Paraquat and Parkinson's Disease Claims in Los Angeles
Paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s disease, reviewed from a downtown Los Angeles office by attorney Bejan Broukhim.
How a paraquat lawsuit works.
If you worked with or lived beside land treated with paraquat and were later diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, you need a paraquat lawyer in Los Angeles who will rebuild your exposure history, work with your neurology records and tell you plainly whether you have a claim. Broukhim Legal PC represents people with paraquat claims across Los Angeles County and California, and attorney Bejan Broukhim personally reviews each case.
On this page: Key takeaways · Why choose Broukhim Legal PC · Who may qualify · What the lawsuits allege · Records to gather · Deadlines to file · Compensation · What a paraquat lawyer costs · Related cases and locations
Key takeaways
- Paraquat is a restricted use pesticide, sold under names including Gramoxone. The diagnosis at the centre of these cases is Parkinson’s disease, and claims are also reviewed where a parkinsonian condition was diagnosed instead.
- A claim generally alleges that the risk was known or knowable, that it was not adequately warned about, and that your exposure contributed to your disease. Both halves have to be proved, and manufacturers dispute the causal link.
- Because paraquat is restricted, the paper trail is often better than people expect, including California’s pesticide use reporting records.
- You generally have two years to file, but for an injury that appears later the clock can run from when the injury and its likely cause were, or should have been, discovered.
- This is not a class action. Broukhim Legal PC takes these cases on a contingency fee: nothing up front, and no fee unless we recover for you.
Why choose Broukhim Legal PC for your paraquat case?
- Direct access to your lawyer. Bejan Broukhim personally reviews your case and leads its strategy. You can speak directly with him about your case, and if another law firm is ever brought in, that happens only with your written consent.
- Exposure rebuilt from records. Licences, California pesticide use reports, payroll, training and supply records are used to document where and when you were exposed, even without the cooperation of the farm or contractor.
- Neurology file reviewed. The date of diagnosis, the clinical findings, imaging and the response to medication are reviewed with care, and cases brought by surviving family are reviewed as well.
- Years of experience, fully licensed. Bejan Broukhim brings years of experience in California injury and mass tort law and holds an active California law license, State Bar number 183036.
- No fee unless we recover for you. You pay nothing up front, and if nothing is recovered you owe no fee.
- Ready for court. Every case is prepared from day one as though it will go to trial, so any settlement offer is measured against a case that is ready to be tried.
Who may qualify for a paraquat lawsuit?
In the United States paraquat has never been available to ordinary consumers, and it has been restricted to licensed, trained applicators for decades. In practice, almost everyone exposed to it was exposed in one of three ways:
- Through work: mixing, loading or applying it, or walking beside the tractor, often without real training, proper equipment or instructions anyone translated. Many people who come to us are farm workers from the Central Valley, Ventura, Oxnard or Bakersfield who later settled in Los Angeles.
- Through handling it for someone else who held the licence.
- Through living or going to school beside treated land. Neighbours of agricultural fields who never touched the product but lived next to it for years can be reviewed too.
On the medical side, a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease made by a doctor is needed. Many older people spent years with a tremor or with nerves without ever seeing a neurologist, and in those cases the first step is a proper evaluation. Where the person has since died, the claim is brought by the surviving family under California’s wrongful death statute. Immigration status does not affect the right to make a claim.
What do paraquat lawsuits allege?
The scientific argument is that paraquat produces oxidative stress in the dopamine-producing cells of the brain, the same cells that die in Parkinson’s disease. Manufacturers dispute the causal link, and it is argued in every one of these cases. What a claim generally alleges is that the risk was known or knowable, that it was not adequately warned about, and that your exposure contributed to your disease. Both halves have to be proved. Neither is assumed.
The cases are brought together before a federal judge, and they are consolidated in federal or state court rather than heard locally, so where you live in Los Angeles County does not limit the claim. Each claim stays separate, built on your own exposure, diagnosis and outcome.
What records should you gather for a paraquat claim?
