David S. Woodruff

Nationally Recognized Medical Malpractice Lawyer

David S. Woodruff is an experienced and award-winning Colorado attorney specializing in medical malpractice, product liability, and other complex cases involving catastrophic injury and death.

Listed in “Best Lawyers in America,” Mr. Woodruff is nationally recognized as one of the nation’s leading plaintiff’s medical malpractice attorneys. He has been repeatedly named a “Colorado Super Lawyer,” was named 2014 Best Plaintiff’s Medical Malpractice Lawyer by Law Week Colorado, and appears consistently in 5280 Magazine’s annual list of “Top Lawyers in Denver.”

Mr. Woodruff has recovered over $140 million for his clients with record-setting settlements and jury verdicts involving medical malpractice, hospital errors, and defective and dangerous products. His trial practice today focuses largely on helping injured children and their families. He has handled some of the largest and most complex child and birth injury cases in the nation and has received national recognition for his ground-breaking work in representing babies who have been injured or killed during the labor/delivery process.

Some of his notable achievements include:

• $22.5 million settlement for a brain-injured child that is the largest known medical malpractice settlement in Colorado (2016)
• $7 million recovery after a jury verdict for a child injured during birth in Colorado Springs (2017)
• $5 million defective product settlement for a young lady injured by an exploding “Whipped Cream Dispenser” kitchen product (2017)
• $15 million jury verdict in Colorado Springs, the largest medical malpractice verdict in Colorado history at the time, for a young man who suffered permanent spinal cord injury due to an emergency department misdiagnosis (2013)
• $4 million recovery after a jury verdict in a case involving a misdiagnosed stroke (2012).
• $3 million settlement for a 66-year old man who became permanently paralyzed after medical staff failed to recognize a spinal injury. The award was one of the largest jury verdicts in Pueblo County history.

He also has the distinction of having obtained the largest known medical malpractice arbitration award in U.S. history ( $70 million) in a birth injury case in California. For his success in that landmark case, he received the prestigious “Case of the Year” award from the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association in 2012.

Education & Legal Career

Mr. Woodruff is a former Assistant Attorney General of Texas. He was raised in a family of physicians, attended college at Southern Methodist University, and received his Master’s degree from the University of Southern California. He earned his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law, where he was a Presidential Scholar and mock trial champion.

He spent many years defending doctors and hospitals in medical negligence claims but realized that he believed strongly in helping victims. For more than a decade, Mr. Woodruff has devoted himself exclusively to representing injured individuals and families in catastrophic injury cases. As a father of four children himself, Mr. Woodruff believes deeply in fighting for children who have been injured.

Mr. Woodruff serves on the Board of Directors for the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, and is a long-time member of the American Association for Justice. He has also served on the Board of Governors for the Colorado Bar Association. In 2015 he was inducted into the exclusive American Board of Trial Advocates (“ABOTA”) for his excellence and devotion to the art of trial advocacy.

Featured On

Crime Stories With Nancy Grace - Jun 22, 2022