A few notable cases which illustrate the broad spectrum of our practice include . . .

Estate of Adams v. Gomez: In 1998, John Scott and Leroy Lounibos, Jr. represented the heirs of a San Quentin prisoner, Mark Adams, who was shot and killed by guards during a fistfight with another inmate on a small exercise yard. The lawsuit challenged the policy of using deadly force to break up fistfights in the California prison system in violation of the 8^th Amendment. At the time, California was the only prison system in the civilized world that allowed the use of deadly force to break up inmate fistfights. After the the jury awarded the plaintiffs a $2.3 million-dollar verdict, the number of shooting incidents and shooting deaths in the California prison system decreased dramatically.

Allen v. City of Oakland: In 2002, John Scott teamed up with John Burris and Jim Chanin to represent individuals who were falsely arrested, and often beaten, by a group of Oakland police officers known as the Riders. The plaintiffs negotiated a settlement package which included over $11 million dollars and an agreement by the Oakland Police Department to institute numerous reforms relating to the manner in which police officers were trained, supervised and disciplined. In addition, an independent monitoring team was appointed to review the Department’s compliance with the Agreement.

Glenn-Davis v. Oakland Police Department: In 2006, the firm teamed up with John Burris to represent a woman who was passed over for a captain position because she was pregnant. The firm had to first overcome an initial trial-court decision awarding summary judgment to the defendant by prevailing on appeal in the Ninth Circuit. When the case came back to the trial court, a federal jury awarded the plaintiff a $2 million-dollar verdict against the department for gender discrimination.

Krupp v. California Department of Corrections: Richard Krupp was chief of the personnel automation section at the Department of Corrections. On his own initiative he prepared a statistical summary of sick-leave and overtime costs at the 30 plus prisons in California. There was a significant disparity between the prisons’ overtime costs. He made recommendations as to how this multi-million dollar expense, over budget, could be remedied. Shortly after reporting this information up the chain of command, he was reassigned to a do-nothing position with no access to this information. Mr. Krupp brought a retaliation complaint to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and also provided the Bureau of State Audits and the California Legislature with the information. The OIG found that Mr. Krupp had been the victim of retaliation. He then hired our firm to pursue his case in the courts. In October 2004, the firm negotiated a $500,000 settlement. Recently, Mr. Krupp was promoted by Governor Schwarzenegger to be in charge of audits and compliance for the Department.

Laurie Q. v. Contra Costa County: The firm teamed up with Darren Kessler and Michael Sorgen to represent a class of foster-care children who alleged that the County intentionally delayed their adoptions, failed to implement a child-specific case plan, and ultimately did not provide for their special needs in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The plaintiffs had to prevail on several motions to ultimately convince the defendant to settle the case in 2005 with a $750,000 distribution and agreement to implement policies and training to better serve foster-care children with special needs.

Nash v. City of Richmond: The City of Richmond’s sewer line backed up and flooded the home and garage of Dorothy Nash, an 81-year old woman from Ghana. When Congressman George Miller’s office referred her to us in 2005, the City had been paying for her temporary housing, a hotel room, for almost six months. During that time, however, the City refused to properly remediate her personal property or home. And, she became depressed and malnourished. The firm assisted Ms. Nash by filing a lawsuit and engaging experts. We were able to negotiate a $250,000 settlement, and more importantly, get Ms. Nash’s house and personal property cleaned so that she could move back to her home where she had lived for 30 years.

Simpson v. Crestview Behavioral Health: A physically healthy 46-year old man with undifferentiated schizophrenia and mental retardation died in a mental health rehabilitation center because of a polypharmacy overdose prescribed and administered by the defendants. The firm represented his elderly father and brought a lawsuit, engaged a team of experts specializing in various disciplines, and prevailed on pre-trial motions before the parties settled for $225,000.

Veal Connection v. United States Dept. of Agriculture: The Veal Connection was a successful family-owned specialty meat company in Sonoma County that was subject to regular inspections by the USDA. Because of discriminatory enforcement of some regulations, the company complained to various government officials. As a result of these complaints, the USDA literally ran the company out of business through retaliatory “enforcement” actions. A First Amendment retaliation complaint was filed in federal court. John Scott and Leroy J. Lounibos Jr. were brought in to try the case. In 2003, a jury awarded our client $1,750,000 in damages. This was believed to be the first verdict obtained against the USDA and its employees for retaliation by a regulated business.

In addition, our firm’s lawyers have handled over 100 appeals and were counsel of record in more than 25 published decisions.

See a list of our firm’s reported decisions in PDF format.