Gary A. Dordick

Tough settlement negotiations led to a satisfying $9.5 million deal last September for Dordick's client, Thomas Park, a young man striving to get in shape for the military who suffered complete liver failure that required a liver transplant after taking fitness supplements made by defendant USPLabs.

"There are more than 200 additional claims out there," Dordick, the founder of Dordick Law Corp., said. "We led the fight." In the Matter of USPLabs Dietary Supplement Cases, JPPC 4808 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed April 10, 2014).

The defendant and its manufacturing partner S.K. Laboratories were shown to have imported synthetic ingredients from China using doctored documents to make supplements called Jack3d and OxyElite Pro. The key ingredient, methylhexannamine, is an amphetamine-like stimulant that causes high blood pressure and damage to the cardiovascular system. Dordick filed his complaint and conducted settlement talks in the shadow of a parallel federal criminal investigation into the supplements.

"My client suffered permanent damage. He's no longer eligible for the military," Dordick said. "Proving my case was complicated by the fact that the manufacturers put a lot of garbage into their products, making it hard for experts to evaluate because much of the stuff is not well known to medicine."

Adding complexity was that three of the defendants had pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges over the supplements and, awaiting sentencing, were reluctant to make any deals that could adversely affect their criminal cases. "We convinced them to settle with our victim by pointing out that it might be looked on favorably by the sentencing court. Whether or not they settled with us to save their butts, it worked. We got a good deal."

Earlier, Dordick won an appellate reversal in a personal injury case by persuading a state appellate panel that the defendant driver of a pickup truck that rolled over and injured Dordick's passenger client was acting within the scope of his employment. A trial judge had granted the defendant summary judgment on the grounds that the driver was returning home late in the evening after attending a family gathering. But Dordick argued successfully that the driver's employer required him to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Moreno v. Visser Ranch Inc., FO75822 (5th DCA, opinion filed Dec. 20, 2018).

"My 17-year-old client was paralyzed. Clearly I should have had the right to take this to a jury," said Dordick. "Now we are going to have a jury trial--pending the coronavirus."

-- John Roemer