Show Notes

In this episode of “Celebrating Justice,” Brian Chase from the firm Bisnar Chase shares his remarkable transition from a laid-back surfer to a passionate trial lawyer dedicated to tackling motor vehicle defect cases. Chase recounts his unexpected spark of interest in the law during a college debate on the renowned Baby Faye case, where his deep dive into research instilled a passion for legal challenges.

Chase reveals his unique focus on auto defect litigation, driven by witnessing the Ford Pinto cases of the ’70s, where corporate negligence led to tragic consequences. His stories demonstrate the significant role trial lawyers play in advancing public safety through relentless litigation against industries prioritizing profit over people. A notable victory he shares involves a groundbreaking $25 million verdict for Jacqueline Romine, paralyzed in a seat back failure incident, which led to a landmark published opinion aiding future auto defect cases in California. He also gives listeners an inside view of the ongoing battle with emerging issues in electric and autonomous vehicles.

For his ‘Closing Argument,’ Brian shares a story about his client whose case and enabled him and his partner to elevate their firm to new heights. He reminds us that you have to keep hustling, no matter your age, and when you love what you do, there’s nothing like it.

Chapters

1:22 – Why did you want to become a trial lawyer?
4:59 – What makes you unique?
6:01 – A Case that Matters.
13:59 – “Brian’s” Closing Argument

Takeaways

Passion for justice and making a positive impact is crucial in trial law
Auto manufacturers have a history of prioritizing profit over safety, leading to the need for litigation to enforce safety standards.
Landmark cases can set precedents and improve safety regulations for future cases.
The rise of electric vehicles and autonomous driving presents new challenges and opportunities for personal injury lawyers.
Continuous learning, hard work, and dedication are essential for success in the legal profession.
Advocacy and positive impact are central to a trial lawyer’s role.
Creativity and storytelling are valuable skills in connecting with juries and drafting briefs.
Humility and a client-first approach are crucial for a successful legal career.
Embrace setbacks as learning experiences to keep moving forward.

Transcript

[Theme Song Plays]

Brian Chase: Starting out a long time ago, I was not the kind of kid that would have said in high school, “I’m going to be an attorney”… A bladder in Ford Pintos for five bucks. And then they said, “OK, how many units are we going to have to pay out?” You and I were a unit… But I also was always jealous of doctors because doctors can save a life. And I thought, “Wow, man, if your life can save a life, how amazing would that be?”

Narrator: Welcome to “Celebrating Justice,” presented by the Trial Lawyers Journal and CloudLex, the next-gen Legal Cloud exclusively for personal injury law. Get inspired by the nation’s top trial lawyers and share in the stories that shape our pursuit of justice. Follow the podcast and join our community at www.triallawyersjournal.com. Now here’s your host, editor of TLJ and VP of marketing at CloudLex, Chad Sands.

Chad Sands: Hello friends and welcome back to Celebrating Justice, where we highlight the inspiring journeys of trial lawyers dedicated to making a difference. In this episode, we’re excited to hear stories from Brian Chase, from the firm Bisnar Chase. Brian talks about one of his most impactful cases that resulted in a landmark published opinion. Join us as we dive into his fascinating journey from a surfing enthusiast to a champion of justice who takes on a tidal wave of motor vehicle defect cases. As always, to start, I asked him, “Why did you want to become a trial lawyer?”

Brian Chase: Starting out a long time ago, I was not the kind of kid that would have said in high school, “I’m going to be an attorney.” You know, I was surfing in pro-am comp competitions. I was a long-haired surfer guy. I was never going to be a suit and tie guy. And then I had this class in college and back in the eighties, there was a big story about Baby Faye. And that is where they put a baboon heart in a human being. And she lived like a few weeks and it was really a big story. And I had a class in college where we had to go to the library, something that I’d never hung out in, to do research on Baby Faye and come back and debate it in class, both pro and con. And so I spent four days in the basement all day long in our library going through microfiche, because that’s all we had in the old days, to uncover everything I could on Baby Faye, to win my argument no matter what side I was on. And for the first time in my life, I thought, “Wow, this is what it’s like to be an attorney, very intellectually stimulating.” You’ve got to put in the effort if you want to get the result. That really planted the seed to go to law school. In addition to that, I went to law school for the sole purpose to be a personal injury attorney. And most people that do what I do fall into it. They do defense work for a while, then they jump into personal injury. So I knew with that Baby Faye experience, I absolutely wanted to be a trial lawyer. And then I also, you know, growing up in the late seventies, recalled the Ford Pintos blowing up. I saw one on the freeway catch on fire one time. I learned back in those days that Ford could have fixed that problem for $5, but they would rather pay off lawsuits and maim and injure a lot of people. And I thought, “Well, I want to do that. I want to right that wrong.” If I can go after the auto industry or corporations that put profit over people, which is kind of a canned response people use now. But I was thinking that back in the day. So between Baby Faye giving me a spark to be a trial lawyer and the Ford Pintos blowing up, I went to law school, became a personal injury attorney, and have never looked back.

