Wrongful Death

SUV pulling a trailer slams into tractor-trailer truck parked off freeway; mother, father and one child die; two surviving children witness deaths. $150 million in non-economic damages, plus costs and interests.

JNOV granting new trial to determine the comparative negligence of plaintiffs' decedent driver and defendant trucking company.

Woman is discharged home after surgeon punctures left internal iliac artery; bleeds to death. Surgeon settles out; defendant anesthesiologist says there were no signs of a problem when he discharged her.

A laborer instructed to work on a door bell is electrocuted on job site; no workers' comp coverage.  Developer/contractor is held liable.

An unarmed robbery suspect is shot by a Culver City police officer.  Other officers on the scene did not perceive the suspect as a threat. $8.8 million awarded by Federal jury.  

Alzheimer's patient, 81, suffers a severe decline in her physical health after only three months in assisted-living facility. Jury awards $27 million, mostly punitive damages.

Scuba diver dies off Catalina Island when breathing apparatus fails; diver had pre-existing heart condition. Defense offered $93K, but jury awards $5 million to decedent's elderly parents.

School bus driver improperly secures disabled child into wheelchair on bus; shoulder harness strangles the boy who suffered from Angelman Syndrome and could not move or cry out for help.

Defendant, before admitting liability and causation on eve of trial, had sought an offset of $3.7 million based on the future medical cost plaintiff parents would not incur owing to their child's early death. 

Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies, in an unmarked car, pursued plaintiffs' decedent as a DUI/robbery suspect. When decedent's car crashed, he was surrounded by multiple sheriff's cars. Decedent backed his vehicle into a sheriff's car and deputies opened fire, killing him.

Tractor-trailer hits 18-year-old on bicycle, killing her.