Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP partner Erika Contreras has been named to the Daily Journal’s list of Top Women Lawyers for 2024. The annual list recognized and honors the best 100 women lawyers practicing in the state of California.
Ms. Contreras is a seasoned personal injury attorney with more than 15 years of experience handling wrongful death motor carrier liability cases. In the Daily Journal profile featuring Ms. Contreras, the publication highlights several of her recent results, including a $5 million settlement in the wrongful death case of Prisco Aviles who was tragically killed when an poorly placed, designed and swing metal arm gate crashed through the window of his work truck –impaling him–while he was driving through the Nigel Shores Community neighborhood.
“Aviles was important to me because it involved a father, a husband, a beloved family member who died leaving behind his loved ones,” said Ms. Contreras in an interview with the Daily Journal. “Because the only witness to the incident died, it took a lot of piecing together to figure out how exactly the incident happened.”
Additional noteable results featured by the publicatio and obtained by Ms. Contreras include an $8 million settlement for a young woman who suffered severe injuries due to a collision with a speeding police cruiser, and an $15.75 million settlement obtained for the mother of Adilene Carrasco, an 8th grade student who died from an asthma attack at a school in the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District.
“What was tragic about this incident is that Adilene was at school where she was supposed to be serviced by trained adults when she had a medical emergency,” Ms. Contreras said. “As discovery progressed, it was clear that the school staff failed her on so many different levels. As a mother of four, I can’t imagine losing a child. That’s why it was important to ensure that this situation never happened again. As part of the settlement, the school district approved non-economic terms that included additional training, policies and procedures to ensure the safety of the students.”
Daily Journal subscribers can read the full article featuring Ms. Contreras here.