Chad Sands: Where did you land on the Baby Faye argument?

Brian Chase: The honest answer is: I don’t recall. I mean, gosh, it was back in the early eighties probably. And I would have to really go refresh myself on, I mean, if we look now to where we’re at nowadays with AI and using pig valves for heart valves in human beings, it was probably a good thing for technology to start advancing the ball and medicine. But as I sit here, I don’t recall the downside or the negative effects on poor Baby Faye. So I apologize for that.

Chad Sands: That’s okay. It’s been a while. And so did you grow up on the shores of Orange County wanting to be a surfer?

Brian Chase: I migrated here. I grew up in the suburbs of LA and came to Orange County, but I was surfing back then. I started surfing when I was like, I don’t know, 10, 11 years old. And so, you know, I was just a diehard surfer then came to Orange County when I was 14 years old. So I was always going down to Huntington Beach and networked my way into the guy that owned Windansea surfboards. And his name was Guy by the way, still around. Bob Hurley, the famous surfboard guy, now a clothing guy. Bob Hurley was just a hippie back in those days and he was shaping surfboards for Windansea’s. He was older than me, not by a lot. I’m probably 16. He was probably 21. He was making my boards. We were on the same surf team. You know, we surfed in the Katen Pro-Am, which is now like the US open or whatever they call it, you know, in Huntington beach back in ‘78. Started out that way. And then the Baby Faye thing hit me and I thought, “Okay, you know, the water’s getting a little bit cold now. I’m not going to surf quite as often and I’m going to go down this new path.”

Chad Sands: I’m sure you’re not the only lawyer who loves to surf, but what makes you unique as a trial lawyer?

Brian Chase: I think one of the things that I can say differentiates me to most attorneys, obviously not all attorneys, is my emphasis in the auto defect world because of that Ford Pinto experience and learning about the Ernie Grush memo and all the shenanigans that went on. They literally had a memo that said we can put a bladder in the Ford Pintos for five bucks. And then they said, “Okay, how many units are we going to have to pay out?” You and I were a unit. So the units were like 200 grand. That’s what they figured they’re going to pay per lawsuit back in the seventies. And then, you know, so when I saw that, that’s what prompted the desire to do the auto defects stuff. Even though my law firm does all kinds of personal injury from A to Z, my personal practice and the emphasis I have is doing the auto defect cases all across the country. And I’ve got cases all over the United States on that. And I’m one of the handful of guys and gals that have a very strong emphasis in that as opposed to being a one hit wonder and getting one of those cases.

Chad Sands: That specialty, I’m sure you got a lot of good stories about a lot of cases that have had an impact on you. Do you want to share a couple?

Brian Chase: I went to law school because I wanted the intellectual stimulation, going back to the library research with Baby Faye. But I also was always jealous of doctors because doctors can save a life. And I thought, “Wow, man, if your life can save a life, how amazing would that be?” But I didn’t want to be a doctor. So I did want my life’s work to have a positive impact on others, which it does when you do personal injury cases. So with regard to the question you just asked, back in 2012, I got a $25 million verdict for this gal who got paralyzed in a seat back case where her seat broke when she got rear-ended. And it was a great verdict. It was phenomenally satisfying, her name was Jacqueline Romine, to allow her to get in her house, you know, the doors widen so she can fit through in her wheelchair. To get her a van to drive with her hands, get ramps. So all of that was incredibly satisfying as any verdict or settlement is. But the icing on the cake for that one is the auto industry appealed, and then all the other auto manufacturers and component part manufacturers filed amicus briefs all against this opinion. You can’t do this to California. And I got a great published opinion on how to prove defect. And it’s the only published opinion on it, affirmatively saying you can use the consumer expectation test to prove defect in a seat back case. And what I love about that, now that’s been out on the books since 2014 – 10 years now. So for all the lawyers in California that do auto defect cases, and in particular seat back cases, that case makes it significantly easier to prove your case and makes the chances of success significantly greater. So I feel like not only did I help this one human being, Jacqueline Romine, I know lawyers have been calling me for the last 10, 12 years about that case and borrowing my motions on how to make sure you get that case law cited and that rule of law applied to your case. So I know that my opinion is helping dozens if not hundreds of people. So just having that broad reach is really, really satisfying.

