Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff
Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff is a personal injury and class action law firm located in Sacramento, California. The firm has eleven attorneys, including its three founding partners, William A. Kershaw, C. Brooks Cutter and Eric J. Ratinoff. All three of its founding partners were named Northern California "Super Lawyers" in 2010 by the Super Lawyers Publication.
Civil practice
The firm represents plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits, mass torts, and class action lawsuits. They focus on catastrophic accidents, such as motorcycle and auto accidents, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and on insurance bad faith, medical malpractice, products liability, employment practices liability, and consumer fraud.
Notable cases
The firm's mass torts and class action attorneys have taken lead roles in a number of high profile cases. Bill Kershaw took part in leading a legal team that won an $87 million settlement in 2007 against shipping corporation United Parcel Service on behalf of rank and file UPS delivery drivers. Brooks Cutter served on the Plaintiff's Steering Committee for a medical device products liability lawsuit against Guidant Corporation for an implantable defibrillator that was recalled due to its potential to malfunction. The issue was highly publicized, as one of the defibrillator devices short-circuited in a 21-year old patient, causing the college student's Untimely death.
Brooks Cutter served as co-lead counsel in a class action lawsuit against California State Automobile Association (CSAA) on behalf of policyholders who were wrongfully charged a deductible when they made claims arising from collisions with uninsured motorists or hit and run drivers. The lawsuit resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement. In 2007, the firm filed the first class action complaint against the nation's largest accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (Campbell v. PricewaterhouseCoopers), and one against the fifth largest accounting firm, BDO Seidman (Nguyen V. BDO Seidman), with Bill Kershaw as lead counsel. The lawsuits seek to recover millions of dollars in overtime pay for its past and present entry level accounting assistants who are fulfilling their apprenticeships and have not yet been licensed or certified by the state of California. The suits are still in litigation; however, in March 2009, a judge agreed that the California associates at PwC are not exempt from overtime according to the 2001 wage order and granted summary judgement in the plaintiff's favor.
In 2010, the firm filed a class action lawsuit against BMW, citing dangerous defects in the fuel pump for BMW's new N54 turbocharged engine. They've advocated for seat belt use on Greyhound buses, representing passengers injured in bus crashes. And recently, they've represented hundreds of college students who claimed they were scammed by for-profit trade schools that left them undereducated, with no job prospects and in thousands of dollars of debt.
The firm has become well known for suing technology giants for fraudulent activity toward consumers. In 2008, the firm achieved a settlement with Verisign, Inc., a company providing secure websites on behalf of businesses, for alleged misrepresentations with respect to the level of that security. In 2009, they sued Zynga for unauthorized charges relating to "special offers" featured in its social networking games, including the popular "Farmville," which is played on sites like Facebook and MySpace. And in 2010 they filed a complaint against Apple Computers and AT&T over an alleged design flaw in the newly released iPhone 4, after which Apple agreed to provide protective bumpers for the iPhone4 in an effort to remedy the design flaw.
Currently, the firm is representing 70 individuals who were implanted with faulty hip devices that were recalled by Johnson & Johnson Company, DePuy Orthopedics, in August 2010. The lawsuit prompted a story covered by ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, raising questions AbOUT the U.S. Food and [...] Administration's medical device approval process.
Community
Lawyers in the firm have become known in the community for their involvement with various charitable organizations. One of the firm's partners, Eric Ratinoff, serves as President of the Board at Sierra Forever Families, an organization that helps children and youth in foster care find permanent families, or reunite with their biological family.
The firm has been noted for their use of social media to both promote their firm and help community organizations. They use their Facebook firm page to support local charities, donating $5 for every new "like" their page receives to a different organization each month (with a monthly limit of $5,000.00).
In 2011, they sponsored former professional football player Damon J. Smith in his cross over into AMA Supercross.