About David Oganesyan
David Oganesyan is a trial lawyer with Trial Lawyers for Justice, where he represents people whose lives have been permanently changed by preventable harm and whose stories deserve to be heard in a jury trial.
David is part of a new generation of trial lawyers committed to protecting the constitutional right to trial by jury. He believes the courtroom remains one of the few places where an ordinary person can stand on equal ground with powerful corporations, institutions, and insurance companies. To David, the civil justice system works best when ordinary citizens are trusted to decide what is right and what accountability requires.
A lifelong Californian and the first lawyer in his family, David earned his law degree from California Western School of Law in San Diego. While in law school, he competed on the school’s trial team, received the Distinguished Advocate Award, and graduated cum laude.
For David, this work is not about case files or medical records alone. Those documents rarely capture the full impact of a loss. A serious injury can change the direction of a person’s life, their relationships, their future, and even their sense of identity. David understands that giving human loss a voice in the courtroom is one of the most important responsibilities of a trial lawyer.
Proven verdicts and settlements at Trial Lawyers for Justice
These results are credited to Trial Lawyers for Justice. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
Carrie DeJongh, 40, of Hull, Iowa, died on June 9, 2015 after receiving iodinated contrast dye for a CT scan at Sioux Center Health, when the physician treating her gave her an antihistamine but did not immediately check her vital signs or give epinephrine. Her family sued Sioux Center Health and Dr. Roy T. Slice for negligence, and both defendants denied the allegations. A Sioux County jury in Orange City returned a $29.5 million verdict on June 13, 2018, covering DeJongh's pain and suffering before her death and loss of consortium for her husband and four children. No appeal, remittitur or reduction has turned up since.
In February 2017, a physician assistant at a UnityPoint urgent care clinic in Des Moines diagnosed Joseph Dudley with the flu despite a negative flu test, sent him home on Tamiflu, and never ordered a complete blood count. Two days later Dudley was hospitalized with bacterial meningitis caused by an undetected heart valve infection, spent eight days in a medically induced coma, and suffered a series of strokes that left him with permanent brain damage, hearing loss, vertigo and nerve damage. A Polk County jury tried the malpractice claim against physician assistant Melanie Choos and Central Iowa Hospital Corp, doing business as UnityPoint Clinic, over a week in November 2022 and returned a $27,000,000 verdict, all of it noneconomic damages. The defense moved for a new trial afterward and UnityPoint said it was weighing an appeal.
Richard J. Pellock, 80, had surgery to remove bladder cancer at UnityPoint Health Finley Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa in January 2015, and the operation succeeded. Days later he needed a second procedure for a post-surgical complication, and the nurse anesthetist handling that procedure induced anesthesia without first emptying his stomach despite signs he had a full one. Pellock aspirated, developed aspiration pneumonia and respiratory failure, and died. His widow and son sued the anesthesia group and a Dubuque County jury returned a $10 million verdict against it in September 2017, awarded entirely as loss-of-consortium damages. Defense lawyers were reported as saying they would challenge the verdict, but no Iowa appellate decision in the case has ever been published.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
