Brian S. Kabateck

Los Angeles

Personal Injury, Mass Torts, Disaster Litigation & Class Actions

When the floodwaters rise, or the water bill spikes, Brian S. Kabateck comes to the rescue.

As the founder and managing partner of Kabateck LLP in Los Angeles, he is a nationally recognized plaintiff attorney, fighting for consumer rights and protections as well as helping draft California's stringent Consumer Privacy Act. In his role as the class counsel representing ratepayers suing the L.A. Department of Water and Power, he has navigated a labyrinthine overbilling scandal, which also involved previous class counsel who engaged in a scheme to defraud the court and the class. Kabateck has also managed to obtain an order disgorging one lawyer's fees and settled with other lawyers for the return of their fees.

"We still are actively investigating and litigating with some of the other lawyers," he said. "We are hoping that this case will finally come to an end with the DWP and that we can issue a final report. It's a massive criminal investigation, state bar investigation and then our investigation into exactly what happened here. And it's been going on now for four years, and it's still a mess. But the settlement itself is in good shape, and we believe it will properly benefit the customers."

In forthcoming watershed cases, Kabateck has taken the helm against flood districts in Central California, representing approximately 1,500 people who lost their homes or experienced major damage during the recent torrential winter rains when levies and flood control channels overflowed.

"The counties didn't maintain these channels," he said. "They knew that this was a potential danger, and they didn't fix it. ... One of our arguments is that the counties didn't pay attention to the working-class farmers and labor people as much as they would to their rich coastal citizens. So that's definitely an issue."

Most recently, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kabateck reached a $1.7 million settlement with Orange County and a $4.5 million settlement with San Diego County in a class-action lawsuit that helped restaurant owners recuperate operational fees that they were required to pay during mandated closures.

--Kathryn Stelmach Artuso