Serving clients in civil litigation since 2003.
Three hundred and fifteen insurance companies are named in one of the most significant qui tam cases in U.S. history. The multi-billion-dollar lawsuit filed on behalf of the federal government, California and several other states alleges that auto insurance carriers...
On September 11, 2015, the New York Times, published an article regarding an agreement among ten major automakers to make automatic braking systems standard in all vehicles. While there was no timetable set for implementation of the systems, once they become standard...
In Hartford Casualty Insurance Company v. J.R. Marketing, L.L.C., (August 10, 2015) 2015 WL 4716917, the California Supreme Court was faced with the question that when an insurer provides an independent counsel to its insured under a reservation of rights,...
By Katherine Marklink The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has held that under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) a fiduciary can enforce an equitable lien against specifically identified funds that remain in the beneficiary’s possession; but that...
By John Sciacca Recently in Carr v. Rosien (2015) 2015 DJDAR 8147, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in California ruled that an adverse possessor’s lis pendens was void because the adverse possessor failed to mail it to the address shown in the assessor’s role,...
By Robert Bennett On August 4, 2014, the California Supreme Court released a decision in Carolyn Gregory v. Lorraine Cott. At issue for the court was whether an in-home caregiver was precluded from suing her Alzheimer’s patient when she was injured in the course of...
On April 30, 2013, the Third Appellate District Court of Appeals published Corenbaum v. Lampkin holding that “evidence of the full amounts billed for a plaintiffs’ medical care was not relevant to the amount of damages for past medical services, damages for their...
On April 8, 2013, the Fifth Appellate District Court of Appeals published James Luttrell v. Island Pacific Supermarkets, Inc., where it affirmed the application of Howell v. Hamilton Meats (2011) 52 Cal.4th 541, to medical damages paid by Medicare and Medi-Cal. In the...
In each insurance policy, California law implies a covenant of good faith and fair dealing. This implied covenant applies to insurers and requires them to settle within the policy limits where there is substantial likelihood of recovery in excess of those limits. On...
In a decision to provide more clarity regarding plaintiff’s special damages, on March 8, 2012, California’s Second District Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Sanchez v. Brooke, 204 Cal.App.4th 126 (2012). In its ruling, the Court extends the rationale and...
