“I have always said and will continue to say that TLC changed my life for the good, forever. I attended my first regional in January 2017 and have attended two subsequent regionals since. I have not had the pleasure of attending the 3-week college but will certainly do so in the near future. This verdict and many more to come are all dedicated to the college. It all came about by nothing other than pure LOVE for my client.” – Omid Rejali, TLC Seminar Student

Omid Rejali is a TLC student who opened his criminal and civil practice, Rejali Law Firm, in San Diego right after passing the bar in 2014. He attended his first TLC seminar in 2017 and has attended two subsequent regionals since in addition to being an active member of his TLC Local Working Group in San Diego. Omid has seen a big change in his case preparation and trial work since he started attending TLC events. “This experience has been life-changing for me just because I longed for connection. It has made me feel much more confident and from there on I got better at trying my cases.”

The Story

Omid took a case for a 30-year-old immigrant who is a behavioral interventionist and works with autistic children. At the time of the crash, she had recently given birth to her 5-month-old daughter. His client is from Colombia and they built a strong connection off the bat because of her immigrant status and that she had moved to the US with her family in her teen years. “I am not necessarily an immigrant myself, but our stories were similar in that my family is from Iran. I was born here and lived in Iran between the ages of 7 to 17, and then moved back to the states.” Omid also connected with his client because she works with children who suffer from autism. He also suffers from a mental disorder and loved the fact that she has dedicated her life to such a practice.

This was a car wreck case that occurred when the defendant made an illegal u-turn directly into the path of Omid’s client. Some of the danger points in the case were the lack of objective evidence; asking for this amount of money; and being able to continue to do her job, with not much change from prior to the collision. “This case was soft-tissue but there wasn’t really much going on except that the pain was real. The pain was an issue she had to deal with on a daily basis.” Omid spent a great deal of time with his client to discover the story. He used prominent psychodramatic skills with his client to understand the impact this crash has had on her life. Omid believed the only way he was going to tell her story to the jury was to build a close relationship with her so that she felt comfortable and vulnerable enough to share emotional details of her life and the wreck.

The Trial

While Omid went through jury selection, he focused on being completely open with the jury and shared his danger points on a personal level. He told the jury everything from the beginning to make sure they were on the same page. As Omid went through his opening statement, he maintained his credibility and made sure everything was laid out during the presentation of his evidence. He approached his direct exam with more TLC methods and specifically, some psychodramatic tools. “I attended the direct examination seminar this year in California and worked on this case specifically during the seminar. It completely changed the way I conducted my direct exam in trial. We took the jury with us through her doctor’s appointments and the other issues she was dealing with. I wanted the jury to presently visualize what had happened and the pain she was still currently working through.”

One of the most important aspects Omid retained in the front of his mind during this trial was to remain human as TLC has taught him, and he took that all the way to the end of his trial. He dedicates his record-breaking verdict to the Trial Lawyers College. “It all came about by nothing other than pure LOVE for my client.”

On April 5, 2019, a San Diego jury returned a record-breaking $292k jury verdict for Omid’s client on this soft-tissue case.

Want to learn methods that work and how it ‘all begins with you’? Join TLC at an upcoming seminar.