Attorneys

Joshua I. Barrett is a member of DiTrapano Barrett & DiPiero, PLLC. Previously, he had been a partner in DiTrapano & Jackson, having joined that firm in 1981. He was a law clerk to the Hon. K.K. Hall, United States Circuit Judge for the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1979 to 1980, and also served briefly thereafter as a litigation coordinator for the West Virginia Legal Services Plan, Inc., before joining DiTrapano & Jackson.

Mr. Barrett received his Juris Doctor degree from West Virginia University College of Law in 1979, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, a Recipient of the West Virginia Law Review Literary Award (1979), and also served as Research Editor of the West Virginia Law Review (Vol. 81.). His undergraduate degree is from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.

Mr. Barrett is admitted to practice in the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a member of both the Kanawha County (West Virginia), the West Virginia State Bar and the American Bar Associations (Business Law Section and Litigation Section), as well as the American Association for Justice. Mr. Barrett previously has served as Adjunct Instructor of Environmental Law, West Virginia University College of Law. Mr. Barrett has lectured in numerous Continuing Legal Education seminars.  From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Barrett served on the Board of Governors of the West Virginia State Bar.

Mr. Barrett devotes a substantial amount of his practice to commercial litigation in both state and federal courts and commercial arbitrations. In addition to handling contract disputes, he has served as trial and appellate counsel in major cases involving claims of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and tortious interference with business relationships. His experience includes class actions, and complex litigation against lenders and accounting firms, as well as corporate litigation relating to shareholder disputes and officer and director liability.

A substantial part of Mr. Barrett's practice relates to coal mining and related injuries. He has obtained substantial recoveries on behalf of injured miners and for families of those killed in mining fatalities. He has successfully represented landowners whose properties have been damaged by improper mining activities. His extensive knowledge of the coal industry and its practices has been put to use in a variety of commercial claims involving mining contracts and relationships.

Mr. Barrett's practice has covered a wide span of issues in his more than twenty five years of practice. He has handled, and continues to handle practically every type of civil litigation, from industrial injuries and fatalities to medical malpractice and products liability; from commercial disputes to estate litigation and property claims; from consumer fraud to environmental litigation. Mr. Barrett is one of very few lawyers listed in The Best Lawyers in America in two separate categories: personal injury and environmental law.  Mr. Barrett also was selected for inclusion in the 2008 West Virginia Super Lawyers in the "personal injury plaintiff" category. He is rated "AV" by Martindale-Hubbell.