Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyers Car Motorcycle Big Rig Truck Accident Malpractice Food Drug Product Liability Attorneys

    July 3rd, 2008

Los Angeles Serious Injury Lawyers - Car Motorcycle Commercial Big Rig and Bicycle Auto Accident Attorneys - Medical & Obstetrical Malpractice - Drug Defect Product Liability Lawyers - Los Angeles Elder Abuse Attorney - Food Poisoning Ecoli HUS Lawyer and Listeria Attorney - Premises Liability Slip & Fall -Traumatic Brain Injury TBI and Paralysis Personal Injury Lawyers - Los Angeles & Southern California.


Our Los Angeles personal injury lawyers serve Southern California as car and motorcycle accident lawyers, commercial big rig truck accident attorneys, bicycle and auto accident lawyers. We are highly experienced medical malpractice and elder abuse attorneys as well as product liability lawyers with extensive experience in drug defect and medical device defect litigation. Our Los Angeles food poisoning attorney handles serious injury food poisoning cases such as E coli HUS cases and Listeria litigation. Our Los Angeles premises liability lawyers will consider slip and fall cases involving serious and permanent injuries. Our Los Angeles serious injury lawyers concentrate on catastrophic cases including traumatic brain injury and paralysis cases, debilitating internal injuries, catastrophic orthopedic injuries, limb amputations, birth injuries, cerebral pasly, Erb's brachial plexus pasley, birth defect and other serious and permanent injuries.

Below we will discuss briefly our Los Angeles personal injury lawyers' credentials and approach for each of the subject matters of our practice and specifically our approach to serious and catastrophic injury cases. For a more complete discussion of our credentials and expertise as lawyers for your particular case, please consider our "Practice Areas" menu. For a more full discussion of Los Angeles personal injury attorneys' credentials, experience and approach specifically to serious injury litigation, please consider our "Serious and Catastrophic Injury Lawyers" page.

Our Los Angeles Personal Injury Trial Lawyers Are Highly Experienced and Nationally Acclaimed Serious Injury Accident, Malpractice, Elder Abuse, Drug Product Liability, Food Poisoning & Premises Liability Attorneys Serving Los Angeles and Southern California Since 1979.


Los Angeles personal injury lawyer, Ray Henke, and his firm are "AV" rated by Martindale & Hubbell. These are the highest "legal ability" and "ethical standards" ratings awarded by the most highly respected attorney rating directory in the United States. The ratings are determined by Martindale & Hubbell's investigations, including interviews with judges before whom the attorney has tried cases and interviews with other prominent lawyers who are aware of the attorney's reputation for legal ability and ethical standards. The "A" in AV is defined as "very high to preeminent" in "legal ability." The "V" is defined as "very high" "general ethical standards." According to Martindale & Hubbell, "AV Peer Review Rating shows that a lawyer has reached the height of professional excellence. He or she has usually practiced law for many years, and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity."

Los Angeles personal injury attorney, Henke, has received substantial recognition from his trial lawyer peers for his many landmark successes in the most complex serious injury litigation. Mr. Henke was elected Governor of the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association and Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles by the many thousand members of this 5th largest trial lawyer association in the United States, which also nominated him "Trial Lawyer of the Year" for his success in the prosecution of landmark complex medical and drug litigation.

Mr. Henke and his trial work in complex Los Angeles serious injury litigation has been recognized also in California and national legal journals, from "California Lawyer" to the "National Law Journal." His trial work and cases have also been chronicled in the legitimate print media, from the front page of the New York Times to the front page of the Los Angeles Times, from the Washington Post to the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle. Mr. Henke's cases, tried in our Los Angeles courts, have been the subject of feature national and international television news segments, from Tom Brokaw's NBC Evening News to CNN. Mr. Henke, has testified before Congress, at the invitation of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives specifically about 10 of his cases then pending in the Los Angeles Superior Court, and his use of punitive damages claims to thwart medical fraud.

Los Angeles serious injury lawyer, Ray Henke, has obtained numerous multimillion dollar jury verdicts and settlements for his clients. He is a member of the "Million Dollar Advocates Forum" commonly referred to as "the most prestigious trial lawyer group in the United States" and is listed as one of the "Top Lawyers in America." A few of Mr. Henke's most recent Los Angeles jury verdicts and settlements are listed in the left column of this page.

If you have been seriously injured as the result of a car, motorcycle, big rig, or bicycle accident in Los Angeles or any county in Southern California, or if you have been seriously or catastrophically injured as the result of medical malpractice or a defective drug or medical device, or if you or a family member has suffered elder abuse, or if you have fallen on commercial or residential property as the result of a defect or failure of maintenance and suffered a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury, paralysis, quadriplegia or paraplegia, or if you have suffered serious food poisoning illness resulting in permanent health consequences, you are welcome to submit the "Los Angeles Serious Injury Attorneys Case Evaluation Request" and our highly qualified Los Angeles personal injury trial lawyers will contact you to discuss the facts of your case, your injuries and prognosis, and provide our case evaluation and recommendations free of any charge or obligation.

Our Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyers Are Sophisticated and Aggressive Trial Attorneys For Complex Serious and Catastrophic Injury Cases.


Los Angeles personal injury trial lawyer Ray Henke has concentrated for 25 years on the presentation of serious injury cases. Serious and catastrophic injury cases require sophisticated complex trial lawyers regardless whether the injuries were sustained in a simple car accident or a complex case involving a pharmaceutical product defect. The reason is that the presentation of seriously injured client's general and special damages is always complex and requires Los Angeles trial attorneys highly experienced in serious and catastrophic injury cases who have developed a successful approach to the presentation of the elements of damages. As will be discussed more fully in the next section, even in the simplest accident case, the challenge of the experienced Los Angeles accident lawyer will also be to identify the insurance resources and assets sufficient to pay for the client's serious injuries and damages.

