Jim L. Cox, Jr.

I am one of the nation’s leading FELA attorneys. My career representing injured railroad workers spans 50 years. I have handled or participated in over 70 jury trials and settled over 1,000 cases, many during formal mediation. -I was lead counsel on these precedent-setting cases benefiting rail labor and other personal injury claimants:

• Perry v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., Civil Action No. 19-cv-00806-KLM, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55561 (D. Colo. Mar. 24, 2021)
• Straub v. Burlington N. Santa Fe Ry., 909 F.3d 1280 (10th Cir. 2018)
• Carrigan v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., No. 55924, 2012 Nev. Unpub. LEXIS 575 (Apr. 13, 2012)
• Herrera v. San Luis Cent. R.R. Co., 997 P.2d 1238 (Colo. App. 1999)
• Sauer v. Burlington N. R.R., 106 F.3d 1490 (10th Cir. 1996)
• Wilson v. Union Pac. R.R., 56 F.3d 1226 (10th Cir. 1995)
• Failing v. Burlington N. R. Co., 815 P.2d 974 (Colo. App. 1991)
• Cruz v. Burlington N. R. Co., 773 P.2d 1117 (Colo. App. 1989)
• Brady v. Burlington N. R. Co., 752 P.2d 592 (Colo. App. 1988)
• Lamont v. Union P. R. Co., 714 P.2d 1341 (Colo. App. 1986)
• People v. Driver, 189 Colo. 276, 539 P.2d 1248 (1975)

I have been a Hearing Board Member on the Colorado Supreme Court Disciplinary Committee in the following cases:

• People v. Romero, 536 P.3d 353
• People v. Brown, 461 P.3d 683
• West v. People, 470 P.3d 670
• People v. Maynard, 238 P.3d 672

I am past President of the Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys ( 1998). I continue to contribute leadership to that organization. I spend a fair amount of time mentoring other lawyers in discovery and trial tactics. The Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys (ARLA) is the national professional association of attorneys whose practice includes representing injured railroad employees in claims filed under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. The FELA is the Federal law that protects railroaders and provides a remedy if they are injured on the job. I am a member of the Denver and Colorado Bar Associations, and the Colorado Trial Lawyers Associations. I am a fellow of the Nebraska State Bar Foundation. I am admitted to the Bars of Florida (inactive), Colorado and Nebraska. I continue to be selected as one of America’s Best Lawyers in railroad law. I have been selected to be “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in the 2024 edition of “The Best Lawyers in America.” I have been included in Colorado’s Best Lawyers in Railroad Law. I am designated AV Preeminent Attorney by Martindale-Hubbell.

The main focus of my practice has been representing railroad employees injured on the job under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA). I have extensive knowledge of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), its regulations, inspection and enforcement practices. I have extensive knowledge of the General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR) that govern safety on all Class I railroads west of the Mississippi. I have extensive knowledge of safety rules on each of the Class I railroads in the west, and the short lines in the west. My litigation experience has acquainted me with most of the expert witnesses that work in the railroad arena, both plaintiff and defendant. Railroading is a unique industry – the nation’s blood supply – with a unique culture, a unique law governing the railroads’ duties to its employees (FELA), a unique compensation framework for compensation for injuries (not workers’ comp; fault-based but pure comparative negligence; strict liability for a railroad’s violation of a safety regulation; no caps on economic or non-economic damages, as examples).

Over my career I have handled a variety of non-railroad cases for railroaders or members of their families. Recently, I have handled non-railroad-related cases, including:

• A claim against Union Pacific Railroad on behalf of an employee of a coal-fired power plant struck and run over by a Union Pacific train being operated by an unqualified coworker using a Union Pacific locomotive (applying Colorado common law), resulting in an above-the-knee amputation.
• A claim against the City and County of Denver, Colorado, and Thyssenkrupp Elevator Corporation on behalf of a woman who injured her knee when the down escalator she was riding stopped suddenly, resulting in knee replacement surgery (applying Colorado common law).
• A claim for a young man knocked from the top of an oil rig by the negligence of another subcontractor on the job, suffering fractures and internal injuries (applying Wyoming common law).
• A claim for a woman who suffered a severely fractured ankle when, while climbing out of a van at night, she tripped over a radio cable (applying Colorado common law).