Portland resident Norma Brainerd (then Swanson) purchased a 1994 Nissan Altima specifically because it featured a passenger side air bag. She felt that feature would help make her and her children safer. At the time, there had been little in the news about air bags posing a risk. In December 1995 — just three nights before Christmas — Brainerd was the passenger in her Altima when the driver misjudged a turn and ran over an eight inch curb. The impact was minor, but the vehicle's air bags deployed and Brainerd was forcefully struck in the face. She was properly seat-belted and had her seat halfway back in the seat track. The air bag broke her nose, gave her a concussion and left her blind for six weeks. She regained the sight in her right eye but is legally blind in her left.

Following the accident, Brainerd began looking for an attorney to hold Nissan accountable for her injuries. "It wasn't just for me. I wanted to get those cars off the road." A friend led her to Lawrence Baron. "I was impressed with his determination," she says. "He really did a good job all the way to court. He dug into it and kept unearthing more and more cases where the same thing had happened to other people."

In his research for the case, Baron found evidence that the Altima's air bag had been designed to strike the occupant while still inflating. It flew out at the occupant at a speed of 159 miles per hour. All this was contrary to a basic premise of air bag design — that a bag be fully inflated before the occupant falls into it. Baron discovered over 20 other women and children who had sustained serious eye injuries in accidents involving 1994 and 1995 Nissan Altimas. He also learned that while the driver side air bag had tethers, the passenger side did not. Tethers are straps inside the bag that prevent it from traveling too far back into the vehicle. He learned statistically that air bags were not needed in low impact collisions.

In November 1998, Brainerd's case proceeded to a jury trial in U.S. District Court in Portland. "As we got close to the trial date, I was really scared," Brainerd recalls. "But Lawrence demonstrated this quiet determination. He helped me get through with his sense of assuredness and confidence." The trial began but on the third day the case settled.

Brainerd remained frustrated the cars were still on the road and other people stood a chance of getting hurt. In August 2002, Brainerd and her husband traveled to Washington, DC to participate in a Public Citizen news conference calling for the recall of 1994 and 1995 Altimas. "In the years since my accident, numerous other people have been injured by this same air bag," she told reporters. "Nissan remains aware of the defective product but has done nothing to recall and replace it. How many defective air bags will unexpectedly take the precious vision of other innocent victims before Nissan recalls this air bag?"

On April 24, 2003, Nissan finally announced a program to recall the Altimas and replace their defective device. Many observers believe the pressure Baron and Brainerd brought against Nissan was significant in moving the car company to initiate the recall.