Personal Injury

Personal injury cases can involve either physical injury, emotional (psychic) injury or injury to reputation. I have handled a variety of cases involving defamation, automobile accidents, false arrests, false imprisonment, fraud, food contamination, slips-and-falls, trips-and-falls, industrial (work-related) injuries, bar brawls, product defects, construction defects, medical injuries and a host of others.

In addition to personal injury cases, I handle claims involving consumer protection issues, employment discrimination, civil rights (First Amendment) and more.

Personal Injury

• Dangerous Property
• Wrongful Death
• Personal Injury - Defense
• Personal Injury Mediation/Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
• Motorcycle Accidents
• Truck Accidents

Accidents & Personal Injury

• Construction Site Injuries
• Slip & Fall
• Sports Injuries

Car/Auto Accidents

• Whiplash
• Felony Auto Accident

Character Injury

• Defamation
• Invasion of Privacy
• Libel
• Slander

Dangerous Products/Product Liability

• Design Defects
• Manufacturing Defects

Financial Injuries

• False Charities
• Frauds, Scams, Hoaxes
• Identity Theft
• Pyramid Schemes
• Telemarketing

Intentional Injuries

• Assault & Battery
• Child abuse
• Dog Bites & Animal Attacks
• Domestic Violence
• Police Misconduct
• Sexual Assault

Mass Accidents

• Airplanes
• Buildings
• Mass Transit - Bus, Train, Subway
• Ships & Boats

Professional Malpractice

• Financial Malpractice
• Legal Malpractice
• Religious Malpractice

Employment & Labor Relations

If people feel they are the victims of unfair treatment in the workplace, I can advocate on their behalf. I handle wrongful termination cases with an emphasis on discrimination based on religion, race and other factors. Although I accept and handle a wide variety of cases, my practice's focus is on free speech cases where clients have been terminated for expressing themselves in a particular way. I also accept cases in which individuals may have been wrongfully denied a promotion, or required to perform a task for which they may not be suited, or have witnessed illegal activity abetted by the employer. I also consult with businesses accused of wrongful policies or conduct and will defend them against illegitimate accusations.

Employment & Labor Relations

• Mediation/Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

Employees

• Age Discrimination
• Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Compensation, Benefits, & Pensions
• Disability Discrimination
• Discipline/Suspension
• Emotional Distress
• Employee Rights
• Employment Contracts
• Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
• Government Employees
• Immigration Reform & Control Act of 1986 (IRCA)
• Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
• Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA)
• Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA)
• Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA)
• Race Discrimination
• Racial Harassment
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
• Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866
• Sex Discrimination
• Sexual Harassment
• Termination
• Uniformed Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act
• Whistleblower
• Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification (WARN) Act
• Wrongful Termination

Employers

• Affirmative Action
• Age Discrimination
• Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Compensation, Benefits, & Pensions

CA, Jun 1988
Bar Number: 134545

CO, Nov 2000
Bar Number: 032412

United States Supreme Court; United States District Court, Northern, Central and Southern Districts; All California Courts of Appeal; All California courts.

State Bar; California Consumer Attorney's Association; Los Angeles County Bar Association; Ventura County Bar Association; Risk and Insurance Management Society; The Federalist Society; Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney; The Thomas More Law Center allied attorney; Individual Rights Foundation allied attorney; Republican National Lawyers Association.

I hold a Rutter Pass, which provides me with a year's worth of continuing legal education on a wide range of legal subjects. I attend CLE seminars on all topics in my fields of expertise and, in my spare time, download and watch seminars on my computer or my iPhone (Yes, I am that attached to my iPhone).

Los Angeles/San Francisco Daily Journal (Forum Section):
• New Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Expect Resolution of Church-State Issue 6/29/05
• Will The Real Civil Rights Lawyers Please Stand Up? 5/16/05
• Surprise, Democrats: Janice Rogers Brown Epitomizes Progressive 4/25/05
• New Pope, New Spiritual Ammo Against Gay-Marriage Advocates 4/21/05
• Courts Allow Dying Woman to Bear Left Wing's Cross 3/25/05
• Sometimes Execution is Best for Worst of Worst, Even for Young Killers 3/9/05
• Churchill Matter Exposes Inequity that Horowitz is Trying to Correct 2/15/05
• Rather Has Major Responsibility for Broadcasting Bush Story 1/13/05
• School District Should Teach Nation's Vaunted Christian Principles 12/21/04
• Christians Must Remain Strong Against Opposing Tidal Forces 11/26/04
• Anti-Sectarian Police Erode Respect for "Traditional Values" 11/5/04

In 2007, I represented a well-known celebrity, who was attacked and beaten by security guards at a restaurant after another person falsely accused him of starting a brawl. The case was settled just before trial was to begin.

In 2008, I represented several clients, who were singled out on the basis of the content of their Christian literature and told they could not distribute the literature in a public park. One of the members of the client organization was arrested and placed in jail merely for expressing his spiritual viewpoint to others in an inoffensive manner. This is something one would expect to happen in Russia, Cuba, North Korea, China or Venezuela, but not here. We settled the case with the City of Los Angeles, sparing it the embarrassment of explaining why my clients were deprived of their liberty and First Amendment rights.