Chad Sands: Yeah, you kind of help set the bar.

Brian Chase: I did on that one, you know, and kind of dumb luck. I don’t take credit for being the sharpest tool in the shed, but I did some good work on that one. So I’m proud of it.

Chad Sands: What is it about auto manufacturers and defects? Is it me? Do I think they don’t really care? Or how do they make those judgment calls? Especially coming from you who have done so many of these cases, what have you learned about their state of mind or what their logic is?

Brian Chase: Yeah. And you know, and there’s obviously some good people that work in the auto industry. I don’t just want to condemn them all as a whole and bad people or anything like that. But I have seen the history of auto defect litigation and going back to when I was a child, we didn’t even have seat belts in cars. Right. So I can only surmise the auto industry said, “Well, man, that’s going to be an extra dollar, extra 10 bucks.” So I’ve seen them not implement safety devices over the decades until they start losing a bunch of verdicts. And as a matter of fact, when the government, 30 years ago plus, wanted to implement front airbags, the auto industry was against it. They’re telling NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “We don’t need airbags, let’s use a torso belt.” And then the government said, “Okay, then we’ll use a torso belt.” The auto industry used to be against the shoulder belt. I mean, if you can believe it, and I can go on and on and on up to the present time because of folks like me doing what I do. We have seat belts, we have airbags, we have rollover protection, we have electronic stability control, and we have way stronger roofs now. Roofs don’t crush like they used to, cars don’t rollover like they used to. So I can only surmise their motivation was they make more money without it, and without giving them evil intent, maybe they thought the public doesn’t care enough, and so we can make more money and we’re not getting a bunch of protests and things like that. I’m not gonna say it’s solely because the bean counters are there. And a lot of guys that walk in my shoes will say that and maybe that’s true. But I try to be objective and have an open mind. But I do know if it weren’t for guys and gals like me, we wouldn’t have all that safety stuff on its own, that’s for sure. I mean, that’s amazing if you think about it. The rules and regulations you’ve kind of helped put in place. It’s even a little bit better than that. So, you know, back in the Nixon administration, I wasn’t practicing law back in those days, but he was promulgating the federal motor vehicle safety standards. That ends up just being just like today. You know, you got the left and the right lobbying their respective positions for that stuff. And the vast majority of our federal motor vehicle safety standards in 2024 are just the same as they were in 1970. Now, a few have been upgraded. So the government’s not regulating this stuff very well, but the trial lawyers have forced the auto industry to kind of ignore the standards and go way above and beyond what the standards are. And it’s because of the litigation. We’re the best regulators on the planet. And not just the lawyers, but good women and men of this country that sit on the jury. They’re the conscience of the community. They’re going to tell the auto industry, “We want this.”

Chad Sands: What’s in the distant future then for this with electric vehicles, autonomous driving? What’s the hot topic or what are you guys sensing that might be coming?

