtained a $7 million trucking verdict in New Mexico on a $0 offer case. He resolved the case against a previous defendant for a confidential settlement that was in excess of the later verdict.

In 2016, Mr. White obtained the largest trucking verdict in the country in a wrongful death trucking case in Dallas County, Texas. The jury returned a $37.9 million verdict against O’Reilly Auto Enterprises. The verdict is believed to be the largest wrongful death trucking verdict in Dallas County history.

Mr. White served as trial counsel in a four-fatality commercial motor vehicle and road construction case that resolved favorably with one defendant in the first week of trial and with the second defendant in the second week of trial. The defendants refused to accept responsibility and offered $0 until a week before the trial. The case settled confidentially well into 7 figures.

Mr. White has and continues to represent victims of 18-wheeler crashes involving large, national interstate motor carriers such as UPS, Fed-Ex, DHL, Werner Enterprises, Stevens Transport, SAIA Motor Freight Lines, Knight Transportation, Landstar, Cardinal Logistics, CRST, Con-Way Truckload, Quality Carriers, Atlas Van Lines and other carriers. In addition, he has prosecuted cases against large freight brokers and shippers such as C.H. Robinson, KBX Logistics and other freight brokers.

Mr. White has and continues to represent victims of oilfield-related deaths, including crashes involving oil field trucks and injuries and deaths arising from unsafe working conditions in the oil field and gas pipeline facilities and locations. He has represented clients in cases against most of the large oil and gas producers and service companies, including but not limited to OXY USA, Devon Energy, Targa Resources, DCP Midstream, Pioneer Natural Resources, H&P, Anadarko Resources, Chesapeake Energy and others.

Mr. White has obtained more than 30 settlements in excess of $10,000,000.00 as a lead lawyer, including many multiples of that amount.

Mr. White got his start in private practice by taking cases other lawyers have turned down and rejected. Mr. White has settled in excess of $20,000,000 worth of cases that were turned down by other lawyers, including several multi-7 figure cases that other law firms turned down due to crash reports not being favorable to our clients. But with Mr. White and his firm’s expertise, we were able to prove the crash report and/or investigation was wrong.

Mr. White was the sole brief writer on the issue of first impression in El Paso federal district court concerting MCS-90B endorsement coverage arising from a trucking incident. He won a trial court decision stating that the federal MCS-90B endorsement obligated the insurer to satisfy $5 million of the underlying state court judgment. Mr. White obtained a substantial and favorable settlement after briefs were filed with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. White has served as the plaintiff’s lead counsel on numerous pending cases in both federal and state cases across the country.

Mr. White’s experience includes the favorable settlement of numerous cases involving automotive and tire defects, trucking and commercial vehicle litigation, and dram shop liability.

Publications and Presentations

• “How to Investigate, Develop and Try Trucking Cases”, New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, Transportation: – Preserving Evidence, Building the Case, Defeating Defenses
• “The Who, What, When, Where and Why of Trucking Liability Experts”, Kentucky Justice Association, Big Truck Crash Litigation
• “New Mexico Truck Crash Law Overview”, AAJ, Interstate Trucking Litigation Group’s 50 State Survey
• “Turning the Work Truck Wreck Into a Case About Corporate Responsibility”, Corpus Christi Bar Association – Advanced Civil CLE
• “Hours of Service Oilfield Exceptions — Increasing Fatigue”, AAJ TLG Journal of Trucking Litigation, Fall 2014 (co-writer with Kevin W. Liles)
• “Guitar Holding: A Judicial Re-Write of Chapter 36 of the Texas Water Code?”, 62 Baylor L. Rev. 313 (2010) Craig M. Sico and Stuart R. White, Litigation Bear Traps, TTLA Reel Justice CLE (2012)
• “The Ford F-150: A Host of Defects”, Attorneys Information Exchange Group (AIEG) Auto Focus Fall Seminar 2012, Santa Barbara, California (co-writer with David Bright).
• “How to Investigate, Develop and Try Trucking Cases”, New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, Transportation: Preserving Evidence, Building the Case, Defeating Defenses
• “The Who, What, When, Where and Why of Trucking Liability Experts”, Kentucky Justice Association, Big Truck Crash Litigation
• “How to Turn the Trucking Case Into a Case About Corporate Responsibility, the $37M Verdict”, New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association’s Verdict Just In!
• “How to Turn the Trucking Case Into a Case About Corporate Responsibility, the $37M Verdict, Houston Trial Lawyers Association
• “The Ford F-150: A Host of Defects”, Attorneys Information Exchange Group (AIEG) Auto Focus Fall Seminar 2012, Santa Barbara, California (co-presenter with David Bright)
• “Remand”, Corpus Christi; Personal Injury CLE, 2015