News Scrapbook 1988

Santa Ana, CA (Orange Co.) Orange County Reporter (Cir. D. ) NOV 29 1988 .Jtlloi'• P. C. B f.H. 1888 p '1f)l~

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co .) San Dieg_o Uni on (Cir . D. 217 ,089) (Cir . S. 341 ,840 ) NOV SO 1988

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re nta Ana, CA Orange Co.) (Cir. D. )

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ang_e County Reporter

SACRAMENTO - For new California Lawyers Association ~ident Harvey R. Le- . "feel" la eveeytmng. t vme, ther it's his basic approach to rep~ell: · in~laintiffs in tort litigation: "I belie"'.e m ca~es that work; cases ~t ~eel not ?nlY nght, b timportant "hesaid.HisJob,Levineadded, ~quires "living YDlll; life tm;?ugh someone else's life, feeling then" ~US.'.:::_:~nl Jaw· "It or bis reason for lea~g '".IJJUll'U · didn't feel right," be said. . . Orthesourceofhiseojoymentmperfonmng i magic tricks for children as "The Gr;eat Le- vini". When he sees awe in children s ere~: Le~e said, he can feel "tl!e magic ofmagic. "Feel" bas carried Levine a lon_g way. At 44, he Is a partner in the SanDieg~ on Levine, Steinberg~ DePasquale, a le

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USD back home for Cal Lutheran

/Insurance Reform Could Threaten

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Lawyers' Malpractice Coverage The mei.sure has an "escape clause" that rollback." While fiome Insurance's solvency allows inSUrers to raise rates after the rollback would not be tlulatened by Proposition 103, If they &hoW the state insurance commissioner O'Regan said, "Ila particular line is notprofit- the reduced rates present them with a "sub- able, you can't ~ct the company to continue stantial threat of Insolvency." Hadfield said, writing that line.' "We are P~aring our petition for an exemp- Fellmeth said, "I don't see why (any insur- tlon under ti\e Act." er) would leave California. There's a huge Robert Fellmeth, director of the Univi~o/ market here. Thre's lots of money." of Sap Diego•, Center for Public lnteres w- Passage of tilt measure apparently has im- and mernoe'r or the team of lawyers repre- peded the State Jar's effort to expand the mar- cnting Prop. 103 sponsors before the Supreme ket in Californit Sacramento attorney Kevin Court doubted H.adfteld's dire prediction. R. Culhane, cbahnan of the bar's malpractice

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In 1 er OVerage :18.lpractice and the filing of a claim. f ,., :,

Availability of Legal Malpractice Policies Could Be Restricted Proposition 103

r O _ • Fellmetb said higher underwriting stan- the trial bar circuit and one ~f . th e ~hrreof°s! ards would not necessarily be bad from a Jar law professors at the iuyers, cts ·msumer standpoint. D..iego,..lvhere be has taught tort and contra "If you have higher underwriting standards, ~for 17 years. . as written or 1upled with mandatocy insurance," he said, The multiface1:8d Levin~ ~ 0 i! on bad-faith !)eOple who are super, super high risks won't <:<>~b?rate~ on ~po~ ?O er "California ! practicing." . litigation, including e pron Of the possibility insurers would reduce cov-

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Young Toreros 2-0 after visiting 'Pit' ,;z..Cf65 . By Ric tucher Slaff Writer Somehow, facing Cal Lutheran on your _home cou~t can't compare with m~ti.ng the Umversity of New Mexi- co ID its ~owling hole of hoops known . Which is exactly what bas Hank Egan, the USD-£.oach,_uneasy. The teen-age~ who make up the better part of his roster surprised him b how they reacted in The Pit It h y him _wondering now what will ha:~ pen m a ~ompletely opposite envi- ro~ent like tonight's 7:30 game agamst Cal Lutheran ( 4-2) in the USD Sports Center. "That's got me worried for ver ~bv1ous reasons," Egan said "W! a~e to take this one very serious! . ~eve got a lot of things we've got fu ea;n to do well and consistently We re a long way from establishin · fe'::.i~es as a really good basketba11 as The Pit.