- Licence and application records: the licence held by the applicator or the farm, and California’s pesticide use reporting records, which log commercial applications by location and date. Whoever applies must report month by month which product was used, on what crop and in which section of the county, so a worker’s exposure can sometimes be documented with public state records.
- Work history: employment and payroll records, training certificates (which were meant to exist and often do not), and supply and delivery records. Statements from co-workers help.
- Drift exposure: for people exposed by drift rather than by handling, the application records for the adjoining land and proof of the dates you lived or worked there.
- Medical file: the neurologist’s file, with the date of diagnosis, the clinical findings, any imaging, the medications prescribed and the response to them.
Agricultural work rarely involves one chemical only. Where glyphosate was also handled, or where firefighting foam and PFAS are part of the history, those exposures are reviewed together rather than separately. Broukhim Legal PC requests the records and rebuilds the work history itself.
How long do you have to file a paraquat lawsuit?
The general rule is two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury suit, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. For injuries that appear later, as Parkinson’s disease often does, the two years can run from when the injury and its likely cause were, or should have been, discovered. Because the discovery date is a question of fact, have your date confirmed at the start rather than assuming the clock has run out.
What compensation may be sought in a paraquat case?
- Medical expenses, past and future, including neurology care, medication, therapy and long term care.
- Lost earnings and loss of future earning capacity.
- Pain, suffering and emotional distress, and the loss of enjoyment of life.
- Punitive damages under Civil Code section 3294 where malice, oppression or fraud is shown.
- Wrongful death damages for the family under Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 when a person has died.
A claim’s value cannot be known before the medical picture is clear. It turns on the diagnosis, the care still to come and the strength of the evidence on exposure.
How much does a paraquat lawyer cost?
No fee unless there is a recovery. Broukhim Legal PC takes injury and mass tort matters on a contingency fee, so there is nothing to pay up front and the fee is paid out of what is recovered. If nothing is recovered, no fee is owed. The fee agreement is put in writing and signed before any work starts, as California law requires, and the costs of running the case are explained in that same agreement rather than left to the end. Your first conversation is free, confidential and carries no obligation.
Related mass tort cases and where we work
Broukhim Legal PC represents clients from its office at 550 S Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles and across Los Angeles County, including people who now live far from the fields where they worked.
Read about our other mass tort cases, see the locations we serve, or tell us about your paraquat exposure for a free case review.
Meet your Los Angeles paraquat lawsuit lawyer
Bejan Broukhim, Founder and Lead Attorney
State Bar of California, license number 183036
Bejan Broukhim brings years of California legal experience to injury and mass tort cases and personally reviews each one. He earned his J.D. at the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, served as a judicial extern in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and the Van Nuys Superior Court, and appeared in preliminary hearings as a certified law clerk with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Every case is prepared from day one as though it will go to trial.
Office: 550 S Hill Street, Suite 1390, Los Angeles, CA 90013, serving all of Los Angeles County and California. Get directions
Paraquat claims we review in Los Angeles
- Licensed applicators: Anyone who held or worked under a restricted use permit to apply paraquat.
- Mixers, loaders and tank fillers: The highest exposure role, often done without adequate protective equipment.
- Farm and field workers: Working in or re-entering sprayed rows, orchards and groves.
- Agricultural pilots and ground crew: Aerial application, loading and cleaning equipment afterwards.
- People who lived or went to school near treated land: Drift exposure repeated across seasons.
- Parkinson's disease after any of the above: Including a parkinsonian diagnosis short of Parkinson's itself.
Our process.
Consultation
A confidential first conversation. We review the facts, tell you where you stand, and set out the realistic options.
Strategy
Scope and fees agreed in writing, then a plan built from day one as if the matter will go to trial.
Resolution
We negotiate from a position of strength, and litigate aggressively when that is what your interests require.
See if a claim can be reviewed.
Takes 30 seconds. Confidential, and no obligation.
Confidential. No obligation. Submitting does not create an attorney-client relationship. By submitting, you agree that Broukhim Legal PC may contact you about your inquiry by phone, text or email. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out of texts. Consent is not a condition of hiring the firm.
Paraquat claims, answered plainly.
