Jeff Foote: Driven to Help

Linda McCathern wasn't expected to survive after the Toyota 4-Runner rolled over, leaving her a quadriplegic, dependent on a ventilator to breathe and 24-hour care.

Her cousin had been driving them home to Portland, Oregon, after a family reunion, and Linda was excited:The U.S. government had finally granted permission for her to visit Libya to see her two older daughters, whom their father had kidnapped nine years earlier.

But now, fighting for her life, she turned to attorney Jeff Foote of Portland. He helped her win a jury verdict that provided the resources needed for her care. Ultimately affirmed by the Oregon Supreme Court, it was the first, and so far only, verdict against Toyota for a 4-Runner rollover.

Foote says, “I had a lot of help from a lot of good lawyers around the country....The nice icing on the cake is that Linda became a great advocate for the civil justice system,” helping defeat the referendum that would have allowed the state legislature to set caps on damages. “She debated the president of [a medical malpractice insurance company] and had him for breakfast.”

Impressed by her determination, Linda's lawyer offered to help her through the maze of misinformation, regulatory requirements, and Libyan demands that still barred her trip. She not only made the 23-hour voyage — with her nurse, mother, and youngest daughter — but since then “the girls have visited her twice” in Oregon, Foote reports.