Reviews

I was in an extremely minor parking lot incident nearly two years ago. A woman opened her car door into my vehicle as I pulled into the spot next to hers. Both cars suffered minor damage; we exchanged insurance information and went on our respective ways. The damage was so minor, in fact, that I wasn't even going to have my car repaired. The lady seemed a little "off" so I called my insurance company to give them the heads up that she might file a (frivolous) claim. She did. Facts and photographs demonstrated that her claim had no merit, so my insurance declined to pay. So what does she do? She sues me in my private capacity. I am an attorney - a litigator to boot - but it was very shocking and scary to be personally sued! In JP (aka small claims) court in Texas - literally the "wild west" of potential outcomes! I was flabbergasted that a jury of my peers was going to take time out of their busy schedules to decide whether the financial burden of the parking lot incident of 2014 (we started to lovingly refer to the case as the "Trial of the Century") should be borne by me. Cristina Nahidi of Wright & Greenhill, P.C took the case. (In JP court in Texas, litigants can be represented by counsel - not so in California. But I digress.) It took nearly TWO YEARS for it to go to trial. In that span, a good amount of briefing took place. Settlement offers were made. An initial trial actually took place but the judgement was vacated because the plaintiffs failed to serve us with notice and thought that we'd just blown it off like a cop might do in traffic court. Cristina's motion to vacate that verdict was granted without question. Countersuits were filed and strategically nonsuited. Lots of hurry up and wait until a trial date was set, which gets us to May 2016. All in all, a LOT of stuff for a case where the total amount at issue was less than $2000. And that is why I am compelled to write this review. At no point did Cristina treat this matter - which was important to me personally but not worth a whole lot from a dollar perspective - like it was not worthy of due care and attention. She made the very good point to me (and to the jury!) that $2000 is still a lot of money and what's more - it's hard earned money. If the plaintiff doesn't prove their case, they shouldn't recover anything. Plain and simple. No splitting down the middle and awarding them half "just because." Cristina did an amazing job navigating this crucial point and impressing it upon the jurors. It won the day. Her courtroom demeanor, jury selection strategy and process, opening statement, direct and cross, and closing were phenomenal. Her delivery and preparation befit, like I've said, a much larger matter. She managed to be serious yet likable enough so that we didn't appear overly polished or resourced in the face of pro se plaintiffs who were getting flustered and saying some ridiculous things in a last ditch effort to win. We won unanimously - all six jurors sided with the defense and we did not have to pay a penny. Sweet justice. Was it super stressful to be a client? Hell yes. I am going to avoid being on that side of the pleading paper going forward. No more parking lots for me. Just kidding. I'm still on the road. Be afraid. Be very afraid. If I had a similar matter or even something much larger that was in Cristina's wheelhouse, I wouldn't hesitate to call her first. She was great. And we WON.