Top Rated Personal Injury Attorney in Oxnard, CA

Bar/Professional Activity

• Past president of California Coast Chapter of American Board of Trial Advocates; Consumer Attorneys of California; past president of Ventura County Trial Lawyers Association; Public Investors Bar Association; American Bar Association; American Trial Lawyers Association; California Bar Association.    

Verdicts/Settlements

• Verdict of $89 million (record setting) against HMO for denial of treatment to cancer patient. First substantial verdict in Ventura County against a general aviation manufacturer for wrongful death. Verdict and attorney fees awarded in excess of $1 million plus permanent injunction ordering removal of defendant's berm which caused flooding to plaintiff's property during 2005 floods. Two different cases arising from 1998 flooding which caused a loss of support of two residential properties. Verdicts totaled approximately $1 million, including over $500,000 in emotional distress damages for occupants of homes. Verdict totaling almost $1 million to several vegetable growers whose crops were damaged by Cal Trans' spraying of pesticides. Substantial verdict for flooding of client's home caused by diversion of flood waters onto client's property by neighboring rancher. Substantial verdict for funds lost by an investor against the brokerage house including emotional distress damages, which nearly doubled client's economic losses. Subsequent to this case we represented 40 investors who were defrauded by Prudential Bache with regard to oil limited partnership. Our first two clients were awarded the entire amount of their damages at arbitration. Prudential Bache then settled the claims of the remaining clients for the full value of their claims. Other attorneys with similar cases settled their cases for a small fraction of their clients' losses. One of the very few verdicts against a physician for professional negligence ever awarded by a Santa Barbara County jury.  Reportedly the highest verdict recorded in Santa Barbara County for soft tissue spinal injury in a rear-end collision. Verdict was over 25 times the defendant's offer. $15.7 million for severely injured 35-year-old against construction companies performing repairs along State Route 118 near Moorpark. $3.6 million settlement of which over half was for stress and inconvenience to residents of a beachfront community against state agency and oil company for failing to maintain creek and drainage ditches.  $1 million for a couple who lost numerous oak trees, out buildings, and cattle, and suffered erosion from subsequent rains due to contractors who negligently started Lake Piru fire.

Honors/Awards

• Selected as one of the top ten National Trial Lawyers of the Year by Lawyers for Public Justice.

Educational Background

• Ohio University,  Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, 1963; UCLA, Juris Doctor, 1971

Other Outstanding Achievements

• Lieutenant, U.S. Naval Reserves, Active Duty, 1963-1968; duty included acting as Naval Advisor in Viet Nam; received Bronze Star and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross.

Pro bono/Community Service

• Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Ventura County; Ojai Valley Wine & Food Society; South Jetty Surfing Ambassadors