| Denise Dickey |
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Denise Dickey, was admitted to practice in California in1983. She began her legal career with the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, where she handled numerous court and jury trials. Ms. Dickey has substantial experience in general civil litigation matters involving breach of contract, business litigation, insurance defense, construction defects, product liability, municipal liability, medical malpractice, insurance fraud and subrogation. She has considerable expertise in medical matters and in the evaluation of large damage claims. Ms. Dickey graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a Juris Doctor degree (J.D.) in 1983. She joined the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, where she handled pre-trial matters in both misdemeanor and felony cases. She has prosecuted more than 500 preliminary hearings involving a range of serious criminal cases. Through tenacity and thorough preparation, Ms. Dickey has successfully forced reluctant and evasive witnesses to tell the truth at deposition by confronting them with inconsistencies between their testimony and the information contained in pertinent documents. In many cases she has obtained admissions from personal injury plaintiffs that they had pre-existing injuries where the witness had previously denied such matters under oath. In one case a witness admitted on the record that he had committed insurance fraud, that he was part of a conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and that the accident for which he made a claim had never happened. In 1985, Ms. Dickey entered private practice. She defended almost all of the litigation matters involving the City of Inglewood and its police officers. Approximately 90 percent of these trials and all of the arbitrations resulted in defense verdicts. Ms. Dickey is adept at eliciting the truth from evasive witnesses by pointing out inconsistencies between their testimony and pertinent documents. She has obtained admissions of pre-existing injuries from personal injury plaintiffs who had previously denied such injuries under oath. In one case, a witness admitted, on the record, that he had committed insurance fraud, that he was part of a conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and that the alleged accident had never happened. As a civil litigation attorney, Ms. Dickey has consistently obtained excellent results for her clients, using her strong litigation and communication skills. While handling subrogation matters for the City of Santa Barbara, she used negotiation and alternative dispute resolution methods to achieve an 87 % recovery of the total losses paid out in cases where personal injury claims were filed against third party. All of these cases were settled without having to go to trial. In cases in which she represented private plaintiffs and defendants she successfully resolved over 90% of those cases by settlement without having to go to trial. As a defense attorney, she obtained voluntary dismissals of actions against several cities, including an action in which the plaintiff alleged violation of a Federal anti-discrimination statute. Ms. Dickey has obtained summary judgments in numerous cases against municipalities, as well as private persons and companies. She obtained a dismissal by summary judgment in a $2 million action against a municipality arising from an accident involving a pedestrian and automobile. In collaboration with Jonathan S. Morse, she wrote the briefs for a motion for summary judgment in which the court upheld the validity of a pre-accident liability waiver signed by two paying passengers on a sightseeing flight. She collaborated on a motion for partial summary judgment in a business dispute in which the Court found as a matter of law that the opposing party had breached the requirement to use best efforts to sell a product, thereby vitiating that party's right to continue selling the product. Ms. Dickey has a Certification in Negotiation and Mediation, and has been a Judge Pro Tem in Santa Barbara County and an Arbitrator in both Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. She is listed in Marquis' Who's Who in American Law, Ninth Edition, and the National Directory of Who's Who in Executives & Professionals, 1996/1997. |