John Hurst

John D. Hurst is a member of Motley Rice LLC and part of the firm’s West Virginia team. He handles toxic tort, occupational disease, public nuisance, catastrophic injury and product liability litigation, and represents workers and family members exposed to asbestos at work, in the environment or at home, including many people with mesothelioma.

Hurst manages complex multi-party cases in federal, state and bankruptcy courts at both the trial and appellate levels. In 2014 he was a key member of a trial team that won compensatory and punitive damages in Massachusetts federal court against a maker of asbestos-containing fireproofing. He also represents railroad workers under FELA and merchant mariners under the Jones Act, has represented state and local governments in opioid public nuisance claims, worked on property damage claims arising from the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, and represented victims of the 2009 ConAgra plant explosion in Garner, North Carolina.

He earned his law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 2006 and his bachelor’s degree with highest distinction from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2002. He is licensed in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and West Virginia, holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and was named to the West Virginia Super Lawyers Rising Stars list from 2014 to 2021.