Meet Jalisa: Another Hensley Success Story

April 16, 2026

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2020, Jalisa, a 23-year-old design engineer, was visiting her future husband in Bloomington, IN when the couple decided to have dinner at a local sushi restaurant.

Because she had been diagnosed with an anaphylactic allergy to spicy food in college, Jalisa was extremely clear to the staff about her dietary restrictions, but that didn’t stop the meal they served her from almost becoming her last.

“Are You Sure This Was Fine?”

“I’m allergic to chili peppers and paprika, so basically anything spicy and fun is out of the cards for me,” Jalisa explained. “So we go there, and we do the whole spiel with my allergy, and I talk to three different people.

“The first person says, ‘Let me talk to this person.’ Second person: ‘Let me talk to this other person.’ Then the third person says, ‘I’ll go talk to the chef and let them know about this,’ and then she says, ‘It’s fine, we can accommodate you.’”

But despite Jalisa repeatedly pleading with the restaurant to leave the spice off her plate, “they very much did not. Because I took a bite and it felt like my mouth was on fire, and I knew that whatever they had had the sriracha, and my tongue was starting to swell.”

She immediately asked her server, “‘Hey, are you sure this was fine?’ She looks at me, and she says, ‘Absolutely, it was perfectly fine.’ I respond, ‘You’re wrong!’ And I pull my EpiPen out, and my husband and I administer it, and he just drove straight to the hospital.”

“Even the Doctors Were Afraid”

Jalisa would remain in the hospital for three days as the doctors desperately attempted to combat her anaphylactic shock. In addition to breathing treatments and “a bunch of steroids,” she was put on an epinephrine drip that required her to be “knocked out and intubated.”

While she can discuss this episode calmly now, there was nothing calm about it at the time: “Even the doctors were afraid that I wouldn’t make it through the night.”

Jalisa said that it took her “a couple weeks to fully bounce back” physically, but the anxiety she suffered lasted much longer, not to mention her growing frustration with the restaurant.

“I really just wanted my hospital bills paid for,” she recalled. “I’m not a super litigious person, but that was something that should not have happened to me, since it’s something that has been prevented specifically in other sushi restaurants.”

The Defense “Really Drug It Out”

Unfortunately, this sushi restaurant refused to take responsibility for its actions, which forced Jalisa to spend the next two-and-a-half years seeking fair compensation, although she didn’t have to spend it alone.

“I remember getting back to work that Wednesday and texting my dad to ask him if he could look into lawyers for me,” she said. “He told me that Hensley had better reviews than the other ones, so I called and one of the attorneys said, ‘Yeah, we will absolutely take your case.’ I think he called me back, like, an hour after I called and let the secretary know what my case was. And I was pretty dumbfounded because he called me from his car!”

According to Jalisa, this commitment to her case was crucial because “the defending attorney and insurance company really drug it out,” demanding a trial in the Monroe County Circuit Court instead of negotiations in a conference room.

“They Put You First”

Nevertheless, Hensley still managed to build a rock-solid case that conclusively demonstrated the extent of Jalisa’s damages and the restaurant’s liability for them, and the firm’s efforts ultimately paid off. A month before the trial date, the preponderance of evidence convinced the defense to request a mediation and subsequently agree to a substantial settlement.

Jalisa is deeply satisfied with the outcome of her case and believes that anyone thinking about hiring Hensley should “honestly do it. Their team is incredible. They’re smart, they’re capable, and you need someone who’s going to be in your corner.

“And they do just that. So, if you’re having qualms about it, you don’t need to have qualms. You don’t need to second-guess or debate. They’re going to do everything they can to help you. They put you first.”

Get in Touch with Our Indiana Personal Injury Lawyers

Hensley Legal Group, PC is a dedicated Indiana personal injury law firm whose experienced attorneys have been fighting on behalf of the wrongfully injured since 1998. If you’ve been hurt by somebody else’s negligence in the Hoosier State, get in touch with our Indiana personal injury lawyers to discover the remedies that may be available to you.

You can schedule a free consultation with a knowledgeable Indiana personal injury attorney by calling us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form today.