To examine the complexities involved in properly presenting general and special damages in serious injury cases, our Los Angeles personal injury trial attorneys have created a page on this site specifically setting forth his approach to presenting the seriously injured client's damage case. Please consider our "Serious and Catastrophic Injury Lawyers" page. If you have suffered brain injury or paralysis, you may also consider consulting our "Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyers" and "Spinal Cord Injury Attorneys" pages.

Very briefly, Los Angeles personal injury attorney, Henke, describes his approach to the recovery of general damages, which many lawyers commonly refer to as "pain and suffering" damages, but in serious injury litigation include, often most importantly, the client's "loss of enjoyment of life damages." The pain and suffering damages are presented through the testimony of the client, sometimes his spouse or other family members and objective support for the client's pain is elicited from the client's treating physician or an expert specialist hired by the attorney. In serious and catastrophic injury cases, our Los Angeles serious injury lawyers will initially present the client's "loss of enjoyment of life" damages through the testimony of the client, his spouse, parents, children and friends, about all of the activities that the client enjoyed doing before the accident that he can no longer participate in. This testimony is then juxtaposed against a professionally produced "Day in the Life" documentary in which the seriously injured client is portrayed with dignity, courageously meeting the difficulties and challenges of his post-accident daily life.

Special damages include recovery for the clients past and future medical expenses and his past and future lost earnings or earning capacity. Again very briefly, past medical expenses are usually easy enough to calculate, commonly just a full accounting of all the client's medical and related expenses from the date of the injury through the date of the settlement conference or trial. Proving the client's future medical expense is considerably more complex. Our Los Angeles serious injury lawyers will commonly engage a number of experts, most importantly a professional "life care planner" and forensic economist. The first task is to establish the client's life expectancy, which will require medical testimony either from the client's treating physician or more commonly from medical and other experts retained by our Los Angeles trial lawyers. The life care planner also works with the treating physicians and other medical experts to determine and list all of the medical expenses or doctors visits, specialists visits, convalescent hospital care, home nursing or attendant care, medications, costs for medical devices, replacement prostheses or wheelchairs or special beds, modified cars or vans, medical supplies and sundries that the client will require over every month and year of the remainder of his life. The professional health care planner will also investigate the present cost for each item of medical expense, and will prepare a "life care plan." Our experienced Los Angeles serious injury lawyers will review the plan to assure that the items are complete and reasonable, and will present the "life care plan" to our forensic economist. The economist then will use government statistics with regard to the rapid inflation of medical costs in each of the categories to arrive at a total of all the medical costs over the life expectancy of the client, increased by medical cost inflation. The economist will then "discount" that total to present value using the general inflation rate, also using applicable government statistics. The result is an amount in "present dollars" to compensate the client for his medical expenses for the remainder of his life expectancy.

The preparation and presentation of loss of earnings claims is equally complex. To simplify it, our Los Angeles serious injury lawyers will examine the easiest case of the hourly wage earner, although many cases are substantially more complex, such as cases involving businessmen and women who may lose the income stream and growth of their businesses, or professionals or executives or specialize tradesmen who had reasonable prospects for advancement and substantially increased salaries, or minors who have never worked before, or homemakers who haven't worked in the economic marketplace for a number of years, but who are entitled to recover their loss of earning capacity.

The wage earners past lost earnings may be simple enough to calculate, sometimes as easy as multiplying his daily wage times the number of days he missed work from the date of the accident through the date of the settlement conference or trial. Preparing and presenting "future earnings losses," even in the simplest case of the hourly wage earner, however, is highly complex. Again, our Los Angeles serious injury attorneys will engage the services of specialized experts, perhaps most importantly, a "vocational rehabilitation expert" and a forensic economist. Here, our Los Angeles trial lawyers must establish both the client's "work life expectancy" given our client's health and occupation before the accident and his post-accident "work life expectancy." Since under California law the client is entitled to recover his "net" future loss of earnings, it will first be necessary to determine the amount that the client would have earned if he had not been injured, and subtract from that what the client will earn in the employment his has chosen subsequent to the accident, or what he could reasonably earn in the professions or trades still open to him given his physical limitations. In the latter respect, the vocational rehabilitation expert will interview the client extensively, and with the help of our Los Angeles serious injury lawyers he will obtain the clients education records, and records of employment history and earnings. The rehabilitation expert will administer vocational tests to the client, and will discuss the results with the client. On the basis of his investigation and expertise he will then arrive at conclusions with regard to the professions and trades which are foreclosed to the client by reason of his injuries and those that are still available to him. Our Los Angeles serious injury attorneys will then present the vocational rehabilitation expert's report to our forensic economist, who will apply government statistics on wage growth inflation for the profession or trade in which the client was employed before the accident, and the same for the vocations or trades for which the client is still able to be employed. He will arrive at the difference, which will be the client's future earnings losses, and then apply general inflation statistics again to reduce the lost future earnings to present value.

The experienced Los Angeles serious injury attorney will remain involved in all aspects of these analyses to assure that the foundation and methods of calculation will be accepted by the settlement judge and jury as reasonable. The defense attorneys in serious and catastrophic injury cases will cross examine our experts at deposition and trial, and they will present their own experts who will always present much lower values often grossly underestimating the client's special damages. Our sophisticated Los Angeles serious injury lawyers will also cross examine the defense experts. But the experienced Los Angeles trial lawyer must assure that it will be his experts calculations which will be accepted by the settlement judge or jury. It is important, for example, to provide the "net" loss of earnings, unless the client is clearly unable to return to economically productive life, as in the case of a client who has suffered profound brain damage. It is our Los Angeles serious injury lawyers approach developed by experience also that if the client can make some effort to at least look into the opportunities for returning to an economically productive life, with the help of our vocational rehabilitation expert, that the settlement judge and jury will again be more likely to identify and sympathize with the client as one who is meeting his life challenges with the courage that they would hope they could. And it is Los Angeles serious injury trial lawyers' experience that this identification and sympathy will translate into our greater credibility and greater recovery across the board, not just in our recovery of economic damages but also in their assessment of our clients' pain and suffering and "loss of enjoyment of life" damages.

