Gary A. Dordick

Personal Injury

With a string of impressively large verdicts recently behind him, Gary A. Dordick of Dordick Law Corporation took time off for a trip to Italy where his daughter Michelle J. Dordick—one of three of his attorney children who work at his firm—is getting married in Florence.

“It takes me a while to unwind,” Dordick said in late May. “But the firm will have to limp along without us this week. We are happy to have a nice destination wedding. We thought it would be a small group of family, but as it turns out, a ton of the plaintiff bar are coming to celebrate with us.”

Earlier in May, Dordick conducted his annual Trial College with more than 500 attendees at Cabo San Lucas. “It was great this year,” he said. “I think the almost-post-pandemic crowd was really ready to get together to learn, bond and party.”

In October, Dordick attained a $42.75 million settlement during binding arbitration for client Eric Murillo, who suffered major brain damage when he jumped out of a moving U-Haul rental truck after it caught on fire. Murillo v. U-Haul Co. of California et al., CIVDS1708544 (San Bern. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 25, 2018).

“The police report said he was high on meth, opioids and marijuana, and the other side offered us zero,” Dordick said.

“We arbitrated liability for 14 days to a three-judge panel and won 100% fault on U-Haul,” he added in an email. “They still offered zero. We tried the damages portion of the case for another two weeks and they still offered zero. The case was going great. After the damages trial, they offered $5 million, $10 million, $15 million, $20 million— we turned it all down.”

“While the panel was deliberating, we settled for a total of $42, 750,000,” Dordick continued. “A lot of lawyers, including me, have big verdicts, but few have eight-figure settlements. Now, the client will have home care and everything he needs for the rest of his life.”

Also last year, Dordick’s team achieved one of the Daily Journal’s Top Verdicts by persuading jurors that the post-traumatic stress suffered by a brother and sister beaten outside of a Los Angeles restaurant when they came to the aid of a stranger was worth $72.6 million. Greene et al. v. Driz et al., BC643270 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 8, 2016).

“We have had more than $200 million in settlements and verdicts in the last year,” Dordick summed up. “We are up to 15 lawyers from when I started as a sole practitioner 35 years ago. People ask why I don’t retire with all the cases I have won. I tell them I love what I do, I will never retire and besides—I don’t play golf.”

– John Roemer