Steve Vartazarian's Closing Keys $11M Verdict Against LA County in Forklift Crash Case

A municipal defendant on trial for the actions of an employee will often try to highlight a sympathetic worker involved, in an effort to humanize the defense. To prevail, a plaintiff must take such a tactic into account and find a way to blunt it. In a trial against Los Angeles County for injuries a pedestrian suffered when a county forklift driver struck him, Steve Vartazarian met what he claimed was this defense tactic head-on, en route to winning a nearly $11 million verdict.

James Cobb suffered devastating injuries to his legs when a forklift driven by county employee John Hill struck him. Vartazarian, of The Vartazarian Law Firm, claimed Hill was negligent in failing to notice Cobb as he navigated a crosswalk, while the defense argued Cobb bore responsibility for not being attentive to the approaching forklift.

During closings, Vartazarian told jurors that, while Hill caused the crash, the case “has nothing to do with Mr. Hill. This case has everything to do with how the county and its attorneys responded to what happened with Mr. Hill.”

The forklift driver, Vartazarian said, had made a terrible mistake, yet the county had him appear at trial to humanize the defense. “We forgive you. It’s OK. You are welcome to sit here on our side of the table any time you want. I know you are a good person,” Vartazarian said to Hill during his closing. “Why is Mr. Hill here? There’s no reason for him to be. They’re using him—and, I’m sorry—as a prop to try to take the attention away from what they’re doing here with the attorneys and the witnesses, and trying to put it on him, to make it like it’s about him.

“It has nothing to do with him.”

Moreover, Vartazarian said, the county’s defense relied on inconsistencies in Hill’s story and was merely an attempt to attribute at least some fault to Cobb. “They had to put Mr. Cobb off of the crosswalk so they could manufacture a defense to save money,” Vartazarian said.

They sit here and they tell you in the beginning of this trial, ‘We’ve done the right thing. We’ve taken responsibility.’ Remember that? Vartazarian said. “Have they? Is this… in our world how we’re supposed to take responsibility for what happened here?"

Vartazarian’s closing turned the tables on any possible attempt to humanize the county through a sympathetic employee, and it helped bring back a $10.8 million verdict for his client.