Representative Cases

“Civil trial practice” is a very broad term, and Fergus, a law office reflects that breadth. Gary S. Fergus has handled high-value civil trial cases and garnered substantial settlements for clients in many different areas of the law, including:

• Class action, brought on behalf of all freelance writers, for copyright infringement for unauthorized posting of work by online services (co-lead counsel for plaintiffs). $18 million dollar settlement / verdict. Read more about copyright law practice.
• Representing the court appointed Futures Representative of 30,000 future asbestos victims in an asbestos company bankruptcy trial. Resulted in a trust established with over $2.1 billion dollars in assets to pay present and future asbestos victims. Read more about litigation and appeals.
• Represented retired and former long service employees of a defunct Law Office in recovering damages against one of the largest Law Offices in the world involved in the demise.
• Proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regarding refund liability for electric utility customers in California and the Pacific Northwest in the summer of 2000. $1.5 billion dollar settlement / verdict.
• Successfully challenging Charles Schwab & Co., Inc’s corporate policy of ignoring the rights of minor children in their Uniform Gift to Minor’s Act custodial accounts and permitting unauthorized trading and withdrawals from those accounts after the minor reached the age of majority.  Charles Schwab & Co., Inc’s policy was contrary to the written statements of Chairman Charles R. Schwab in Schwab custodial account brochures and contrary to state law.  This policy was applied to over 500,000 accounts nationwide and was based upon Schwab’s management’s efforts to protect shareholder profits at the expense of minor children’s rights.
• Representing the court appointed Futures Representative of over 8,000 future asbestos victims in asbestos company bankruptcy trial.  As a result, a trust with over $200,000,000 in assets was established to compensate present and future asbestos victims.
• Punitive damage cases involving medical devices, pharmaceutical products, pesticides, contracts, real estate, and biotechnology clinical trials. Read more about business and commercial law.

List of Recent Cases 

Wee v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., Case No. C-04-00616, United States District Court, Northern District of California.  Judgment entered August 4, 2006.

In re J.T. Thorpe, Inc. Case No. CV-05-2412, United States District Court, Central District of California.  (created $200 million dollar trust after trial)

In re Western Asbestos, 313 B.R. 456 (Bkr. N.D.Cal 2004)(created $2.1 billion dollar trust after trial)

Puget Sound Energy v. All Jurisdictional Sellers of Energy et al., 103 FERC ¶61,348 (June 25, 2003)(found no evidence of market manipulation in the Pacific Northwest by Enron)

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. v. Sellers of Energy and Ancillary Services, 113 FERC ¶61,171 (November 15, 2005) (Settled after trial for $1.5 billion dollars reduced by bankruptcy dividend)

In re Literary Works in Electronic Databases Copyright Litigation MDL No. 1379 (S.D. N.Y. September 28, 2005)($18 million dollar settlement)

In re Brobeck Phleger & Harrison LLP, Case No. 03-32715 Order Approving Settlement After Evidentiary Trial (March 14, 2005)(confidential settlement amount)

References

The Honorable Charles B. Renfrew

Contact Fergus, a law office

If you are involved or may be involved in significant civil litigation and may require representation, please contact Fergus online or call (415) 537-9030. Fergus is available for representation in and around San Francisco, California, as well as nationally.

If you are involved in a legal matter that involves, or could involve, significant civil trial work, we invite you to contact us online or call (415) 537-9030. Fergus, A Law Office is based in San Francisco, California, representing clients throughout the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco, including the cities of Burbank, Pasadena, Riverside, San Jose, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Mateo, Berkeley, and Sacramento.