All serious injury litigation is complex and requires the participation of a highly qualified trial lawyer knowledgeable and experienced in the presentation of general and special damages in serious injury litigation. If you have been seriously or catastrophically injured in Los Angeles or any county in Southern California, we welcome you to submit our e-mail "Los Angeles Serious Injury Lawyers Case Evaluation Request" for a free consultation.

Our Los Angeles Auto Accident Lawyers Represent Clients Who Have Suffered Serious Injury In Car, Motorcycle, Big Rig Truck and Bicycle Auto Accidents Throughout Southern California


Serious injury accident cases involve all of the complexity in preparing and presenting the elements of damages discussed in the previous section. Where the client is seriously or catastrophically injured, the cases also involve what is often the most daunting hurdle and biggest challenge for the Los Angeles serious injury accident lawyer, which is identifying the insurance and assets sufficient to compensate the client for his injuries and full measure of damages. Very rarely will the driver of the other vehicle be adequately insured or sufficiently wealthy to compensate the full measure of damages of the seriously injured client. We can do asset checks, and additional investigation, but often our Los Angeles accident lawyers more aggressive approach to serious injury litigation is required.

Our Los Angeles accident lawyers have prepared separate pages setting forth our approaches to car, motorcycle, big rig truck and bicycle accident cases. The pages will appear if you put your cursor over "accident lawyers" in the "Practice Areas" menu.

Some accidents may be as simple as who ran the red light or much more complex cases involving mechanical defect litigation. The approach to the liability aspect of accident litigation will vary according to the case, but in serious injury accident litigation it is essential that you obtain a Los Angeles accident lawyer who is highly qualified and experienced in serious injury accident litigation.

Our Los Angeles Auto Accident Lawyers Approach to Establishing Liability in Car Motorcycle and Bicycle Accidents, And Our Attorneys' Approach to Locating the Adequate Sources of Insurance to Obtain Full Compensation for Our Seriously Injured Clients

To examine the complexities of serious injury accident litigation generally, and the importance of aggressive and creative lawyering, we can consider Los Angeles trial attorney, Ray Henke's most recent case. It was a motorcycle accident in which the motorcyclist lost his lower leg when he "split lanes" at an intersection between cars in two left turn lanes. The defense attorneys took the position that the motorcyclist was at fault for the accident. We were presented with two major hurdles, establishing liability, and finding insurance coverage sufficient to compensate the client for his serious injury and damages. Los Angeles serious injury accident lawyer, Ray Henke, took the deposition of the police officer who investigated the accident, and through his questioning was able to elicit the officer's testimony that "splitting lanes" in California is "not illegal," even splitting lanes between cars in two left turning lanes, and that our client's having split lanes was not a factor resulting in the accident. We also investigated where the defendant driver was coming from and going to at the time of the accident. He was traveling from his home to work. Generally speaking an accident occurring while an employee is "commuting" to the workplace doesn't render the employer liable for the accident, but our Los Angeles accident lawyers were able to establish through our investigation that the motorist was driving a company vehicle, transporting company tools, which was sufficient evidence to name the employer as a defendant in the litigation, and thereby make available to pay the client's damages the employer's liability policy and excess insurance policy. Los Angeles accident attorney, Henke, obtained a multimillion dollar settlement for his client at a settlement conference after the settlement judge read the police officer's deposition testimony and stated his judicial opinion that the motorcyclist was not contributorily negligent for splitting lanes.

Los Angeles serious injury lawyer, Ray Henke, has been at the forefront of advocating the use of cell phone evidence, as a strategy both to aid in establishing liability in accident cases and to access additional insurance coverage to pay the claims of the seriously and catastrophically injured. You may consider our separate page, entitled "Cell Phone Accident Lawyers" which describes in part Los Angeles trial attorney, Henke's scientific review article on the dangers posed by those engage in cell conversation while driving. It also describes the use of cell phone records to determine who the driver was conversing with at the time of the accident, and where it can be established that it was a business call, in the course and scope of the motorist's employment, that the employer can also be sued under "respondeat superior" theory, again making available the employer's insurance coverage and assets to pay the seriously injured client's claim. One in ten cars on our American streets and highways, at any given moment in time, is being driven by a motorist who is actively involved in cell phone conversation. All of the abundant epidemiological and controlled experimental literature compiled in Mr. Henke's scientific review article consistently has found that those who drive under the influence of cell conversation are DUI level driving impaired and 4 times more likely to cause an accident. In contested liability auto accident cases or cases in which there is conflicting testimony with regard to the cause of the car or motorcycle or bicycle accident, the evidence of the defendant motorist's DUI level driving impairment, resulting from his driving under the influence of cell conversation, can be useful in establishing liability just as would evidence that the motorist was DUI level driving impaired under the influence of alcohol. Furthermore, given that 1 in 10 motorists is actively involved in cell conversation at any given moment in time, and 4 times more likely to cause an accident, there is better than a 20 percent chance that the driver in any accident can be demonstrated to have been driving under the influence of his cell phone. Given the common use of cell phones while driving to make business calls, calls to the office, calls to clients or prospective clients or business leads, there is a fair chance in any accident case that it can be established that the defendant driver was engaged in a call "in the course and scope of his employment," laying the foundation to name the employer as a defendant. In accident cases where the client has suffered serious injuries and damages, our aggressive Los Angeles accident lawyers consider it essential that every stone be unturned, including the cell phone stone, to access insurance sufficient to obtain full compensation for our clients.

Our Los Angeles Big Rig Truck Accident Lawyers Discuss Their Approach to Big Rig, Semi, 18 Wheeler Commercial Large Truck Cases, and Our Attorneys' Approach to Locating the Insurance and Assets Sufficient to Compensate Our Clients for the Full Measure of Their Damages.

