Criminal Law

• Criminal Defense
• Wrongful Death
  In cases of wrongful death, you should be listing the names of all the legal heirs. These are not the people who are listed in a will or trust, but rather people who have blood or marital relations with the decedent. These are the people who would inherit, or would have inherited, from a decedent if that individual died without a will ("intestate"). It does not matter if the person had any money to provide to those heirs; this list is predetermined by law as a list of the individuals.
• Sex Crimes
  $90,000: Doe Victim vs. Matian (Van Nuys 1993): Defendant dentist attempted to rape patient when confined to dental chair. Defendant claimed that the alleged assault never occurred and that plaintiff was extorting money; defendant was acquitted in related misdemeanor case on that theory. Settlement was entirely paid by malpractice carrier after failure to "reserve rights" to non-coverage. (Defendant was later convicted criminally and sentenced to prison in a subsequent similar case handled civilly by this office.)
• Misdemeanors
• Drug Crimes
  Mr. Kapp's client, a well-respected Los Angeles County-based physician, was convicted of a drug crime during his medical residency in 1983 and was sentenced. At that time, his medical license was automtically revoked. He completed all of the terms of his criminal sentence in the mid-1980s and began to rebuild his life and maintain his medical knowledge.
• Assault
• Murder
  $185,000: [Name withheld due to Privacy concerns] vs Deirmenjian (Long Beach, 2005): Unique medical malpractice against a psychiatrist for failing to notify police after his obsessed, stalking patient (the plaintiff's estranged husband) assaulted plaintiff (who was also his patient and had informed defendant of the assault), leading allowing the husband to "unsuccessfully" attempt to murder plaintiff. Husband was sentenced to long term incarceration.
• Extortion
  While the State Bar can be useful in very limited ways that are consistent with its legal mandate, no client should EVER or under ANY circumstances threaten a lawyer with a State Bar complaint in order to get the attorney to do something. This is a crime (extortion)

Employment Law

• Workers Compensation
  The doctor restarted his practice in the early1990s, completing his board certification requirements and a respected masters' of public health (MPH) while becoming a highly respected physician in his religious and professional communities, including workers' compensation where he would become a very busy and highly sought "neutral evaluation" whose opinions were invariably accepted by workers' compensation judges.
• Wrongful Termination
  The Facts: Represented a respected 2 attorney law firm accused of wrongful termination, battery, denial of vacation pay, by ex-clerical employee due to alleged racial and/or religious discrimination.

Property Law

• Eminent Domain
  In some cases, the government needs to permanently "take" your property for some public reason, such as to expand a freeway. In those cases, called eminent domain, the government may be allowed to take your property, but only after paying you fair "market based" compensation. If you and the government disagree on the price, you can go the court can have a judge or jury set the price based on fair market value.
• Property Damage

Health Law

• Personal Injury
  During his last two years at law school and up until he was licensed as an attorney, Mr. Kapp worked full time as a law clerk for several "insurance defense" firms, gaining valuable experience in legal practice. These firms specialized in personal injury defense, insurance coverage and bad faith defense, products liability, aviation liability and related matters. He worked for some of the best known companies in the world, from airlines (Pan Am, TWA and others), auto companies (Ford, GM, etc.) to many smaller companies and insured people. He continued working for the same law firm after he took and passed the State Bar exam. He continued to work "on the defense side" (that is, for the insurance companies) until November 1981.
• Medical Malpractice
  Consumers and victims of medical malpractice have qualified a ballot measure for the 2022 California general election; the initiative actually qualified for the 2020 election but was postponed due to the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic as explained here. At the present time, the sponsors have submitted the language of an initiative which would finally index the 1975 $250,000 cap to the intervening 45 years of inflation which has eroded its value.
• Auto Accidents

Trusts and Estates

• Probate

Finance Law

• Bankruptcy
  $400,000+: Various Cases vs Melvyn Rosenstein, M.D. collectively known as the “Penile Enlargement Cases” (LASC West, 1995-1999). Participated in approximately 6 of about 200 coordinated cases asserting gross negligence by defendant urologist for performance of internationally promoted so-called "penile enlargement" surgeries, resulting in ugly scarring of the penile shaft and other complaints. Defendant physician relinquished his medical license and subsequently filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, although insurance coverage continued to cover the malpractice-only claims. Average claim was settled for around $40,000; our claims settled for average of approximately $85,000. Mr. Kapp was instrumental, despite original opposition from all other plaintiff and defense attorneys, in designing format for individually-negotiated settlement of all coordinated cases despite complex insurance coverage questions.