Joyce S. Mendlin

Joyce S. Mendlin

Joyce Mendlin’s areas of practice are real property litigation, business litigation and inverse condemnation. In select cases, she has represented clients for personal injuries. Joyce has extensive jury trial and bench trial experience in her 30 years in practice.

She and her partner Roger M. Rosen were finalists for Consumer Attorney of the Year in 2008.

A list of representative cases follow.

Inverse Condemnation Against Government Entities

  • Represented over forty homeowners in Carmel, California for flood damages from the Carmel River against public entities and private property owners. Settled with all parties except the County of Monterey. Tried the case against Monterey County, and obtained a jury verdict in favor of client-homeowners
  • Successfully represented over twenty homeowners for flood damage from the San Francisquito Creek against public entities in Santa Clara County
  • Successfully represented property owners on a claim for toxic contamination against a public entity in Riverside County, through trial
  • Successfully represented individual homeowners in numerous cases against public entities for landslide, subsidence damages and sewage damage caused by government owned drains, pipes, water mains, road cuts, and other public projects

Real Property Disputes

  • Successfully represented clients in neighbor to neighbor disputes, including boundaries and easements
  • Successfully represented a property owner against a prospective buyer’s claim for specific performance, by obtaining summary judgment against the prospective buyer
  • Represented the owner of a residence against claims by the tenant for damages allegedly caused by exposure to toxins, through trial, obtaining a jury verdict in favor of the client-owner
  • Represented a condominium owner against a homeowners association for violation of covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs)

Employment Law

  • Successfully represented an employee who was wrongfully fired instead of being given an accommodation for his disability, defeating the employer’s claim that the dispute had to be arbitrated in the process
  • Successfully represented clients for sexual harassment and labor code violations
  • Successfully defended an officer of a corporation against claims by discharged employees whose claims should have been brought solely against the corporation

Representation For and Against Lawyers

  • Successfully represented a business owner against her prior law firm in a lawsuit for legal malpractice
  • Successfully represented a law firm in its claims for fees against that law firm’s former client while defeating that law firm’s former client’s claims for legal malpractice

Business Litigation

  • Successfully represented an individual against a bank for safe deposit box contents through jury trial
  • Represented clients in numerous and varied contract disputes, including promissory notes and interpretation of contracts
  • Successfully prosecuted an action for misappropriation of partnership assets, including injunctive relief and contempt sanctions, including punitive damages, through trial
  • Successfully represented the administrator of an estate in a claim to enforce a promissory note
  • Successfully represented clients in numerous and varied partnership disputes
  • Represented soils engineering firm in Riverside County against developer for payment

Tort Litigation

  • Successfully represented a property owner against a fraudulent claim for personal injury damages, obtaining summary judgment, affirmed on appeal
  • Successfully represented a client seeking insurance coverage for a copyright infringement suit brought against that client
  • Represented two plaintiffs and was a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for the joint prosecution of all personal injury and wrongful death claims arising from a motor vehicle driving through the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market on July 16, 2003 which resulted in 10 deaths and over 65 injured pedestrians. This litigation involved over 40 consolidated lawsuits on behalf of 70+ named plaintiffs with claims against 5 defendants and resulted in global settlements totaling $26,500,000.00.

Probate Litigation

  • Successfully represented a disabled man in an action for support against a trust, through trial

Procedure

  • Successfully opposed claims that a client’s settlement with one defendant should be deducted from the client’s damages claimed against another defendant, under the law pertaining to good faith settlements, in two separate cases
  • Successfully argued that the adverse party could not dismiss his case against client on the morning set for the hearing on a motion for summary judgment to avoid liability to the client for attorney’s fees

Bar Admissions

  • California

Education

  • Southwestern University School of Law, Los Angeles, California, Law Review, Judicial Extern to the Honorable Justice Clarke E. Stephens, California Court of Appeal, 1979 J.D.
  • St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland, 1975, B.A.

Professional Association Memberships

  • Los Angeles County Bar Association
  • Santa Monica Bar Association