In big rig truck accident cases, involving semis, tractor trailers, 18 wheelers and other large commercial trucks, the accidents can be due to driver error, too little sleep, overloading, failing to properly secure the load, failures to inspect, maintain and repair the brakes or other mechanical components. Our Los Angeles big rig truck accident lawyers have prepared a separate page describing the federal and state regulations governing everything from the hours a driver may operate a big rig between 8 hour time off periods to permissible load weight and regulations government the securing of loads. Our Los Angeles big rig accident lawyers page also discusses the typical accidents, such as rear end accidents due to the driver following to closely considering the greater distance required for a big rig to stop through and including jackknife accidents, where the trailer folds around the cab often leading the rig to flip and roll, commonly due to the driver locking up the brakes, but also often caused by an improperly secured load.

Again, in serious injury litigation, the most daunting task of the experienced Los Angeles big rig truck accident lawyer will be to access insurance or assets sufficient to pay the client's claim. It is common in the trucking industry for shippers not to "employ" their drivers but to hire them as "independent contractors" to avoid company liability for big rig accidents. Where the driver is hauling a load which is non hazardous, he is only required to maintain $750,000 in insurance, which in serious and catastrophic injury cases will commonly be woefully inadequate to compensate the client for his injuries and full measure of damages. But there are special causes of action which can be brought against the companies, such as "negligent entrustment" and "negligent supervision" as well as failures to properly inspect, maintain and repair the large commercial trucks. Our Los Angeles big rig truck accident lawyers are very knowledgeable about the federal and state regulations, including the requirements that the driver maintain daily logs of his hours on and off work, which must be reported to the companies he drives for, and maintained by the companies. Our Los Angeles big rig truck lawyers are knowledgeable about the state and federal regulations governing the permissible load weights and requirements for securing the load.

We will assign investigators to photograph the scene and speak to and take the statements of all witnesses. Our Los Angeles big rig truck accident lawyers will hire experienced big rig truck accident reconstruction experts to do the investigation to identify the cause of the accident. If it is mechanical error we will obtain the maintenance and repair records for the truck. If it is driver error, we will get the company's personnel records for the driver, confirm whether he has a license to operate the class of vehicle, investigate his driving history, accident history, history of drug abuse, and take the depositions of company officers and other drivers to establish negligent entrustment or negligent supervision. Our Los Angeles commercial large truck accident attorneys recognize that big rigs accident will often result in serious and catastrophic injuries, and so in addition to aggressively investigating to determine the cause of the accident, we aggressively pursue the evidence of the shipping company's liability to assure that our clients have the very best opportunity to recover for their injuries and full measure of their damages.

Our Los Angeles Medical Malpractice Lawyers, Pharmaceutical Product Liability Attorneys and Medical Device Lawyers Discuss Our Approach to Complex Medical Litigation.


Los Angeles serious injury trial lawyer, Ray Henke, has been involved in medical malpractice and pharmaceutical product liability litigation for over 2 decades. You may view our separate pages discussing in more detail our approach to medical malpractice cases, including obstetrical malpractice, and our separate drug product liability lawyers page, and Ortho Evra Patch lawyers page indexed in our "Practice Areas" menu. It requires sophisticated and aggressive lawyers to prosecute medical malpractice and pharmaceutical product liability litigation. Our Los Angeles medical malpractice lawyers and drug product liability attorneys are able to quickly learn, and learn well, the medicine and medical standards of care or the epidemiology essential to the preparation and trial of medical malpractice and pharmaceutical product liability litigation. All such cases are presented through the testimony of experts, and our Los Angeles medical malpractice lawyers and drug product attorneys have gather teams of the most highly respected and published medical specialists and scientists in the world in presenting our cases. We are also adept, by virtue of our experience, in cross examining the defendant doctors and defense epidemiologists and other experts. One case study may be of use in permitting the reader to appreciate this.

One case involving medical malpractice, hospital negligence and drug product fraud may be the best example. Los Angeles medical malpractice lawyer, Ray Henke, is indeed nationally acclaimed for his trial of this first AIDS drug medical fraud case in the United States. Henke tried the cases of 5 of his clients who were all close to death and needed to get to trial to have their "day in court" before they passed away. Los Angeles malpractice and drug product liability lawyer, Henke, tried all 5 cases together in a single 4 month trial, against two physicians, a surgeon, and a hospital who Henke charged with half a dozen causes of action from medical and hospital malpractice to violations of the California Protection of Human Subjects in Medical Experimentation Act, to conspiracy to defraud his clients with their phony AIDS "cures." The defendant doctors claimed that their drugs were effective, and that the AIDS patients were going to die anyway. The hospital claimed that the administration was unaware of what the doctors were doing on its immune suppressed unit. Attorney Henke took the depositions of the hospital administrators first, who denied knowledge of any bad AIDS medicine being practice on the immune suppressed unit. Attorney Henke then took the depositions of all the nurses on the immune suppressed unit who tearfully acknowledged the the details of the horrifying medical conduct of the physicians, leading them to tell the patients to go to another hospital, and to complain over and over again to the hospital administration about the physicians below standard treatment of the AIDS patients.

California medical malpractice lawyer, Henke, inspired the AIDS medical and scientific community to consider this case an important "test" case to change the practice of AIDS medicine. The experts who volunteered to testify on behalf of attorney Henke's clients included Luc Montagner, the discoverer of HIV and head of France's National AIDS Laboratories, Michael Gotlieb, the discoverer of AIDS and cofounder of AMFAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, Don Francis, the epidemiologist who headed up the first CDC AIDS task force and discovered that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease, John Curnutte, head of the largest AIDS vaccine project in the world, who oversaw the work of over 100 scientists, Roger Detels, Chairman of the Epidemiology Department at UCLA who was the chief investigator on the largest epidemiological study in the world on AIDS patients and AIDS drugs, and a dozen others of the most highly respected AIDS physicians and scientists in the world.

California medical malpractice and drug lawyer, Henke, obtained a multimillion dollar jury verdict for his clients, including a $1.9 million punitive damage jury verdict against the hospital for conspiracy to defraud Henke's clients. Attorney Henke testified before Congress about the cases at the invitation of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives. Attorney Henke was also nominated "Trial of the Year" for his work in the case by the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association.