That is the usual position and it does not block a claim. Exposure, not licensing, is what matters. Mixers, loaders, field hands and anyone cleaning equipment are frequently the most heavily exposed people on a property while the licence sits with someone else entirely.
It is reviewed. Claims based on living, working or attending school beside repeatedly treated land are harder than handling claims, because the dose is lower and has to be built from the application records for the neighbouring property rather than from your own job. Harder is not the same as impossible, and it is worth having assessed.
California allows two years from the injury for most personal injury claims under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, but with a progressive neurological disease the clock is usually tied to the diagnosis and to when its connection to the exposure was or reasonably should have been discovered. A wrongful death claim runs from the date of death. Have yours assessed against the actual dates.
The first conversation costs nothing, is confidential and carries no obligation. It is mostly a working history: which properties and which years, whether you mixed, loaded, applied or cleaned equipment, or lived beside land that was treated repeatedly, and what a neurologist has since diagnosed. Because paraquat is restricted, licensing and California pesticide use records can then be requested rather than reconstructed from memory. If the exposure history and the diagnosis do not line up, you are told that and nothing further happens. If they do, the matter is taken on a contingency fee, so there is nothing to pay up front and the fee is paid out of what is recovered. If there is no recovery, no fee is owed. The fee agreement is put in writing and signed before any work starts, and the costs of running the case are explained in that same agreement.
It is contested, and that disagreement is the central fight in these cases. Published research links paraquat to oxidative damage in the dopamine-producing cells of the brain, and several studies report raised Parkinson’s rates among exposed agricultural workers. Manufacturers dispute causation. A claim is built on expert evidence applied to one person’s exposure history and one person’s diagnosis.
Still worth reviewing. Some claims involve atypical parkinsonian syndromes rather than idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, and the distinction affects how the medical causation evidence is built rather than whether a review is worth doing. Bring the neurologist’s records and let them be read.
You will be asked for the specifics: where and when you were exposed, in what role, for how long, the diagnosis and its date, and authorisation to collect your medical and employment records. Those records are reviewed, along with any pesticide use reports for the land involved, and you are told candidly whether the claim proceeds. If it does, it is filed, and where a coordinated proceeding exists it joins that.
General information about California law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by reading it. Deadlines and outcomes turn on the facts of your own matter, so have yours reviewed. By submitting, you agree that Broukhim Legal PC may contact you about your inquiry by phone, text or email. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out of texts. Consent is not a condition of hiring the firm.
Talk to Bejan Broukhim.
Stand up to corporate negligence. Contact the firm’s mass tort team for a free, confidential case evaluation.
Broukhim Legal PC. Personal injury and mass tort litigation, led by Bejan Broukhim from downtown Los Angeles.
Our Firm
Bejan Broukhim
FAQ
Insights
Contact
Broukhim Legal PC
550 S Hill Street, Suite 1390
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM PT
Attorney advertising. This website is an advertisement by Broukhim Legal PC, 550 S Hill Street, Suite 1390, Los Angeles, CA 90013. The attorney responsible for its content is Bejan Broukhim, State Bar of California license number 183036, licensed in California. The information on this website is general information, not legal advice, and is no substitute for advice about your own situation. Contacting the firm or submitting a form does not create an attorney-client relationship, so please do not send confidential information until the firm has agreed in writing to represent you. Every case is different, and no particular result is promised or implied. Contingency fees and costs: no attorney fee is charged unless there is a recovery. Case costs, such as filing fees, records and expert witness fees, are separate from the fee, and whether you would be responsible for them if there is no recovery is set out in the written fee agreement you review before signing. With your written consent, the firm may associate with or refer your matter to another law firm; any division of fees is disclosed to you in writing and does not increase the total fee. Images on this website are illustrative and, other than Bejan Broukhim, do not depict clients or lawyers of the firm. If a medication or medical device is mentioned on this website, do not stop taking it or have it removed without first talking to your doctor.
© 2026 Broukhim Legal PC. All rights reserved. · Privacy Policy · Disclaimer
Tell us about your matter.
A short, confidential review. We will tell you plainly whether there is something worth pursuing.
Confidential. No obligation. Submitting does not create an attorney–client relationship.