Jim Butler of Butler Wooten & Peak is getting top billing in Courtroom View Network's coverage of a Ford product liability showdown now underway in Lawrenceville, 30 miles north of Atlanta.

The headline on the courtroom video website beckons, “Watch Live, Blockbuster Ford Roof Trial.” The blog teases gavel-to-gavel coverage: “Jim Butler, who won a $150 million jury verdict against Chrysler in his last CVN-covered trial, contends a roof design defect in Ford's F250 Crew Cab is responsible for the deaths of Melvin and Voncile Hill in a 2014 crash.”

For the record, the CVN blog also noted Ford's defense: that the Hills were killed because a tire blew out and that “no vehicle is injury proof, no roof is crush proof.”

The Chrysler trial was for the family of 4-year-old Remi Walden, who burned to death in his family's Jeep after its gas tank exploded in a rear-end crash that caused no physical injuries to the drivers. But Remi's aunt couldn't get him out.

In his closing argument, Butler challenged the notion of limiting damages based on the boy's low-income, rural South Georgia hometown. Before they estimated his lifetime earnings, Butler told jurors that Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne made $68 million a year. When he talked about damages for pain and suffering, Butler took off his watch, set the timer and asked the court for one minute of silence to “just think about what Remi went through.”

The jury returned a verdict of $120 million for wrongful death and $30 million for pain and suffering, which was reduced to $40 million, provided Remi's parents would accept it, which they did.

That was three years ago. But then, the week before the Ford trial started, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the $40 million judgment against Chrysler.

The Ford trial before Gwinnett County State Court Judge Shawn Bratton started with jury selection on March 19. Opening statements came four days later. The judge took note of the cameras and joked that he didn't know who would watch “except retirees.”

Some of the coverage is tedious direct and cross examination of engineers and design experts. But the videos have offered plenty of drama in the dialogue between Butler and Ford's lead defense counsel, D. Alan Thomas of Huie Fernambucq & Stewart in Birmingham, Alabama. The objections seem almost as frequent as the questions.

For example, on Thursday, Butler questioned his roof design expert, who testified that the roof on the Hill pickup truck totally collapsed on the rollover, and that roofs of its design always collapse and are dangerous.

“Can there be any doubt?” Butler asked.

Thomas objected that the question was improper.

“I'm tired of being accused of being improper,” Butler boomed. “That's about the 20th time this lawyer has said this to me, 'that is improper to say that.'”

Butler objected vigorously to Thomas cross-examining the roof expert.

Thomas: ”Is there any vehicle that you can say is reasonably safe—that meets your standard?”

Butler: “This is absolutely misleading the jury.”

Thomas: “It is not.”

The judge: “I tend to agree with Mr. Butler on this one.”

Thomas didn't give up and tried again. But Butler's expert held firm that the Ford roof was the worst of those he had seen.

Butler declined to comment for this story, except to answer the question of what drives him in his work: “What I do can save lives, and does.”

Butler's 41-year legal career as a plaintiffs lawyer covers a long string of high-stakes cases. His legal team for the Hill case includes Gerald Davidson Jr. of Mahaffey Pickens Tucker in Lawrenceville, who worked with Butler in a 1993 trial against General Motors. The jury awarded $105 million to the parents of Shannon Moseley, a teen who died when his truck's side-mounted gas tank ruptured in a crash. That verdict—which included $101 million in punitive damages—was later overturned, and the case settled before it could be tried again.

Davidson has worked with Butler on other cases, as well. The Hill team also includes David Rohwedder of the Butler Wooten firm, based in Columbus and Atlanta. Rohwedder was on Butler's trial team for the Walden v. Chrysler trial. Brandon Peak, Christopher McDaniel and Ramsey Prather of Butler Wooten are also on the team, as is Michael Gray of Walker, Hulbert, Gray & Moore in Perry.

Butler doesn't hesitate to highlight his work on high-stakes cases. His firm website bio says he has litigated cases in 30 states and served as lead counsel in six cases where the verdict exceeded $100 million. “He has set the record for largest verdict in Georgia history on four separate occasions—in four completely different kinds of civil cases (medical malpractice, trucking, auto products liability, and business torts/breach of fiduciary duty). No other lawyer has done that more than once,” the bio says. It goes on to mention that he was lead counsel in Six Flags v. Time Warner, a business tort lawsuit “which led to what is believed to be the largest collected judgment in American history—$454 million.”

Butler was a writer first, going to work for a newspaper at age 15. He earned a journalism degree at the University of Georgia, then later went on to law school there on a full scholarship.

For all his litigation ferocity, Butler has been heard singing hymns while waiting for the proceedings to begin. He did it six months ago in a packed courtroom at the UGA law school in Athens at a special session of the Georgia Supreme Court. He was waiting for the justices to enter and hear oral arguments in Walden v. Chrysler. And he did it while waiting for the judge and jury to arrive after the lunch break the day the Hill v. Ford trial started, as Thomas was about to make his opening statement, and Butler had already made his.

Asked about the singing afterward, Butler said it's a tradition that began years ago during a trial in Savannah. The courtroom was old, big and standing room only. The crowd was anxious. The wait seemed long. He turned around, raised his hands and began to lead the congregation in a gospel tune. “It breaks the tension,” Butler said.

So it happened that Butler, and a few others, were heard singing:

“Shall we gather at the river, where bright angel feet have trod, with its crystal tide forever, flowing by the throne of God?”

“Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful the beautiful river; Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God.”

The trial continues in Hill v. Ford, No. 16 C 04179-2.