Trial Lawyers for Justice Settles Record $3.5 Million Case Against State of Iowa

Trial Lawyers for Justice Settles Record $3.5 Million Case Against State of Iowa

Trial Lawyer Nick Rowley, founder of Trial Lawyers for Justice, his partners at Trial Lawyers for Justice, Dominic Pechota and Matt Reilly, and referring counsel James Van Dyke announced a $3.5 million settlement with the State of Iowa in a car crash case involving a state owned snow plow. According to the State of Iowa’s legal counsel, it is the largest personal injury settlement ever entered into by the State of Iowa in a civil case.

 

Client Nathan Thompson was driving westbound on U.S. Highway 30 in Carroll County, Iowa around 8:30am when a State of Iowa snowplow traveling in the opposite direction failed to raise his wing snowplow before crossing Storm Creek Bridge, causing the plow to strike the guard rail of the bridge, pushing the plow into the path of Nathan’s car.

The crash resulted in Nathan drifting in and out of consciousness and needing to be removed from his vehicle by the Jaws of Life. He was taken to the hospital with a cerebral hemorrhage as well as multiple fractures including his ankle, foot, toe, and wrist.  Nathan sustained a mild traumatic brain injury in the crash. By the time of the settlement, Nathan had returned back to work but continued to suffer from the effects of his mild traumatic brain injury and other physical ailments.

“This is a clear cut case in which a plow operator failed to perform his job duties in accordance with policy and training,” said Nick Rowley, lead trial lawyer. “This resulted in Nathan’s vehicle being struck by a massive snow plow causing tremendous pain and suffering, economic damages, and life-long physical and mental injuries. I am very pleased for Nathan. This was a contested liability case. The State of Iowa’s position, up until the day we reached settlement, was that Nathan was traveling too fast for conditions. The State of Iowa made a smart move by paying the settlement because they would have paid a lot more after trial.”

Settlement was reached less than two weeks prior to trial.

Lori Bencoe

Lori Bencoe

Lori Bencoe

Lori Bencoe
BAR ADMISSIONS

New Mexico

 

EDUCATION

University of New Mexico Law School
– J.D. Juris Doctor

University of Arizona
– Bachelor of Arts in Communications / Music Performance Minor

 

 

Bio

Lori Bencoe

Lori is an experienced trial lawyer in New Mexico who has been fighting to obtain justice for people hurt by wrongdoers for her entire legal career. Since becoming a lawyer in 1993, she has recovered tens of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients throughout New Mexico and in other states. She has obtained settlements and jury verdicts against many healthcare corporations, hospitals, and providers.

While most of Lori’s clients have medical malpractice claims, she also helps clients and families with negligence and wrongful death claims for unsafe premises and car and truck crashes. She believes in safety and in corporate accountability for mistakes that cause harm. When insurance and other companies refuse to take responsibility for the harm their mistakes cause, she seeks full accountability from a jury.

After eleven years with an Albuquerque personal injury firm, Lori started her own boutique medical malpractice litigation firm in 2004. Since then, her firm has worked tirelessly as a team and with many lawyers from New Mexico and other states to take on even the largest corporations who engage in unsafe conduct and practices. Her firm has extensive experience with pretrial discovery to obtain the evidence that proves their cases at trial. Lori takes pride in teaching complex medical issues to juries, and routinely seeks out the most qualified medical experts in specialty fields to evaluate cases and teach medicine to the juries who will decide her clients’ cases. Her firm takes a team approach for clients that involves matching her firm’s abilities with other lawyers in and outside New Mexico, including Nick and Courtney Rowley and other TL4J members. 

Lori’s life experiences of losing a parent to cancer, helping her husband of 32 years survive cancer, and managing chronic pain for over twenty-five years of her successful career give her unique insight about her clients’ damages. She believes in her clients’ right to pursue damages for loss of life, liberty and happiness due to their medical and personal injuries, and she understands what a ripple effect of harms and losses an injury or healthcare betrayal can have on a client and their entire family.

Lori is a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She attended the University of Arizona on a music performance scholarship (oboe/saxophone), graduating in 1990 with a BA in Communications (magna cum laude, Honors and Phi Beta Kappa), and from the University of New Mexico Law School with a JD in 1993. She is married has a son and daughter-in-law bound for graduate/ medical school. In her spare time, she enjoys home improvement projects, cooking,  music (classical to ALL genres of rock), movies, and playing Game of Thrones Conquest, where her warrior dragon is named Mary Jane to honor her late mother.  Her chile preference is Christmas (meaning red AND green), she wholeheartedly supports balloonists especially for Fiesta in October, and she believes no home is complete without at least one or two dogs and presently has three.

 

Daniel B. Bidegaray

Daniel B. Bidegaray

Daniel B. BideGaray

Daniel Bidegaray
BAR ADMISSIONS

Montana
North Dakota
US District Court for the District of Montana
US District Court for the District of Colorado
US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
Fort Peck Tribal Court 

EDUCATION

University of Montana
– J.D. Juris Doctor

Montana State University
– B.S.

Bio

Daniel B. Bidegaray

A native of Montana, Daniel was raised on a farm and ranch in the eastern part of the state.   After graduating with a Bachelor of Science from Montana State University in 1990, he attended law school at the University of Montana and was awarded his Juris Doctor in 1993. Daniel is licensed to practice in Montana and North Dakota, and he is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and the Fort Peck Tribal Court.

Honors and Memberships  

To stay abreast of current developments in his practice areas, Daniel is an active participant in several legal organizations. His memberships include the Montana Trial Lawyers Association, American Association for Justice and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. His commitment to developing his skills and legal knowledge led him to attend and graduate from the Trial Lawyer’s College and the Keenan Trial Institute.  Highly regarded by his fellow professionals for his track record and high ethics, Daniel has received an AV peer-reviewed rating through Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest rating possible. Mountain States Super Lawyers has repeatedly selected Daniel to its list, which is limited to the top five percent of attorneys in the northwest of the United States.

