Douglas N. Silverstein

A key issue at a wrongful termination trial was whether the defense had sent the plaintiff a warning notice about failing to meet his sales goals. Silverstein said his client told him he'd never seen the notice until he found it attached to his termination letter. "Then we had a 'Perry Mason' moment," Silverstein said. The defense introduced document creation metadata from the notice to prove it had been drafted long before the termination. But close examination of the metadata showed Silverstein something different.

"We blew it up and showed it to the jury," Silverstein said. "It was clear they had found an old document, then modified it and saved it 30 minutes before they sent the termination notice. It was our story versus the defense story, and my client had the better story. And the jury believed it, 12-0."

Silverstein backed up the document creation evidence with a cross-examination of one of the defendants, one of the business' owners. "He was so rattled by our evidence that he started answering opposing counsel's attempt to rehabilitate him by giving testimony favorable to my client," Silverstein said. "Opposing counsel had to stop asking questions. It was awesome, and it was pretty much game over."

The jury's verdict on March 22: $273,00 in economic damages, $225,000 for emotional distress — and $1 million in punitives for Silverstein's client. "The jury told us that after that cross-examination, they just didn't believe anything the defense said," Silvertein said. "And they told us that our damages requests seemed very reasonable. They were impressed that we didn't over-ask." Silverstein said the win was especially sweet because he had substituted into the case on the morning trial began and had to try the case with very limited discovery and no depositions. Rinehart v. Bank Card Consultants, 30-2014-00699599 (Orange Super. Ct., filed Jan. 23, 2015)

Along with a heavy docket, Silverstein is on the board of governors of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles and other bar groups. He said he works closely with bar and court leaders and state legislators on court funding and access to justice issues. "With term limits, you sometimes have to reeducate these lawmakers that the judicial branch is a co-equal part of government," he said. "Funding is essential if folks are going to be able to use the courts."

— John Roemer