Serious Personal Injury Litigation:
• Premises liability / Dangerous Condition on Property. Serious Personal Injury to Student Resulting from Negligent Supervision and Failure to Maintain School Grounds in Safe Condition. Represented seriously injured student in lawsuit against California university alleging negligence. Case settled after jury selection on first
• Government claim / Auto injury case. Moderate impact rear-end automobile collision leaves client with spinal disk bulge that ultimately requires surgical intervention. Defendant, an agency of the United States government, refuses to compensate client even for medical costs and lost wages arguing that the impact was so minor that it could not have caused injury and that the client’s injuries resulted from a pre-existing injury. After extensive discovery and case development, including the use of medical and accident reconstruction experts, the case settled on the first day of trial for $69,000.
• Motorcycle injury case. Substantial recovery for high-tech professional client knocked from his bike while riding on the freeway. Recovery included 100% of lost wages and bonuses.
• Brain-injury case. Substantial recovery in hotly contested mild traumatic brain injury case caused by high speed rear-end auto accident.
Real Estate Litigation:
• Failure to disclose – represented buyer. Failure to Disclose Property Damage in Residential Real Estate Sales Transaction. Represented home purchaser that discovered extensive mold and water damage to his residential property after purchase. Discovery conducted during the lawsuit revealed a conspiracy between the listing agent and seller to conceal property damage sustained during a prior flood. Case settled after mediation with significant contributions from the seller, listing agent and buyer’s agent.
• Failure to disclose – represented seller. Construction Defect and Nondisclosure Claims Against Developer of Multi-Family Property. Represented closely-held developer of multi-family properties in lawsuit for construction defects and nondisclosure. After extensive law and motion plaintiff’s defect claims were eliminated based upon the operation of the statute of limitations. Plaintiff’s remaining nondisclosure claims were settled shortly thereafter for a nominal sum. After tender of claims to the client’s insurers, the client’s legal fees and the settlement itself were substantially funded by its insurance carrier.
• Quiet title / Partition action. Represented co-owner of residential estate in long-term dispute with family members that were also co-owners. After extensive law and motion and discovery matter was concluded without trial on terms favorable to client. Settlement allowed client to sell property with court supervision to assure the cooperation of his estranged family members.
Business Litigation
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• Breach of Joint Venture Agreement and Unfair Competition Claim. Represented business sued by Joint Venture partner after partner became dissatisfied with jointly developed product. After law and motion and discovery the Joint Venture Partner agreed to drop all of its claims in return for my client’s agreement to dismiss its cross-claim. This outcome represented a practical and relatively inexpensive resolution of this distracting and potentially costly lawsuit for the client.
• Breach of contract and defamation. Client sued by major Los Angeles-based real estate brokerage for breach of contract and defamation as a result of innocuous comments made in e-mails. Our vigorous defense including extensive discovery exposed the plaintiff’s claims as baseless attempts to intimidate through the improper use of the court system. After more than one year of litigation and an expenditure of legal fees and costs well into six figures the plaintiff dropped all claims voluntarily without receipt of any compensation from our client.
• Internet harassment. A business client received persistent harassing emails from an anonymous “free” email account. We filed suit against the harasser’s email address (e.g., Doe v. Harrasser@freemail) and subpoenaed the free email provider and then the ISP of the person that registered for the free email account. Ultimately the trail led back to the harasser. Our client received a personal apology from this individual.