Pit, f~rmally called Univeraity Arena, IS impressive for several rea- sons. One is UNM's percentage there :-- .800_(294 wins in 367 games) enter. mg thIS season. Another is that it could be described as a miniature Rose Bowl, stuck in a 56-foot-deep hole, with a lid. All of wblch means th~ noise from the 17,000-plus fans swu-Is tornado-fashion around the court, much as it does around the Pasadena stadium's field, but with- out blue sky as an exit. The first-year Torero who handled the cacophony best may have been 7:om Iannacone, USD's new athletic director. Iannacone, who succeeded th~ Rev. Patrick Cahill on Sept. 1, pointed out a relatively new NCAA rule to Egan that prohibits pep bands from performing while the ball is in play. Egan passed the information on to the officials, who put a halt to it Now, the Lobos fans hardly n~d help numbing eardrums but tak. the b?nd out of the gam~ was one1~1 E~;in s pregame objectives. We had three things we wanted to

rage, Fellmeth said: "It would not necessar- y be detrimental. The attorney would have to ear some of the risk." Attorneys unable to find malpractice insur- nce could become more selective ln taking 1Ses, some attorneys say, to reduce the expo- u:e of their personal assets to claims. That, in rn, could reduce access to the courts for ,nsurners. Said Scott: "It's going to affect consumers matter what. Attorneys would become more lective." But he added the proposition could ve a beneficial impact if "more cases are ferred to more qualified attorneys " Culhane said lawyers "may be more selec- ·e in taking cases." He predicted that while es involving serious injuries and strong li- ·ty would not be affected, attorneys could more reluctant to take "novel caies" or se in which liability is marginal. onsumers could be affected in another way, . If lawyers do not carry malpractice Insur- ' consumers mi(F.t find it difficult to ob- monetary compensation for legitimate ims. Most California lawyers do not have as ch personal assets as many people believe. fan attorney is not covered by malpractia u-ance, in many cases "you can get a judg 1t, but it might not be collectible, Culham l.

ByTOMDRESSLAR He 0 likened }{adfleld's reaction to that of Insurance collll!littee, said negotiations with many insurers. ''They're screaming bloody major carriers to enter the state under the munler. The llk.Y la falling, Fellmeth said. bar's auspices have been sidetracked as the "Well, for theni, the sky is falling. The party's ~rs evaluate thepossible impactofPropo- ovcr." s1tton 103. Under Prop. 103 Fellmeth added, Lawyers The bar has ~en struggling since 1985 with Mutual and other Insurers would have to pub- what some calla crisis in the affordability and SAC~NTO -Although~ d hate over llclyjustlfyrateincreases. "Theydon'twantto availability oflawyer malpractice insurance. opos1tion 103 focuses on l~ impact on auto open their books," he said. After dropping a plan to require all attorneys Insur nee, attorneys and lllSurers ~y the Fellmethpredicted Lawyers Mutual and oth- to carry insuomce earlier this year, bar offi- tou~ re~onn m ure ~o could restrict the er insurers would not find it that difficult to clals began efforts to Increase the availability va1lab hty of malpr ct1c urance for Call- cro the "insolvency threshold" and win rate foruncoveredlawyers, who account for36 per- fo!;118 lawyers. . ,. . hikes after they roll back rates. He said the cent of th state's full-time private It co~ld be dcv tnhng, said Bob Scott, tale I urance Code defines insolvency as practitioners. p rtncr m the ~ont plalntlffs fi_nn of ~. • ns alrment" of ass ts. "The existence of Proposition 103 is a prob- h moff, Scott & B1dart a~d m practice - large carrier Home Insurance Co. !em" for the carriers in negotiations with the urancc exp rt for th ,. ar p1ans to continue operating In California. But bar, Culhane said. "They are waiting for ad- "1 °~ <. • ul put lhe bro r Dick O'Regan Indicated the firm could ministratiVll and ccurt interpretation." llty to obtam insurance furtb out of "thdra ,_ the tate • Pro "ti 103 reach," he id, wi w m,m. . 8 if posi on Culbaneslli.donemajorcarrierthatwas"se- makcs malpractice insurance for lawyers an riously considering coming into the state" sent But cons?mer advocates gen rnlly dlsmlsa unprofitable venture. . . a letter to bar officials sa · g the firm wanted thos predictions Ill! more evidence of what "Our overall conclus1on Is that we are still • · la · F tlal Im act th y call the iodustry'a Chicken Llltle response Interested In doing business In California, to evaluate the imt tive s paten P . to p sage of the luilph Nader backed 1~tla- gurdl s of what baj?pens with Propo tion Fellmeth cast dovbt on the motives of com- Uve. Insurer fo casts th t the sky Is falling, 103," O'Rcgan said. 'But we're a little con- panies tha say Pr1Jposition 103 inhibits their th Y Y, greatly exngg mted and proha- fused with how to work with it" desire to enter l.t.ll California market. bly rooted m n i r of opening thclr bookll to the He noted new carriers would not be affected public. ProntabllJty by the 20 pe:-cer.t rollback, since they would "The big picture Is that vcrybody J., looklng He said, "I don't know if (malpractice insur- Cor not to p entProp 103," aa1d an e) would be profitable with a 20 percen Please tum to P e 7 Harry Snyder, director of Co en Union's ' West Coast Regional Office "There'• a lot ol n ID- l'"u"'"'"· u1·vwmi; uy "'·-· •·- ·-, .··- • ---~~----..,. posturing and lying going on. The · 'merci- serious. It was always fun, Sometimes, when Insurance will not be available Is ,. h. n you're growing up with someone, there s con- , plain- fllct. There never was conflict wi~ Hruvel°" ~en the Levine assumes the CTLA pres1d1:11cy a a " time when the association once agam JS pre- DePas- paring to defend against anoth~r i:ound of er- cw Company dltlon, any n gative impact on malprac-