Our Los Angeles Food Poisoning Lawyers Discuss our Approach to Food Poisoning Litigation, Ecoli HUS cases and our Attorneys approach to Listeria Cases.

On separate pages our Los Angeles food poisoning lawyers discuss our involvement in food poisoning cases generally, and in Ecoli HUS cases and Listeria cases in particular. Our Los Angeles food poisoning lawyers will also consider cases involving serious and permanent injury or health damage resulting from Botulism, Campylobacter, Norovirus, Salmonella and Shigella. Our Los Angeles food poisoning lawyers invite you to review our general and specific food poisoning pages where we discuss much more fully our approach to the litigation.

Attorney Henke has joined with nationally acclaimed Los Angeles food poisoning attorney, Nick Allis, in preparing the food poisoning pages and Mr. Henke will serve in a supportive role in this litigation out of his great respect for Mr. Allis and his superior training and experience in food poisoning litigation. Los Angeles trial lawyer, Allis, has 25 years experience as a lawyer involved in medical litigation, with more than 60 major trials in serious injury cases. He received his BA degree from Yale, his juris doctorate from Georgetown Law School. Los Angeles food poisoning lawyer, Allis is a former President of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, elected to the position by the organization's 3,000 lawyer membership. He has participated in most of the major pharmaceutical product liability litigation of the past two decades, in which training and exquisite knowledge of epidemiology is essential, just as it is essential in food poisoning litigation, and has served as the trial attorney also in many major medical malpractice cases in which again, just as with food poisoning cases, knowledge and competency in presenting medical testimony is essential. Los Angeles serious injury trial attorney, Nick Allis, has spent the past 7 years involved specifically in food poisoning cases. His devotion to food poisoning litigation has led him even to take the course and pass the test to become a "Certified Food Manager." This past year in October he obtained one of the largest multimillion dollar settlements ever in an Ecoli HUS case. For more information please consult our "Los Angeles Food Poisoning Lawyers" main page, as well as our separate pages on this site for "Ecoli HUS and TTP Litigation" and "Listeria Attorneys" found by putting your cursor over "Food Poisoning Lawyers" in the "Practice Areas" menu. Our Los Angeles food poisoning lawyers will also consider cases involving serious injury resulting from Botulism, Campylobacter, Norovirus, Salmonella and Shigella arising in Los Angeles and Southern California.

You May Contact Our Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyers, Medical Malpractice, Drug Product Liability, Food Poisoning, Premises Liability, Slip and Fall, Mesothelioma, TBI and Spinal Cord Injury Attorneys, Car, Motorcycle, Commercial Big Rig Truck and Bicycle Auto Accident Lawyers For a Free Los Angeles Serious Injury Lawyer Consultation.


Our Los Angeles personal injury attorneys are pleased to provide free case consultations where the injury is sustained as the result of negligence or liability within the subject matters of our Practice Areas. You may submit our form e-mail "Los Angeles Serious Injury Lawyers Case Evaluation Request" describing the accident or incident which led to your injuries, and our Los Angeles serious injury trial attorney most knowledgeable in the subject matter will contact you to provide his initial impressions, case evaluation and recommendations.

Our Los Angeles personal injury lawyers represent clients throughout all counties in Southern California, in car and motorcycle accident cases, in big rig truck accident litigation involving semis, tractor trailers, 18 wheelers and other commercial large trucks, as well as bicycle-auto accident cases. Our experienced Los Angeles trial lawyers represent clients seriously injured as the result of medical and obstetrical malpractice as well as drug product defect liability. Our Los Angeles lawyers also will consider premises liability and slip and fall cases in addition to auto accident litigation involving traumatic brain injury, TBI, and spinal cord injury, paralysis, quadriplegia and paraplegia. Los Angeles food poisoning attorney, Nick Allis, and his law firm, will consider your food poisoning litigation, Ecoli HUS and TTP cases and Listeria cases, as well as well as serious injury cases deriving from Botulism, Campylobacter, Norovirus, Salmonella and Shigella. Our Los Angeles serious injury lawyers welcome you to consider the more full presentation of our credentials and approach to the cases arising within the legal subject matters of our practice by moving your cursor over our "Practice Areas" menu.

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*Landmark Jury Verdicts:

$3.8 million dollar gross jury verdict in brain injury case. Los Angeles medical malpractice lawyer, Ray Henke's client suffered mild aphasia as the result of strokes caused by emboli from an atrial myxoma, a tumor in the upper left chamber of the heart. Atrial myxomas are the most rare human tumors known to medical science. The patient initially suffered a "fainting spell" which her physicians investigated using EEG's and CT scans and well as an EKG, but failed to perform an echocardiogram of the patient's heart, which would have disclosed the atrial myxoma. The physicians attorney's argument was that atrial myxomas are an "autopsy diagnosis" seen only a handful of times in the medical literature, never before diagnosed in a living person, a diagnosis that most cardiologists had never heard of. At trial, attorney Henke called the defendant internist to the stand as his first witness, and asked politely whether he had "considered atrial myxoma in his differential diagnosis." The physician responded, "Mr. Henke, you don't think of zebras when you hear hoof beats." The internists comment, actually a common physician analogy was rather obviously intended by the defense to hit home to the jury that when confronted with common symptoms, such as a fainting spell, which can occur from many commonly seen etiologies that physicians will look to those common causes of fainting spells, "the horses," not "zebras" such as an atrial myxoma. Attorney Henke thought about the doctor's analogy for a moment and then then asked, "Mitral valve prolapse. It's a 'horse.' Isn't it, Doctor?" The physician responded, "What do you mean?" Mr. Henke clarified, "Well mitral valve prolapse occurs in about 6 percent of a randomly selected population of females Mrs. Z's age. It's a 'horse' isn't it?" After being instructed by the Judge to answer the question, the physician reluctantly responded, "Yes, It's a horse." Henke continued, "Mitral Stenosis, Doctor, it's a 'horse,' isn't it?" The internist responded "Okay, yes, it's a 'horse'". Again Henke then asked, "Idiopathic subaortic stenosis, Docor, it's a 'horse' isn't it?" The physician again had to acknowledge "Yes." Henke then completed the circle with the internist's analogy, "Well then Doctor, upon hearing the 'hoof beats,' Mrs. Z's symptoms, if you had just thought 'horse,' atrial myxoma, mitral stenosis or idiopathic subaortic stenosis, and 'turned your head in the direction of the hoof beats,' done an echocardiogram, you would have seen the 'Zebra,' wouldn't you have doctor?" Again the physician was forced to acknowledge "Yes." The physician's zebra remark followed by attorney Henke's quick analysis of the fallacy of the analogy, and indeed its utility in demonstrating the physician's negligence, by his own analogy, was cited by the jurors in interviews following the trial as the pivotal point in the trial which resulted in their liability verdict for Mr. Henke's client. This case and this particular interchange between Mr. Henke and the defendant physician, formed the subject for a chapter in the book "Medical Malpractice, Solving the Crisis" by Frank Edwards, M.D., Holt & Co. The case and interrogation was also the subject of a legal journal article published in "Forum" the journal of the California Trial Lawyers Association. You may consider our qualifications, and indeed our national acclaim as seasoned, superior personal injury trial lawyers in complex litigation, discussed in the center and right hand column of this page.

