MARK BOCCI is a personal injury lawyer in Lake Oswego, Oregon. In the 1980s, he took the case of a Filipino-American high school student who had suffered a grievous injury playing football. Kneed in the head by an all-state fullback, "Richard" suffered headaches and dizziness for two days, then collapsed with massive brain injuries. The doctor who saved his life said, "I'm not sure I did him a favor." Richard had very few motor skills left and required 24-hour care.

Bocci decided to pursue a product liability case against the manufacturer of the helmet. This was a risky approach, since all football helmets go through an impact- testing process before being marketed. The helmet in question had passed the test. With such a sanction at hand, manufacturers are usually able to defend themselves.

Sifting through 20,000 pages of discovery documents, Bocci found nothing incriminating. After an exhaustive search, however, he did uncover two other deaths and several cases of brain injury involving the same helmet. It turned out the manufacturer had quietly settled these cases to avoid publicity. The company also offered to settle with Richard's family now.

But Bocci's concern had been aroused. Pushing further, he finally turned up the former CEO of a rival manufacturer who had a story to tell. The CEO explained that the helmet in question was fitted with a "front in-sizer" to adjust for head size. This accessory came in two different sizes. One had passed the impact tests but the other--a one-inch in-sizer--had failed. Richard had been

By the time the case came to trial, Bocci and his partner, Jim Pippin, had invested six years and $350,000 of their own money in the case. "My wife and I had just bought our dream house," says Bocci. "Then we realized we couldn't keep it. One night we sat down with our two teenage daughters at the dinner table and told them we had a choice--either we could stay where we lived or sell the house for Richard's sake. I'll be eternally proud of them that they didn't hesitate a moment. We moved."

Three years later, an appeals court finally approved the $11.2 million verdict Bocci won before a jury. The company immediately withdrew the helmet from the market. "We believe we prevented numerous other injuries," says Bocci, who this year was inducted into the Inner Circle of Advocates, the exclusive society of the nation's top 100 trial lawyers. "Richard is making tremendous progress," he adds. "He's got a 300-word vocabulary and is completely ambulatory. Full-time therapy has been a tremendous help."

TRIAL LAWYERS over the last couple of decades have become the mainstay of the Democratic party and the nemesis of the Republicans. A few years ago, Senator Howell Heflin, the Alabama Democrat, announced memorably that "Jews, labor unions, and trial lawyers" were the financial pillars of his party. Trial lawyers certainly have the wherewithal to make major donations. The Manhattan Institute has just issued a condemnation of the plaintiff bar titled "Trial Lawyers, Inc." The profession rakes in "almost $40 billion per year in revenues--50 percent more than Microsoft or Intel and twice those of Coca-Cola," trumpets the study. "[It] might well be the most profitable business in the world."