Mark Simonton

Senior Member

vCard

Mr. Simonton is a West Virginia native who prides himself on the handling of high stakes cases and solving his clients’ most complex problems. Mr. Simonton is a passionate advocate and has extensive litigation experience in defending healthcare providers, hospitals, businesses and other individuals in a wide range of professional practice areas including, professional liability, medical negligence, products liability, employment liability, construction liability, and general civil litigation defense. Mr. Simonton has served as lead trial counsel and obtained favorable results in some of West Virginia’s most plaintiff-friendly venues. Mr. Simonton has also served as pro hac vice lead trial counsel in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. In addition to his extensive trial experience, Mr. Simonton has developed a significant appellate practice and has obtained several favorable results for healthcare providers in West Virginia.

Practice Areas:

  • Medical Malpractice
  • Legal Malpractice
  • Insurance Defense
  • Insurance Bad Faith
  • Premises and Product Liability
  • Employment Law
  • Employer’s Liability
  • Motor Carrier Defense
  • Appellate Law
  • Correctional Systems Litigation
  • Product Liability
  • Commercial Litigation

Education:

  • JURIS DOCTOR, cum laude 2016, Ohio Northern University, Claude W. Pettit College of Law, Ada, Ohio
  • Chief Justice, Ohio Northern University Moot Court
  • Associate Editor, Ohio Northern University Law Review
  • Staff Editor, Ohio Northern University Law Review
  • BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, Accounting, magna cum laude 2013, University of Charleston, Charleston, West Virginia
  • BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, Finance, magna cum laude 2013, University of Charleston, Charleston, West Virginia

Honors, Awards, Services:

  • West Virginia Super Lawyers, Rising Star 2019 – Present

Licenses:

  • West Virginia, 2016

Court Admissions:

  • West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals
  • All West Virginia Circuit Courts and Magistrate Courts
  • United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia
  • United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Professional Affiliations:

  • West Virginia Bar Association
  • Cabell County Bar Association
  • American Bar Association
  • Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia
  • Defense Research Institute
  • Premier Appellate Lawyers

Community Service:

  • Boy Scouts of America, Eagle Scout and Unit Committee Chair

Successes:

  • Obtained numerous pretrial summary judgment (dismissal) awards in cases involving medical malpractice, correctional medicine, premises liability, etc.
  • Successfully represented one of the region’s largest healthcare facilities in several trials in the State of West Virginia.
  • Successfully defended several birth injury cases resulting in favorable pretrial resolutions.
  • Regularly defends complex cases involving catastrophic losses and damages in excess of 10 million dollars.
  • Successfully defended numerous cases on appeal before various appellate courts. 

Reported Appellate Cases:

  • Zach Damron v. PrimeCare Med. of W.Va., Inc., Case No. 20-0862, 2022 W. Va. LEXIS 456 (June 9, 2022) (Memorandum Decision) Affirming dismissal with prejudice where plaintiff attempted to avoid the West Virginia Medical Professional Liability Act by improperly couching his medical negligence claims under the guise of a constitutional deliberate indifference claim.
  • Dean Fuller v. City of Huntington, Case No. 19-0881, 2020 W. Va. LEXIS 541, 2020 WL 4355652 (July 30, 2020) (Memorandum Decision) Affirming summary judgment and upholding West Virginia’s statutory codified “open and obvious hazard” doctrine to a municipal entity with competing statutory obligations to ensure safety.
  • Stave ex rel. PrimeCare Med. of W.Va., Inc. v. Faircloth, et al, 242 W. Va. 335, 835 S.E.2d 579 (2019)  Establishing: (i) the pre-suit notice requirements of the West Virginia Medical Professional Liability Act are jurisdictional and the failure to provide such notice deprives a circuit court of subject matter jurisdiction; and (ii) that circuit courts have no authority to suspend the West Virginia Medical Professional Liability Act’s pre-suit notice requirements and allow a claimant to serve notice after filing suit.