do " Egan sai · e felt we had to get back and stop their break. Sec- ond, we had to play good position de- fense to keep them off the bo d because they're so big. And thirtw~ ha,1 to stop the band from playing. (Ia~nacone) took care of one of our obJectives." t\.s for the freshman players E an said: "Maybe the fact that they•rfso h~~n~, maybe they didn't realize how It _was. They've never been ~hrough it before, so what the heck o they have to compare it t ? Maybe thef thought, 'All colle o. games are hke this.' " ge . Cal Lutheran, being an NAIA Divi- ;~~~1!I stool, presents a different . .m rom the Lobos. Instead of going mto the game with a can't-lose stanc~, t~e T?reros are practically in a ~.an t-wm-b1g-enough situation. h You have to live through a lot to _ave a good team, and we haven't hved through it yet.. E . "Th t• • • gan said a s still in front of us Th t' . hwhat I'm. concerned abo~t. ~! aven't arrived." 'd "W •

But the Toreros are closer today than they were when they left last :eek for their season opener in Al- r~querque. Then they were simply I .e parts of the USD campus - re- bu1lding. How good they could be wasn't certain. Few expected much ::;: from .their entourage of seven men, five sophomores, one jun- ior and two seniors than steady im- provement_ - no matter how that tr~nslated m wins and losses. wo victories and one weekend later, _it matters. Beating the Lobos o;. th:!r home court in the champion- ~-~f dmal of their own tournament 0 that. Beating them by 11 r;~n~ (64-53), after spotting them a ;, ead, may have done too much ' We a!l ~ent on the trip thinkin. Wei!, th1~ is going to get these u g, ~apti~d mto basketball and theg br time, Egan said "Th g th · en you go ere, and we end up h · d avmg success an you start worrying about 'W II' they can't think it's this easy : W , gomg to have some struggle~ soe re tups athnd downs, before we eve; commee oge er." Winning against the Lobos in The . 1.

