Wylie A. Aitken

Insurance Bad Faith, Aviation, Automobiles, Product Liability, Business Tort Litigation, Wrongful Death & Major Personal Injuries

Wylie A. Aitken opened his firm in 1990 to handle personal injury cases; he’s grown the practice into a nine-lawyer shop.

“I’d call it a boutique, but that sounds too Republican somehow,” laughed the lawyer, who is active in Democratic politics and chairs U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Central District Judicial Advisory Committee. “Dianne and I have been friends for a long time. Bottom line is that I always wanted to be on the side of the injured and oppressed.”

In December, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter of Santa Ana named Aitken as one of three prominent plaintiff lawyers to lead several consolidated class actions related to the oil spill off Huntington Beach in October 2021.

“That is our coastline. It’s central to our community,” Aitken said. “I grew up here. As a child, I surfed there. Now I’m proud to be involved in this significant environmental action.”

First detected on Oct. 1, 2021, the spill from an underwater pipeline fouled coastal waters with thousands of gallons of crude oil after a container ship with its anchor down may have dragged the line for more than 100 feet, breaking it open.

“Judge Carter wants us to get going,” Aitken said in December after he was appointed lead counsel alongside Stephen G. Larson of Larson LLP and Lexi J. Hazam of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP. East Meets West Excursions et al. v. Amplify Energy Corp. et al., 8:21-cv-01725 (C.D. Cal., filed Oct. 18, 2021). The complaint contends the spill continued for several days, “wreaking its havoc on marine life, kelp, dolphins and boats.” The plaintiffs suffered business and commercial losses related to sea operations; the suit is designed to recover for the losses, the complaint says.

Aitken said that in early skirmishing, shipowner defendants have petitioned for a liability limiting action under admiralty law. “We think we can show there should be no limitation because the ships were not seaworthy, but either way, we think Judge Carter can deal with the pipeline operators and the shipowners simultaneously.”

Last year, Aitken took on the state Republican Party and won a hotly contested $11 million settlement on behalf of a father of six from Riverside who was left disabled with a spinal cord injury in a freeway accident when his motorcycle was struck by a vehicle driven by a paid campaign worker, an unlicensed driver, working for a Republican assemblyman. Ruehle v. California Republican Party, 30-2017-00912044 (Orange Co. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 10, 2019).

It took five years of litigation before Aitken could show that the state GOP was actively involved in the assemblyman’s campaign as part of a joint enterprise.

“The Republicans demanded that the settlement documents make clear that the money came from insurers because they didn’t want the impression that these plaintiff Democrat trial lawyers emptied out their coffers,” Aitken said.

– John Roemer