More about Daniel 

Daniel enjoys hearing each client’s story and making sure they feel heard.  Understanding a client and helping them navigate through a claim with an insurance company is not for every lawyer but is something Daniel excels at and enjoys.

Daniel saw firsthand, the struggles of hard-working people and families growing up.  His parents immigrated to eastern Montana from southern France, starting with nothing except a strong work ethic.  They raised their family on the farm and ranch and encouraged Daniel and his sisters to obtain advanced degrees.  His father had only an eighth-grade education because southern France was in a deep recession, and he needed to work to provide for his family.  Daniel’s parents instilled in him and his siblings the importance of honesty, education and hard work.  This work ethic has translated into substantial results for his clients.

Daniel is the proud parent of three sons who enjoy hiking, skiing and participating in many other outdoor activities. Daniel also enjoys hiking, skiing, biking and the other outdoor activities that Bozeman has to offer. Daniel is a first-generation American and is proud of his Basque heritage.

Angela Bruno

Angela Bruno

Angela Bruno

Angela Bruno
BAR ADMISSIONS

California

 

EDUCATION

 

University of California Hastings College of the Law 
– J.D. Juris Doctor

University of California, Los Angeles
– Bachelors

 

 

Bio

Angela Bruno

Angela Bruno is the managing partner at BRUNO | NALU, a personal injury law firm. She gained public attention after participating in a wrongful death case against a major restaurant franchise that resulted in a $40 million verdict. Angela actively tries cases with her husband, Keith Bruno, a two time back to back “Trial Lawyer of The Year” winner in Orange County. In the last several years, Angela has focused on case settlement as the art of negotiation is her true passion. She has earned great respect among the ADR community for her preparedness and commitment to the process. Angela not only takes her own cases to mediation, but will also mediate cases for other lawyers who have not found success within that forum.

For the last three years, Angela has been on the board of directions for OCLTA (Orange County Trial Lawyers Association), and is also on the board of directors for OCTLC (Orange County Trial Lawyers Charities). Angela seeks out opportunities to give back to the local community, and is passionate about helping people.

Angela is a graduate of UCLA (Summa Cum Laude, 2001) and UC Hastings College of the Law (JD, 2007). She studied abroad at the University of Sydney (2000) and worked at ADR Center in Rome, Italy (2007-2008).

Keith Bruno

Keith Bruno

Keith Bruno

Keith Bruno
BAR ADMISSIONS

California

 

EDUCATION

University of San Diego School of Law
– J.D. Juris Doctor

University of Maryland
– Undergraduate 

 

Bio

Keith Bruno

Keith is an extraordinary trial lawyer who tried and won his first case just one month after passing the bar in 2002. Almost 20 years later and more than 150 trials later, he is still trying and winning cases for people against large corporate and insurance interests in courtrooms throughout the United States.

Keith Bruno is a trial lawyer for people. He began his career as a corporate lawyer and quickly realized it was not the type of law he was made to practice. He became a Public Defender and discovered his passion. Keith won the 2006 “Don Simms Public Defender of the Year Award” after racking up a stirring string of Not Guilty verdicts in case after case. Keith represented people against the awesome power of the government and won.

While practicing criminal law, Keith was paired up with renowned civil attorney Nick Rowley to try a civil case and they became fast friends and partners. Keith left criminal defense and teamed up with his wife and fellow TL4J trial lawyer, Angela Bruno, to try civil cases. From there Keith set record verdicts including numerous eight-figure verdicts and seven-figure verdicts. Keith was selected Orange County Trial Lawyer of the Year for two years, the only back to back winner in the award’s history for his incredible civil jury verdicts. In addition to those honors, Keith has been selected as a National Trial Attorneys Top 100 Attorneys every year since 2014. He is a proud member of CAALA, CAOC, CASD, and OCTLA.

Keith is committed to partnering with other lawyers throughout the United States to help them achieve full justice and full value on all cases. He has dedicated his life to trying the cases of his clients — ordinary people, often fighting large companies or the government — against extraordinary odds. Despite the overwhelming challenge, Keith wins. Throughout his career, whether his clients are victims of another’s negligence or are facing criminal charges, countless people have turned to Keith for help in their hour of need. Keith’s achievements in the courtroom have been as diverse as they are stunning, and include winning a $40 million verdict side by side with Nick Rowley and Angela Bruno in a wrongful death case (Jordan v. TGI Friday’s) to an acquittal in a first- degree murder case (People v. Sosa), and countless other wins in between.

Keith is a graduate of the University of Maryland where he earned his undergraduate degree, the University of San Diego School of Law, and Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyer’s College, with his most important schooling coming in the trial courts.

After nearly a decade in private practice as a criminal defense attorney, Keith seamlessly transferred his skills into a successful plaintiff ’s personal injury trial attorney. Keith demonstrated consistent excellence that led him to be recognized by SuperLawyers as a Rising Star from 2009-2015, followed by the continued distinction of SuperLawyer in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Keith is known for trying and winning the toughest cases, often on very little notice. He believes genuinely in the trial team approach to helping personal injury clients and enjoys working with a variety of referral attorneys throughout the country. Keith recognizes that a referred case is often the referral lawyer’s most important case, and partners with each lawyer with that in mind. Being of service to the referral lawyer and client is the easiest top priority for Keith. His personal cell is 310-745-7811 and he welcomes your call or text.

Keith is a proud father to four wonderful children—Jackson, Lucy, Avery, and Ford, and husband, soulmate, and trial partner to Angela Bruno.