In 2009, I represent a client in a Texas lawsuit in which a group of Muslim organizations claim they were indirectly defamed by the client's published remarks on his web site. This is a free speech case in which the Muslim organizations are claiming that any criticism of Islam injures their reputation, even though they were never mentioned by my client in his web publication

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California and Colorado

For the better part of my 20-year-plus career, I was retained by insurance companies and corporate risk managers to defend their clients and businesses against a broad variety of claims. In 2007, I opened my current practice with an eye toward vindicating the rights of Christians against a range of societal abuses. The spark of this enterprise was the removal by the County of Los Angeles of the Latin cross from its official government seal, which for decades represented a benign (and largely unnoticed) tribute to the region's religious communities and the religious heritage of a region named by a Catholic monk after a tiny church in Assisi, Italy (de la Reina de Los Angeles sobre el rio de la Porciuncula, or translated, The Queen of the Angels on the River of the Small Parcel, "The Angels" for short). I filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court seeking to reverse the county's decision, which had been reached without a referendum and on the basis of threatened litigation by the ACLU. Inspired by the need of Christians to resist the ever-growing attacks on them and their faith, I subsequently represented a Christian woman who was denied a work promotion when she refused to work on Sunday mornings so that she could attend church worship services. I settled her federal lawsuit in Northern California. I also settled a case on behalf of a well-known evangelical group against the City of Los Angeles after one of its members had been arrested simply for handing out Christian literature at a local park.

My practice also serves as general counsel and offers advice concerning its First Amendment activities to an organization that evangelizes to the Muslim community. I represent well-known authors and political commentators whose advocacy of conservative social and political issues makes them targets of physical abuse and threats when they speak on college and university campuses. I also represent individuals who operate web sites and are sued because of the content they publish or whose web sites have been censored, disrupted or removed.

Although I am a Christian and unapologetic advocate of Christian and conservative causes, my practice is not limited to representing Christians or conservatives. Indeed, I would no more discriminate against a client's political or religious beliefs than I would wish them to reject me as their attorney on the basis of my beliefs. I offer every potential client the benefit of someone who has adopted a principled and ethical case management approach and who promotes their interests as a strong and supportive advocate.

Lawsuits can be emotionally demanding on a client. Merely filing one can be an upsetting experience, and a lawyer needs to be sensitive to the client's emotional needs.

Lawyers are notorious for boasting about their trial successes, but such boasting perpetuates the common misconception that great trial lawyers try (and win) lots of cases. That's like saying that all baseball players routinely go more than nine innings and ultimately win the game. Why not win it in regular innings? As a lawyer, that means finding a less costly, less emotionally punishing (for the client) path to resolving a case.

Lawyers also have a tendency to exaggerate about the big one they caught, like a fisherman hoisting a prize fish, but the big trial win is generally the product of a costly enterprise in which the client is often less satisfied than the attorney and battered by the experience.

The fallacy in this form of self-promotion is that it disguises the truth about what lawyers actually do and how good lawyers succeed at what they do. The best lawyers avoid trial, or as the adage goes, a good lawyer never has to try a case.

Anyone who has actually participated in a trial (statistically half of whom wind up the loser) resists repeating the experience. You've heard it said that the only winners at trial are the lawyers. Unfortunately for the client, there is a lot of truth to that. Just as it is more desirable to avoid war through diplomacy, or to avoid divorce through marital counseling, or to avoid corporate dissolution through reorganization, it is far less painful and risky to avoid trial through dispute resolution and settlement.

I believe that the clients' interests are better served by early dispute resolution. In the long run, this saves them substantial attorney's fees and litigation costs, but, more importantly, it saves them a lot of grief. At the outset of a case, clients, however, tend to be heavily emotionally invested in their case and fail to sense the wisdom of this approach. They prefer adopting a "scorched earth" approach, hoping to punish their adversary. Not only can such a strategy be expensive, it promises no guaranty of success and a strong likelihood of failure, particularly when the defendant's insurance company is picking up the tab for the defense. The lawyer's job, done correctly, disabuses clients of such a reckless approach. Making sure the client understands the risks and rewards involved in prosecuting or defending a case is integral to my practice.

Knowing the defense side and having worked with claims representatives is useful knowledge to have when representing plaintiffs. For almost two decades, I was retained by insurance companies and corporate risk managers to defend their insured and businesses against a broad variety of claims. I was California counsel for a nationwide janitorial service and a popular restaurant chain, litigating numerous cases involving premises liability injury claims. I also represented contractors, architects, engineers, security companies, product manufacturers and distributors, homeowners, retailers and others.

I served for several years as a Judge Pro Tem in Los Angeles County in small claims, where I patiently listened to each side attempt to support its case. I always made it a point to explain my ruling so that the losing side fully understood my reasoning. I have served as an arbitrator, where I successfully resolved numerous contentious attorney-client fee disputes. I have devoted hundreds of hours of Pro Bono work on behalf of Christian advocacy organizations.

Gigi.

(310) 765-6328

I am available to meet in person with clients during traditional office hours and will make myself available after hours depending on the client's needs. I am always available by telephone and, preferably, e-mail.

Yes

Yes, my fees are negotiable. Depending on the case, I may charge a flat fee, an hourly fee or accept the case on contingency. There are many ways to structure fees to assist the client.

My rates are negotiable.

Yes, I will provide a free consultation, usually by telephone, for up to an hour. I will also review documents if not too voluminous and prefer that they be scanned and e-mailed to me as a .pdf document.

Negotiable.