Practice Guide: Bad Faith," and "Insurance Bad Faith Litigation." . And, by all accounts, Levine is 8!5° a ruce guy. His friends and court a~versanes say he hasn't straved too far from bis humble Brook- lyn roots, despite enjoying a much ~ore com- fortable lifestyle more than 3,000 away. Levine's resume includ~. multimillion-d?l- lar "udgments in personal-111J!11)' and_bad-faith msb-ance litigation, bis specialty. His success in the latter arena bas earned him ~e reputa- tion among jud~es, la~;rs 8:dd ~=':r company executives as Mr. a California." .. For instance, Levine won a $16 million ver- dict against United Pacific Insurance Co. w!er:_ he roved the firm concealed do~ents _a ' sho'l?,.,ed the plaintiffdid not comnut fraud, mis- representation or concealment. , Representing a young boy S1:8ven , Richardson Levine won a $10.5 million Judg- ment ag~t Humboldt County after Richard- , son suffered severe injuries falling from a , negligently designed bridge. Big Verdicts Against Big Companies . In two other personal-injury cases, Levine secured a total of $19.1 million in verdicts 1 against two corporate giants - $10 million against Chevron and $9.1 million against Gen- : eral Motors. l The Democrat Levine even won a $1 milli?n ! recovery for the Republican Central Comrrut- ; tee when Fireman's Fund Insurance__Co. 1 wrongfully refused to defend the political ~~ll~w plaintiffs lawyers_, ins~ce defense 1 attorneys andjudges descn~Levine as a bull- i dog litigator with reservoirs of ener!O' and ne u compassion. Tort litigation, said Levine, al- , coach, B 1 him to have "a significant rendezvous · Bliss, whj,°;:een what 1 believe in and what I do. I l programbelieve in accountability for ~ngful acts. If ,iyou believe in that accountability for corpora- 1 Hmmm tions, as well as individuals, you have that i 1 T

tlce Insurance for lawyers produced by the measure could be ameliorated by the pending ormation of a new mutual malpractice Insur- ance company sponsored by CTI.A. Called the California Attorneys Mutual In- urance Co., the firm hopes to obtain Its operat- ng permit soon. The company plans to market its product to nil California private practitioners. Still, bar officials and insurers are concerned about the possible impact of Proposition 103 on I wyer malpractice insurance. They say the measure, if it withstands an Insurer-launched constitutional challenge pending before the California Supreme Court, could threaten the solvency of one malpractice nsurance carrier and cause another to with- raw from California. And the chances P.re rcatcr, they say, that smaller carriers will pull out of the state. Passage of the initiative abo has hindered he bar's effort to bring more cam l"!I into the tale, according to bar officials. Proposition 103 could cause Insur Cfll io re- trict their coverage, which could further re- ucc availability for lawyers mhigh-r"..;k arens r practice, company officials say. And if attorneys are unable to find insurance, alpractice claimants may find it hard to re- over damages from their attorneys' personal sets. Consumers also could be hurt if uncovered wyers decide to become more selective in ng cases, say attorneys familiar with the alpractice insurance issue. The solvency of Lawyers Mutual - the ,tale's largest carrier with about 15,500 pollcy- olders - could be threatened by a provision Prop. 103 that requires commercial liability surers to roll back rates to November 1987 vels, and then cut them by 20 percent, said rd Chairman James D. Hadfield. olvency "Proposition 103 will be extremely damag- g in terms of our solvency," said Hadfield. le noted the firm's premiumswould drop from 5,607 to $4,069 under the measure's rollback rovision. "I don't believe we can continue to issue olicies if we have to charge at 1987 rates," adfield said. "I don't believe those rates were dequate, and I have some real doubts about he current vear's rates."

level forts to enact legislation establishing no-fault ·ords to auto insurance and limiting contin_gency fees. • H And of course, there's the perennial problem zy• e of trying to Improve the image of lawy~rs. DcPasquale said LeV!DI: "is going_to bfl!lg t:: the presidencya newnuss1on and oi:ien~tion. h ff Shcrnoff added "Harvey Is corrung mto the herno fl CTLApresidency'at the right time. Wed? need n:W~ls a leader who is going to turn aroun~,the unage y t the of lawyers. If anyone can do that, 1t s Harvey. cd ' lI He will be a "'""'"t CTLA president. He has a ~n . e . .,..H-' t . " 5 as they global vision. e s no myopic. , the San CTLA Priorities . . . d Levine Levine said one of his top prlonties as~½\ I Motors president will be to do as mu«;h as he can m bis ooe-yearstint to enhance the unage oflawyers. ..f;:~;d But he stressed, "I don't want a Madison 1 h Avenue, slick-type approach. l_want to explore ss" ave creativeways"toimprovetheunage.Onepo~- oo. 'bility said Levine would be to tell the public •!so ~as Uiat th~ true value dftrial lawyerwork....," lin. t1gabo~- jury) prevention, rather than compe~ co~peti Levine also said he wants to work wit 'rvtewelt ers to increase the emphasis o~,injury tionasawaytocutlegalcosts. Thew Levine legal costs Is to preven~ injury, not ta eo le's rights," he said. ugh guys p I.kvine and bis wife, Judy, have 1 on tests Al 7 Levine dren - Adam, 11, and yssa, • ' -TOM DR guys. '

