Business, Banking and Commercial Litigat

Our trial lawyers have obtained multi-million dollar judgments, defense verdicts and injunctions on behalf of our clients in business disputes. We have persuaded jury members to impose substantial punitive damages, providing additional recovery to our clientele. Our lawyers have litigated and developed resolutions for claims involving banking and commercial disputes, contractual disputes, negligence, fraud, personal injuries to employees, employment litigation, government agency claims/citations/approval requests, partnership disputes and business purchase disputes.

Our lawyers have litigated the following representative Business, Banking & Finance cases:

Obtained a full settlement recovery of $750,000 from a major California bank for negligent payment of fraudulent checks, wrongfully drafted on the business account of our client. The bank failed to recognize and respond to classic fraud indicators inherent in these embezzlement transactions. An additional judgment against the embezzler for an amount of $499,000 was also obtained.
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Our lawyers won an unanimous $1.5 million jury verdict in a fraud action, on a case in which our client’s original counsel had tendered a statutory settlement offer of $25,000. Defendant had rejected that $25,000 statutory offer. Our client contended that his business partner had improperly diverted partnership funds and slandered his reputation. Significant punitive damages were awarded against the defendant for his wrongful and malicious conduct.
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This firm won an $8.4 million trial verdict in a construction defects/insurance bad faith action. Initially, a general contractor filed a lawsuit against our client for payment concerning the construction of a Church gymnasium and community center. This firm’s fact finding efforts provided our client with both a complete defense to the general contractor’s claim and a multi-million dollar trial verdict.
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Favorably resolved an industrial accident case involving the collapse of a scissor lift resulting in severe personal injuries to employees, including debilitating paraplegic injuries to one of the employees. Our client, a major overnight mail and freight shipping company, was the employer of the injured workers and owned, operated and supervised scissor lift activity. This firm’s client obtained a complete liability release, while other case defendants fully paid the settlement sum.
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A major California bank provided a full damage payment to our client, to resolve a negligence action we brought against the bank. Our client had stored a large collection of rare and valuable coins in a safe deposit box provided by the bank. The bank remodeled its vault without exercising ordinary care for belongings contained in our client’s safe deposit box, which was located within the vault. Following intense litigation, and not until the day of trial, the bank relented and provided our client a full recovery payment.
This firm successfully obtained injunction orders to prevent employees of our client from disclosing confidential company information, including trade secrets, customer lists and proprietary materials. The orders also prevented the former employees from recruiting other of our client’s employees.
Recovered a significant portion of damages resulting from an employee’s embezzlement scheme from a major California bank. Our client contended that the bank had wrongfully paid checks forged by the employee. This firm also brought action against the client’s former accounting firm. Our client contended that the accounting firm failed to detect classic fraud indicators apparent in audit documents. A significant portion of the company’s embezzlement damage was paid by the client’s former accounting firm. Evidence of the embezzlement was provided to the district attorney resulting in the employee serving several years in prison.
Recovered property and employee loans from former employees. A group of employees left a mid-sized company in tandem. These employees had taken educational loans and benefits conditioned on a work duration commitment. The departing employees failed to satisfy their work duration commitments. In addition, company equipment including a laptop computer had not been returned. Monies which funded the conditional loans were repaid by the employees and the company’s property was returned.
Defended the manufacturer of a chemical fire suppression system which serviced a deep fryer appliance. The deep fryer appliance failed resulting in a catastrophic fire which destroyed an entire restaurant building. Although our client’s fire suppression system failed to activate, this firm developed evidence to prove that our client was without fault.
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Obtained an injunction against a public entity project, which halted work, based on a failure by the public entity to abide by competitive bid and “or equal” statutes.
Obtained favorable negotiated resolutions for a corporate business client on a series of Department of Labor Standards Enforcement cases alleging breach of prevailing wage laws.
Defended client against OSHA citations for unsafe project site conditions. Our client prevailed at the hearing based on the evidence entered before the hearing judge. Significant OSHA evidence was excluded, leading to a defense judgment in favor of our client.
Successfully defended an international freight shipping company against claims of negligence relating to customer allegations of excessive tariff charges.
Defended successfully against multi-million dollar claims asserted by a major Southern California hospital against our client for the replacement of allegedly defective industrial equipment, lost profits and utility expense impacts.
Our lawyers won a defense verdict against a multi-million dollar delay and defects claim, involving a life/fire/safety system installation on a 54-story office building project (Private Judge Trial).

Prevailed at a bench trial on a breach of oral contract claim, after the court determined that a written contract between the parties was invalid. Firm lawyers persuaded the court that sufficient evidence of an oral agreement existed, even though the written contract could not be enforced.

Obtained multi-million dollar settlement on breach of oral contract claim. Defendant contended that no contract had ever been formed and the claim was entirely fabricated. A videotaped deposition of defendant became dispositive evidence in favor of our client. The defendant’s testimony was inconsistent and generally lacked credibility as compared to other witness accounts.