Albro Lundy III and Gary S. Dordick - 2009 Consumer Attorneys of the Year

Clete Schmidts car was crushed, leaving him a quadriplegic dependent on a ventilator, after it crashed into a stone embankment near a rural T-intersection near Joshua Tree National Park. Schmidt did not have enough time to stop because he was unable to see the stop sign in time. Extensive work by his attorney, Albro Lundy, led Caltrans to make significant safety enhancements at similar intersections statewide. Lundys investigative team spent days searching Caltrans records before finding 30-year-old photographs that showed the approach to the intersection had Botts dots, providing a vibration warning to driver, that had since deteriorated. The investigators also learned a large End of the Road sign had once been at the site but had not been replaced. A Riverside Superior Court jury found Caltrans 90 percent responsible for Schmidts injuries. Schmidts crash was one of nine at that intersection over a two-year period. But in the 18 months after safety changes were made, there were no crashes there. Gary Dordick was brought on as co-counsel for the trial after Lundy was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor.

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