$2.7 million dollar jury verdict in a medical malpractice case in which Los Angeles medical and drug liability attorney, Ray Henke, represented 5 plaintiffs in a single consolidated 4 month trial against their physicians and hospital for conspiracy to defraud them with phony AIDS cures. Mr. Henke's experts in the case included Luc Montagnier, the discoverer of HIV and head of France's National AIDS Laboratories; Michael Gotlieb, the discoverer of AIDS and co-founder of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, Don Francis, the head of the first CDC AIDS Task force and discoverer that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease, John Curnutte, head of the largest AIDS vaccine project in the world, Roger Detels, Chairman of the Epidemiology Department at UCLA and chief investigator on the largest AIDS epidemiology study in the United States, and a dozen others of the most highly respected AIDS scientists and physicians in the world. These cases were widely chronicled in the legitimate press. Mr. Henke also testified before Congress with regard to these cases, at the invitation of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives.

$2.5 million dollar jury verdict in a contested liability motorcycle accident case in which Los Angeles auto and motorcycle accident lawyer, Ray Henke's client was "splitting lanes" and was injured turning left between cars in two left turn lanes. The defense attorney took the position that it was the motorcyclist's negligence in splitting lanes that resulted in the accident. Attorney Henke took the deposition of the police officer who investigated the accident and obtained his testimony that it was legal in California to split lanes, including between to left turn lanes, and that in his opinion, Henke's client's having done so was not a contributing factor in the accident. Los Angeles accident attorney, Henke, also established that the defendant auto driver was operating his vehicle in the course an scope of his employment, forming the bases upon which Mr. Henke then named the employer also as a defendant, and was able to recover against the employer's liability and excess insurance policies. Attorney Henke's client suffered a below knee amputation and broken clavicle.

$1.5 million dollar settlement in a birth injury case involving a drug which Los Angeles drug product liability lawyer, Ray Henke claimed was the probable cause of the child's birth injuries, based upon the facts that the child's mother's obstetrician provided her a sedative during early pregnancy. Mr. Henke's firm obtained possession of a list of physicians, which included the mother's obstetrician, who served as "investigators" in clinical trials involving a drug which was later determined to have been a very powerful teratogen; and the child was born with limb defects typical of the kind of birth defects which were caused by the particular teratogen. The settlement was achieved despite the fact that the medical records were unavailable 20 years after the birth and retirement of the obstetrician; and the mother did not recall the name of the sedative which was provided to her. Los Angeles medical malpractice lawyer, Ray Henke, also obtained a $100,000 settlement from the physician who provided her the sedative. The statutes of limitation had long passed by the time the client contacted Mr. Henke's office. Attorney Henke was however able to overcome the statute of limitations, over the demurrers of both the pharmaceutical company and physician, by successfully alleging that they had "intentionally concealed" from the public and from the child's mother that they had distributed the drug.

*State Bar of California Disclaimer: The results obtained in the cases listed were dependent upon the facts of the cases, and the results will differ in other cases based on different facts

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Driving Under the Influence of Cell Conversation Results in DUI Level Driving Impairment And a 4 fold Increased Likelihood that the Driver will Cause an Accident.

Read Los Angeles serious injury auto accident lawyer, Ray Henke's scientific review article. As knowledgeable Los Angeles cell phone accident lawyers we can investigate to establish that the other driver was on his cell phone. The evidence can make the difference in a contested liability car, motorcycle or bicycle accident case.

Where our serious injury Los Angeles auto motorcycle and bicycle accident lawyers can establish that the other driver was engaged in a business call we can bring his employer in as a defendant and recover against the employer's assets and insurance coverage.

Los Angeles auto accident attorney, Henke, has reviewed all the scientific literature on the effect of cell phone use to impair driver attention, and has prepared a scientific review article discussing the epidemiological and controlled experimental literature. Driving under the influence of cell conversation renders the driver DUI level driving impaired and results in a four fold increased likelihood that the driver will cause an accident. Contrary to popular belief, Los Angeles auto accident attorney, Ray Henke, provides the abundant and consistent scientific evidence that it is not "holding" the cell phone which resulting the impairment. It is the diversion of conscious attention to the internal-cognitive tasks associated with the give and take of the cell conversation away from the external-visual tasks essential for safe driving. Indeed, it matters not whether the motorist is driving under the influence of handheld or hands-free cell conversation, the impairment and the 4 fold increased likelihood that the driver will cause an accident are precisely the same. Yes, California and a number of other states have enacted handheld laws; unfortunately that is just a function of politics. The scientists are not in dispute. All agree that driving under the influence of any cell phone results in the identical DUI level driving impairment.