Brian Chase: So some of the old defects are still out there like the seat back cases. The seats are no better now than they were 20 years ago. Or they’re a little bit stronger, but if you get wounded, you’re going to get thrown in the back and kill your child or break your neck and get paralyzed. To answer your question more directly, there are some of the defects not out there. But what we’re seeing now, for example, Tesla. Everybody was all hot on Elon Musk and Teslas and these great electric cars. And what we’re finding now, and I’ve got a handful of these cases, one, I’ve got a handful of your traditional Tesla cars, but with seat back defects, people getting rear-ended, the seats breaking. The Teslas have the same stuff that the Fords and Chevys do. But on the electrical part, what we’re seeing is, and I got a case a few weeks ago where this poor kid, they’re in a car, they crash, catches on fire, the battery catches on fire – and you’re in trouble in those cars when they catch on fire. Because especially if you’re in the rear, certain models, you can’t open the door. Those locks are done now. Batteries shut off or on fire, you can’t get out. And you’ve got to be able to know how to reach down, not the door handle, but into a side armrest pocket and grab some little device to try to figure out how to open the door. If I’m in the back of a Tesla, I couldn’t do it. And so I got this kid and the crash is caught on videotape. He’s in the back, cars engulfed in flames. You see him flailing around trying to get out of the car. Can’t open the door. If it was a normal car, an old fashioned car, you could open the door, but this modern Tesla, you can’t. He crawls out the back window, GI Joe style, engulfed in flames and got his legs burned off completely. my God. I mean, it’s just tragic. So I’m seeing more and more of the electric car cases where they’re catching on fire. And then you could argue whether, “Well, if there was a gas tank, would it have still caught on fire?” And that’s going to be the issue in each case. But when your car catches on fire, it does not lock the doors and you can’t not get out. Definitely that stuff, the autonomous driving cases are, you know, what we’re seeing in the future. Collision avoidance technology is really good stuff where a lot of us don’t like it when you’re driving and your car breaks, kind of frustrates you. But that stuff saves lives, you know, and we’ll all get used to it. Nobody wanted to wear seat belts 40 years ago.

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Now here is this episode’s “Closing Argument.”

Brian Chase: I’ve been doing this for 31 years, and so you have so many impactful moments to where that just grows you as a trial lawyer and your law firm and things like that. But I think back to the first seven figure result I got back in the 90s so that was a bigger deal than it would be now obviously. But it was Bisnar and Associates back in those days and I had this difficult case. I have a letter I used to have framed where the lawyer said the case was the biggest sham he’d ever seen and they would never pay a penny. Just a real arrogant letter. Long story short, we litigated it. It was a very righteous case. Started the trial and then the case settled in seven figures. And the impact of that isn’t so much the result, although personally it’s always nice to get a good result like that. And I really loved it for my client, Dorothy Darnell. I’ll never forget her. But that result allowed me to form my partnership with John Bisnar. So that was the beginning of Bisnar and Chase. And then from there, John and I, maybe for younger lawyers when they’re trying to figure out how to grow their law firm, you know, John and I partnered up and we went from just your sort of generic personal injury law firm doing the ordinary everyday cases (although I’m reluctant to say that because no case is ordinary). They’re very personal for each person. Back at that moment when I got that result and I partnered up with John, he was a great marketer. We had a website back when it was thought to be cheesy. I was actually against it. I go, “We don’t need a website. Our clients don’t have computers.” So John took over running the business and running the marketing. He didn’t want to try cases. And then that just gave me free rein and he gave me full support to be in trial all the time.

And so one of the biggest impacts was Dorothy Darnell’s case. It allowed me to do some really good work, get my name on the map a little bit with that settlement. But then what John and I have been able to do over the last 30 years from there, I mean, you know, it’s mind boggling. Then I can go every few years with another landmark thing that allows us to get to another level and to another landmark thing to get to another level. As I was saying earlier, I think whenever I talk to younger lawyers, you’ve always got to keep hustling. I mean, I go back to “You’re always a hamster on a wheel.” I don’t care if you’re 30 years old or 75 or 80 years old, if you’re still practicing, you know, you’ve got to keep on grinding, which is why you have to love it. I don’t feel like what I do is a grind at all. I love what I do. I have a big passion for what I do. I look forward to being a bigger hamster on a bigger wheel. I’ve got no desire to get off of it. There’s no shortcuts. You just gotta put in the time. And I learned that going all the way back to the Baby Faye where I spent, you know, four days in the basement scouring through microfiche. Now, to some people, they’d rather put a toothpick in their eye than do that. For me, I’m like, “My God, this is amazing.” And I still have that same fire and desire today. Now, a gazillion years later.

Chad Sands: Trial lawyer Brian Chase. Thanks for sharing those stories. To learn more about Brian and his firm, visit their website www.bestattorney.com. Alright, I’m Chad Sands. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

Narrator: You’ve been listening to “Celebrating Justice” presented by CloudLex and the Trial Lawyers Journal. Remember, the stories don’t end here. Visit www.triallawyersjournal.com to become part of our community and keep the conversation going. And for a deeper dive into the tools that empower personal injury law firms, visit www.cloudlex.com/tlj to learn more.