Advocacy & Prevention
Turning Tragedy Into Change
We don’t just seek compensation. We pursue the kind of accountability that prevents the next drowning.
Featured impact
Peterson & the Virginia Graeme Baker Act
A verdict isn’t the end of the case — it is the beginning of the next fight. The Peterson v. Sta-Rite verdict helped focus the national conversation that produced the country’s first federal pool-drain safety law.
The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act, signed into law after years of coordinated advocacy work by families, engineers, and lawyers — ours among them.
POOL SAFETY LEGISLATION
What the case exposed. Peterson revealed a long-standing industry awareness of the entrapment-injury risk from unsafe pool drain design. Facts admitted at trial forced the pool-industry playbook into public view.
What the law changed. The VGB Act imposes mandatory federal standards for drain covers, requires anti-entrapment systems in public pools and spas, and creates the accountability structure that legislators and safety regulators use today.
Why we keep going. Federal law is the floor, not the ceiling. Enforcement is uneven state by state. Every year, drownings and near-drownings happen in pools that quietly fall out of compliance. Our work continues.
How we advocate
Three fronts, one mission
Our advocacy is not separate from our practice. It is what the practice is for.
Try the cases that change things
Some cases must go to verdict — because a settlement seals the record, while a verdict makes the danger public. We accept that trade-off. It is why our cases become citations.
Serve where the rules are written
Michael Haggard sits on the Board of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance and works with industry groups, safety engineers, and legislators on the standards our profession later enforces in court.
Push the law forward, one gap at a time
Every case reveals a gap — an unenforced code, a missing warning, a loophole in a barrier law. When we find one, we advocate at the local, state, or federal level to close it.
In the room where it happens
“A verdict without a rule change is a monument to the loss. A rule change without a verdict is a promise no one has yet been forced to keep. Our job is to do both.”— Michael A. Haggard
Ongoing work
Where the fight continues
The drownings that get the headlines are only the visible edge of the problem. Beneath them is a lot of preventable, everyday risk that nobody in a position to change is yet being forced to.
Compliance & enforcement
Federal drain-safety law exists; nobody consistently inspects for it. We push for real inspection regimes at the state and municipal level so the standard on paper is the standard in practice.
Rental & short-term-stay risk
Airbnb and vacation-rental pools are a growing risk surface with little oversight. We advocate for platform-level safety disclosure requirements and, in the meantime, litigate the cases that put the issue in front of judges.
Negligent security
Preventable violent crime on commercial property remains a national epidemic. Our work has helped set the standard of care for property owners who choose to save money on the safety their invitees are entitled to expect.
Child & family safety
The largest single share of aquatic tragedies affects children under the age of five. We partner with prevention groups on layered water-safety education and support the drain-cover, fence, and pool-alarm legislation that would meaningfully reduce that number.
Free, confidential consultation
Talk to us now. We care.
Tell us what happened. There is no fee unless we win, and your conversation with us is always confidential. Prefer to talk now? Call (833) 652-7600.