It is important that the appropriately qualified Los Angeles auto accident lawyer obtain the cell phone records of the other driver in every contested liability case, and especially in any serious injury case in which it appears that the other driver lacks sufficient insurance coverage to fully compensate the plaintiff for his injuries and full measure of his damages. As Los Angeles auto accident lawyer, Ray Henke explains, in the contested liability car, motorcycle or bicycle accident case, the evidence of the other party's cell phone use in the moments prior to the accident may snatch victory from the mouth of defeat. In the most common serious injury auto accident case in which the other driver lacks sufficient insurance to fully compensate the plaintiff for his injuries and damages, it is essential that the Los Angeles auto accident lawyer obtain the cell phone records and appropriate depositions taken of the defendant and the other party to the call to determine whether the other driver was engaged in a business call in the moments leading up to the accident. If he was, then the knowledgeable Los Angeles cell phone auto accident lawyer can bring the employer into the litigation as a defendant "vicariously liable" for the injuries caused by its employee in the "course and scope of his employment." In this way the Los Angeles auto accident lawyer may assure that the plaintiff will be fully compensated up to the limits of the employers insurance policy, and indeed, the employer's assets would be available to execute against.

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The Trial Lawyer Qualifications of our Los Angeles Personaly Injury Lawyers - Auto Accident, Medical Malpractice, Drug Product Liability, Premises Liability, Food Poisoning Serious Injury Attorneys Serving Los Angeles and Southern California.


Our Los Angeles personal injury lawyers are highly experienced attorneys who have represented clients with a wide variety of serious and catastrophic injuries. On the other pages we discuss or approach in representing clients who have suffered paraplegia and quadriplegia and other spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injury. Our experienced Los Angeles trial attorneys also represent clients with debilitating internal injury, limb amputation, catastrophic orthopedic injuries, birth injuries and birth defects, as well as food poisoning illness resulting in permanent injury such as in E coli cases where the illness has resulted in hemolytic uremic syndrome, HUS or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, TTP.

Our Los Angeles personal injury attorneys invite you to consider our specific qualifications which may be most pertinent to your case on "Practice Areas" pages. Catastrophic injuries can result from a car or motorcycle accident, from a product defect or medical malpractice, pharmaceutical or medical device defect, from food poisoning, exposure to a toxic substance, as in the case of the association of mesothelioma with asbestos exposure, and other negligence or intentional conduct. We describe on the other pages of this site our specific qualifications and track record as Los Angeles car, motorcycle, big rig truck and bicycle accident attorneys, medical and obstetrical malpractice lawyers and pharmaceutical product liability attorneys, food poisoning lawyers, product defect attorneys and premises liability lawyers.

Below we will discuss briefly Los Angeles personal injury lawyer, Ray Henke's trial lawyer qualifications, track record in serious injury litigation, his recognition in the legal profession for his accomplishments as a highly successful trial lawyer and indeed his national acclaim particularly in complex serious injury litigation.

After considering our credentials you are invited to contact our Los Angeles personal injury lawyers for a free consultation. You may submit our "Los Angeles Serious Injury Attorney Case Evaluation Request" and we will contact you to discuss the facts of your case, provide our case evaluation and recommendations. Our Los Angeles catastrophic injury lawyers are pleased to consider your case involving an auto accident or medical malpractice drug product liability food poisoning premises liability or other case involving serious injuries resulting from the negligence or intentional conduct of another.

Los Angeles personal injury attorney, Ray. Henke, and his law firm are "AV" rated by Martindale and Hubbell, the highest lawyer "legal ability" rating ("A") and highest attorney "ethical standards" rating ("V") awarded by the most highly respected lawyer ranking directory in the United States. Martindale & Hubbell bases its ratings on interviews with judges before whom the attorney has practiced and interviews with other prominent lawyers in the state who are familiar with the legal ability and ethical standards of the attorney. The "A" is defined as "very high to preeminent" in "legal ability," and the "V" is defined as "very high" in "general ethical standards." According to Martindale & Hubbell: "AV Peer Review Rating shows that a lawyer has reached the height of professional excellence. He or she has usually practiced law for many years, and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity."

Personal injury attorney Henke is a former Governor of the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association and Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, the 5th Largest Trial Lawyer Association in the United States, elected to the position by the many thousand members, also nominated "Trial Lawyer of the Year" by the same Association. Los Angeles catastrophic injury lawyer, Ray Henke has achieved many multimillion dollar settlements and jury verdicts on behalf of his clients and is recognized as one of the "Top Lawyers in America." He a member of the "Million Dollar Advocates Forum," commonly referred to as "the most prestigious group of trial lawyers in the United States."

Los Angeles personal injury attorney, Ray Henke's cases and trial work specifically in complex, serious injury litigation have been the subject of substantial recognition in legitimate state and national legal journals from "California Lawyer" to the "National Law Journal."

Los Angeles trial lawyer, Ray Henke's cases and trial work in complex litigation have been chronicled in the legitimate print media from the front page of the New York Times to the front page of the Los Angeles Times, from the Washington Post to the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner. Serious injury lawyer, Henke's Los Angeles cases and trial work in the Los Angeles County courts have also been the subject of feature segments in the national and international legitimate television news, from Tom Brokaw's Evening News to CNN; as well as in 3 books.

Los Angeles serious injury lawyer, Ray Henke, has also testified before Congress at the invitation of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives, specifically with regard to 10 highly complex medical and pharmaceutical punitive damage "test" cases, 5 of which Henke brought to trial in a single consolidated 4 month trial which ultimately yielded a multimillion dollar Los Angeles jury verdict, including $1.9 million dollars in punitive damages.

Los Angeles personal injury lawyer, Ray Henke has obtained numerous million dollar and multimillion dollar jury verdicts and settlements for his clients, most of them in the highly complex liability and damage cases, including catastrophic injury automobile accident, medical malpractice, product and pharmaceutical product liability and birth injury cases. You may review a few of attorney Henke's jury verdicts and settlements described in the left column of this page.

