Native Charlestonian Scott Wallinger focuses his 30+ year law practice in the areas of trucking defense and complex defense litigation. An accomplished trial lawyer, his many years of experience is affirmed in peer reviews of his work and his AV preeminent rating with Martindale Hubbell, the highest available rating. Mr. Wallinger has been recognized as a Legal Elite by the Greater Columbia Business Monthly in the area of commercial transportation in 2012 and 2016 and by the Charleston Business Magazine in the area of personal injury in 2021. Scott Wallinger is certified as a mediator by South Carolina Supreme Court Arbitrator and Mediator Certification Board and is an approved Circuit Court mediator. That experience also assists litigation clients in guiding cases to appropriate resolution. During his career, Scott has defended every type of insurance-assigned case one can imagine, throughout South Carolina. However, Scott has defended transportation-related claims for 20 years and focuses on representing the trucking industry and its insurers. He is a member of the South Carolina Trucking Association and the Trucking Industry Defense Association.
Scott heads up Barnwell Whaley’s trucking and transportation practice, defending businesses and individuals throughout South Carolina in cases ranging from the routine to the catastrophic. Many cases handled involve claims of wrongful death, traumatic brain injury, and disabling spinal and orthopedic injuries. The firm’s immediate crash response service to clients provides essential attention to the protection of assets, preservation of evidence, and a thorough investigation within hours of an accident, 7 days a week. Scott is routinely in the field working with clients at collision scenes or at their headquarters. He and the firm defend drivers, owner-operators, shippers, insurers, third-party logistics providers (3PLs), freight forwarders, and intrastate and interstate motor carriers in personal injury, property and cargo damage, and wrongful death claims.
A graduate of Clemson University (B.S.) and The University of South Carolina School of Law, Mr. Wallinger previously served as Assistant Attorney General of South Carolina and as a shareholder and managing partner of Collins & Lacy, P.C., a prominent defense firm in Columbia, South Carolina. At that firm, he also led the Professional Liability Defense practice group and then the Trucking Defense Practice Group.
Scott Wallinger is a past Rotary Club president and is a member of the Rotary Club of St. Andrews – Charleston. In his spare time, he enjoys travel with his family and backcountry fly fishing.
Professional memberships
Charleston County Bar Association
South Carolina Bar Association
South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys’ Association
Defense Research Institute
The CLM
American Bar Association
South Carolina Trucking Association
Transportation Lawyers Association
Trucking Industry Defense Association
Former member of South Carolina Bar House of Delegates
Education
Bachelor of Science
Clemson University
Juris Doctor
University of South Carolina
Court admissions
All South Carolina Courts
United States District Court for the District of South Carolina
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Supreme Court of the United States
South Carolina Board of Arbitrator and Mediator Certification, approved Circuit Court Mediator
Publications and presentations
Presenter – “Post Accident Investigations” – South Carolina Trucking Association Fall Management Conference, 2021
Presenter – “Don’t Become Plaintiff’s Star Witness” South Carolina Trucking Association Annual Meeting, 2013
Presenter – “Defending the Catastrophic Case” Primerus Defense Institute – Transportation Seminar, 2016
Article – “Technology: Helping or Hindering the Mission?” Paradigm Magazine, Spring, 2017
Presenter – “Defending Against Plaintiff’s Novel Causation Theories in Trucking Accidents” – Primerus Defense Institute Transportation Seminar, 2020
Contact Megan Lenzi, legal assistant to Mr. Wallinger
843-577-7700 email
