Deborah S. Chang

In December, Chang scored nearly $10 million for her client, who was struck by a pickup truck driven by a California state employee in 2011.

That client, 45-year-old Jerry Rabb, was riding his Harley Davidson in El Centro when defendant Tony Lee Royer made an improper left turn, according to Chang.

The injuries Rabb sustained from the subsequent accident were "catastrophic," according to Chang, resulting in him needing a lower leg amputation.

"The state vigorously disputed liability in this case," she said, noting that it offered $1.3 million to settle Rabb's claims.

The trial was split into two phases, one for liability and one for damages.

After a 9-week trial ? the longest in front of Imperial County Superior Court Judge Brooks Anderholt, according to Chang ? a jury found Royer 100 percent at fault for the collision and awarded Rabb $9.9 million. Rabb v. Royer et al., ECV07069 (Imperial County).

Chang was also part of a team with Panish Shea & Boyle LLP that scored a significant victory in February 2016 for a teenager who was hit off his bicycle by a tractor-trailer in downtown Los Angeles.

The jury trial against Landstar Ranger Inc. accused the company of causing significant enough injuries of Alan Casillas for him to have a below-the-knee amputation.

Together with three others, Chang wove the story of Casillas, a manual laborer without a high school diploma. Casillas v. Landstar Ranger Inc., BC500485 (Los Angeles Co. Super. Ct., filed Feb. 6, 2013).

Landstar sought to put the blame on Casillas for being inattentive, but later admitted negligence, suggesting he was owed about $5 million.

The jury disagreed, awarding more than $11.5 million in non-economic damages for pain and suffering, and more than $16 million in future damages in the same category. Combined with medical expenses, the verdict totaled more than $33 million.

? Saul Sugarman