Los Angeles personal injury attorney, Ray Henke has also obtained extraordinary published state and federal appellate results effecting lasting, significant changes in the law favorable to his clients and other plaintiff litigants. In one such case he obtained the reversal of a federal court certified pharmaceutical mandatory class and $120 million dollar settlement which would have bound 1000 birth injured claimants in the Southern District of Ohio and all others nationwide. Mr. Henke's petition for writ of mandamus led to a landmark federal appellate opinion strictly limiting the availability of mandatory as opposed to voluntary class action in mass disaster litigation, preserving the rights of individual clients to chose their own attorneys to represent them and control the destiny of their own cases. In another landmark appellate case attorney Los Angeles attorney, Ray Henke challenged certain tort reform litigation which would restrict the availability of punitive damages in medical negligence cases, obtaining a California Court of Appeals decision depriving the tort reform legislation of its negative force and effect. The Henke Law Firm's superior lawyer credentials and track record specific to each subject area are set forth more specifically on subject matter pages.

You are encouraged to read more about the approach of our Los Angeles serious injury lawyers to maximizing the opportunity for our clients to obtain full and fair damages in the center column of this page. Or Los Angeles catastrophic injury lawyers discuss our approach in preparing and presenting general damages, including pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life damages. Our personal injury attorneys describe how we juxtapose the evidence of all that seriously injured plaintiff enjoyed in his life before the accident against the professional "Day in the Life" documentary demonstrating the dignity of catastrophically injured client as he meets his daily difficulties and challenges resulting from his physical limitations. Our Los Angeles catastrophic injury lawyers also discuss our approach to the complex task of demonstrating future medical expense claims, employing a "life care planner" along with other medical experts and a forensic economist in the presentation of the damages at settlement conferences and trial. Our Los Angeles personal injury attorneys also discuss the complexities of preparing and presenting future loss of earnings claims in catastrophic injury cases, including by the testimony of "vocational rehabilitation experts" and forensic economists.

Please consider our credentials of our Los Angeles personal injury lawyers on the separate pages listed in our "Practice Areas" menu, as car, motorcycle, big rig truck and bicycle accident lawyers, Los Angeles medical and obstetrical malpractice, elder abuse, and pharmaceutical drug product liability attorneys, the credentials of our Los Angeles food poisoning, Ecoli HUS and Listeria lawyer, premises liability, slip and fall accident attorneys for traumatic brain injury, TBI, and paralysis, quadriplegia, paraplegia and other spinal cord injury cases. Then submit the "Serious Injury Attorneys Case Evaluation Request" and our Los Angeles catastrophic injury attorneys will call you to discuss the accident or incident which resulted in your injury, your prognosis, the impact your injury has had on your life, and its economic impact and future economic impact which will define the damages recoverable in your case. Our Los Angeles personal injury lawyers will share with you our initial impressions, and we will provide our case evaluation and our recommendations. Our Los Angeles serious injury lawyers will consider representing those who were injured as the result of an auto or motorcycle accident, big rig truck or bicycle accident, medical malpractice, a product defect or pharmaceutical product defect, or a premises fall at a commercial or apartment residential facility, from food poisoning or elder abuse. Our initial case consultations are entirely free of charge.


Our Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorneys Auto Accident Car Motorcycle Bicycle and Big Rig Truck Accident Lawyers Product Liability Attorney Medical & Obstetrical Malpractice Lawyer Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Product Defect Attorneys Elder Abuse Lawyers Mesothelioma Food Poisoning Ecoli HUS Attorney & Premises Liability Lawyers Provide Free Consultations to Those Seriously Injured in Los Angeles and Southern California. This Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyers Page Is For Informational Purposes Only. It is Not Legal Advice. Merely Viewing This Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorneys Page Does Not Create an Attorney-Client Agreement.

Our California and Los Angeles personal injury lawyers provide information above and on the “practice areas” of this site which we hope will inform you about our practice areas and legal subject matters of interest. We concentrate on serious injury litigation, and discuss our approach on our Catastrophic and Serious Injury Lawyers page at the top of our "Practice Areas" menu. Our Los Angeles auto accident lawyers provide separate pages discussing serious injury car, motorcycle, bicycle, large commercial truck and big rig accident cases. Our Los Angeles medical malpractice attorneys discuss our credentials in representing victims of medical and hospital negligence generally, in addition to providing a page specifically on obstetrical malpractice and birth injury cases. We provide a general Los Angeles product liability lawyers page discussing our general approach to product litigation generally, as well as a separate page at which we discuss our California and Los Angeles lawyers' approach to drug and medical device defect litigation. Our Southern California and Los Angeles food poisoning lawyer also discusses above briefly and on a separate page of this site our strategies in food poisoning litigation, and we also provide separate Los Angeles Ecoli HUS Lawyers and Listeria Attorneys pages. Our Los Angeles serious injury premises liability lawyers discuss above and on our separate page slip and fall cases arising from property defects or failures to maintain commercial, residential and public property.

Please understand that this Los Angeles personal injury lawyers page and the separate subject area pages are provided for informational purposes only, describing our practice areas. The pages are not intended as legal advice and should not be interpreted as legal advice, and in particular the content should not be interpreted as legal advice as to the potential merits or viability your particular case or any particular case.

We provide free consultations to those who contact us, but again, you must understand that if we are unable to accept your case, that will be merely a function of our law firm specific intake guidelines and should not be interpreted as a conclusion on our part that your case lacks merit or that it is not viable litigation. Furthermore, please understand that merely reviewing this site or the pages of this site, or submitting a case evaluation request, or speaking with Mr. Henke or another attorney does not and cannot create n attorney-client relationship with Mr. Henke or his law office. The only way that an attorney-client relationship can be created with Mr. Henke or his law firm is by a written attorney-client retainer agreement signed both by the client and Mr. Henke. In certain cases, if a case does not fall within our office guidelines we may recommend or refer you to another lawyer, but please understand also that our referring you to another lawyer does not create an attorney-client relationship with Mr. Henke or Mr. Henke's law firm. Nor do we ever undertake to supervise any litigation undertaken by any other lawyers, including lawyers or law firms to which we may refer a client.