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JURY 9/30/2026 AWARDS $11.5 MILLION TO SHAWN STEEL LAW FIRM CLIENT
Our client, 69-year-old Gary Swisher, a hard-working longshoreman, was riding his bicycle early one morning along Pacific Coast Highway in Harbor City. He did not know it would be his last ride.
It was still dark. At a stretch of sidewalk raised for years, the front wheel caught. Gary was thrown somersault-style onto his head. The fall left him with serious, permanent traumatic brain injuries.
The defect was visible as far back as 2012 and appears in Caltrans’s own photographs. In 2019, another rider crashed on the same defect, filed a claim, and sued. Caltrans had inspected the location 17 times before Gary’s accident and still did not repair it.
This was not ordinary negligence. It was gross negligence.
A year ago, Caltrans could have settled for $750,000. It refused and offered $20,000. After years of litigation, depositions, and testimony from more than ten experts, a Long Beach jury awarded Gary $11.5 million and found Caltrans 95 percent responsible. The verdict is 575 times that offer. The jury assigned Gary only 5 percent of the fault.
The lesson is plain: when Caltrans controls a site and has repeated notice of a danger, it must act.
The Shawn Steel Law Firm and Kramer Trial Law are proud of their joint work and of what it secured for Gary Swisher.
Verdict:
- Future medical specials: 1.5M
- Past pain and suffering: 2M
- Future pain and suffering: 8M
- Total = 11.5M
- Apportionment of liability: Caltrans: 95% vs Gary: 5%
- Total for Plaintiff: $10,925,000
Verdict: September 30, 2026
The Hon. Judge Sabina Helton, presiding
Long Beach Superior Court.
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