Khail A. Parris

Lancaster

Personal Injury

Khail Parris has made winning big verdicts against long odds something of a specialty. In a series of trials over the last couple of years, he has brought in multimillion-dollar wins and settlements for auto accident plaintiffs whose injuries were difficult to prove or against challenging defense tactics.

He lists three cases in particular as ones that changed his career. The first was a combined $49.6 million jury verdict in October 2021 for a CHP motorcycle officer who was rearended by a distracted driver as he pursued a speeder with his lights and siren on. Ejected onto the road at highway speed, he suffered multiple injuries. Bejar v. Lopez, BC675339 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 8, 2017)

The defense tried some unusual tactics, including having the defendant driver declare bankruptcy, which a bankruptcy court determined was filed in bad faith, Parris said. "The jury saw through the ridiculous things going on with the defense, and they gave him everything that he deserved," he said.

A current dispute is whether the defendant or the bankruptcy trustee has the right to appeal. "It's an interesting game that [the defense is] playing. They're just not winning at it," he said.

In the second of his career-defining cases, he won a $9.5 million jury verdict in March 2022 for a close friend who was injured when a distracted driver hit his stopped car, spun it 180 degrees and pushed it into another stopped vehicle. Another friend, a lawyer from Baltimore, helped Parris try the case. Horner v. Banda, BC722801 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 20, 2018)

The challenge in that trial was that while the plaintiff claimed a serious neck injury, he'd had no surgeries in the five years since the accident. "That was a big hurdle to overcome," Parris said. The case settled for $10 million.

The most recent of the three cases involved another auto accident for which the plaintiff's injuries were difficult to prove. This plaintiff was a young woman tossed 30 feet through the air by a car going about 30 as she crossed the street. Friedstein v. Stilson, 19STCV13037 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed April 16, 2019)

In most auto versus pedestrian cases, the plaintiff's injuries are very serious. But while this plaintiff had mild traumatic brain injury, she had only had one outpatient surgery for a torn ACL. "So it was a brawl from the beginning of the case all the way to the end, and we were happy with what we got," Parris said. The jury returned a verdict just over $4 million. Both sides have appealed.

Parris said he takes all kinds of personal injury cases, not just auto accidents, but he hasn't had to try any other types. "I'll try anything that somebody feels comfortable putting me in front of," he said. "There's nothing more fun than being in a courtroom in my mind."

-- Don DeBenedictis