No, but _they're farther down the road at this point than anyone ex- pected - even Egan. /

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San Diego CA (San Diego Co.) rn D1e~o Union ,81;- r· 3di'a04809)) · · ,

NOV 3 0 1988

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oreros alert nvals with an awful lot of poise." ~~:~~~:!;:~ thi I to~d our players that I think the ng t at happened most is that we w~:e up everybody about us," he th mk we alerted a lot of people h~~s 0 ii~::;::eWest. sa:,I . -

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"I can shocked J Dave Bli!

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those strok~ of coaching

the talent at his disposal, mind you. He has been openly pleased with the quality of his recent recruiting classes. But he did not expect results this impressive this soon There are, after all, se~en freshmen and five sophomores on his ballclub. And a lot of them play. That makes for a great deal of uncertamty at the Division I level. "There are players who make things happen, players who have things happen to them and players who don't know what the hell is happening. With upperclassmen, you usualiy know what category a player is in. Afreshman is in category four - all of the above." Nonetheless, Egan's young club rallied from an eight-point second- half deficit to defeat Lehigh (68-58) in its first appearance at the Lobo Classic. Lehigh competed in the NCAA Tournament last spring, one of seven clubs that made postseason appearances the Toreros will face before beginning West Coast Athletic Conference play. "They (the Engineers) played us awfully tough," Egan said. "We rrally had to struggle. I thought it helped us the next night against New Mexico. We competed pretty well." So it would seem. The Toreros held Lehigh and New Mexico to a combined shooting percentage of .396 and out-rebounded those teams 80-67. These are marks of a group ' not afraid to work hard. One of Egan's freshmen, guard Wayman Strickland, made the all- tournament team. Not bad for a young man who has played all of two collegiate games. So did a sophomore, center Dondi Bell, and a junior, forward Craig Cottrell. "Cottrell finally ended up in the right position," said Egan. "I had too "There are three kinds of players," Egan proposed.

The coach can only guess >Vhy his youngsters responded with such poise in the face of adversity. "Ma.yb~, since they're so young, they d1dn t realize how bad it was,. Egan said. "They've never been ' a~ywhere before, so what the heck did they have to compare it to? A good percentage of them played

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:oou~~~ague. We'll have more

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passes requested than we

ha;e m th e past."

_he_Toreros have become a curiosity, at least. It's a start.

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?n:1e people may have missed it m the blizzard of information that makes up a

Mo nd ay sports section after a Sunday of the NFL. But you can bet almost every college basketball coach in the Umted Stat_es noticed, many of·tbem spillmg their coffee in surprise. . USD 64, New Mexico 53. Hey Joe did you see this one" Do you bei· ' it? · 1eve The University of San Diego beat N~w Mexico at The Pit? By 11 points? Out-rebounded the Lobos too? After being down. 13 _0 ? • No matter how many times tbev - - • Toreros play Cal Lutheran in home o~ne~tonight-c. 2 blinked, the outcome refused to change. As a ~nscquence, some perceptions may have to. Results such as this are difficult to ignore The Lobos rarely Jose m the · always filled 17,000-plus-seat arena they ~a!l home, no matter who the oppo:ition may be. It was there that they defeated top-ranked Arizona last season. New Mexico certainly did not

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expect to lose to a rebuilding team whose record was 11-17 last year whose leading scorer graduated ~nd whose conference freshman player of the year transferred. The L-0bos are good. They were ranked 24th nationally by one preseason publication The Lobos have two 7-footers 7-0 Rob Loeffel-and 7-2 Luc Longley not to mention a 6-7 player, Cha;lie Thomas, whose leapmg ability a_llows him to play well above the rim.

many-guards, so I moved him to forward . Now he's playing well. It See Lockwood on Page C-2