Catherine Adams is an experienced litigation and trial attorney who focuses her practice in general and product liability as well as business litigation, and construction defect matters. Her work includes legal research, pleadings, motions, discovery, depositions, pretrial work, arbitrations, mediations, trials and appellate work.
Catherine started her legal career in Los Angeles, California, working in products liability and business litigation. She also has experience in personal injury and insurance coverage litigation. Since then, Catherine has litigated numerous cases in virtually every court throughout California, representing one nationwide business in its California litigation and representing individuals and small and medium-sized businesses including, contractors, developers, landlords, mortgage brokers, and automobile dealers. Catherine brings to the firm her many years of experience in the areas of construction defect, complex business litigation, commercial disputes, collections, contracts, premises liability, landlord/tenant and habitability issues, contract, automobile liability, employment, landlord/tenant, collections and real property issues. She has done transactional work where she has advised, created, counseled, and dissolved corporate entities. She has successfully tried and arbitrated a number of cases.
- Hinerfeld-Ward v. Lipian – Obtained a jury verdict for over $500,000.00 for a private contractor in a construction matter, which also involved prompt pay penalties and construction defect. The verdict was upheld on appeal.
- LegalForce RAPC v. Online Trademark Filing Service – Demurrer sustained without leave to amend in one of several actions against online filing services alleging false advertising and unfair competition.
- Chen v. CPRE – Obtained a settlement for cents on the dollar for the seller of a commercial real estate property after filing a motion for summary judgment in a real estate disclosure action based on waiver of the disclosure.
- Reveles v. HOA – Obtained a dismissal on the first day of trial from plaintiff homeowner who had alleged fraud by Homeowners’ Association.
- Obtained summary judgment for a subcontractor client in a breach of contract and negligence lawsuit. The plaintiff, a general contractor on a large Caltrans project, alleged it was owed a six-figure amount due to our client’s faulty work. However, we were able to convince the court that an Administrative Law Judge’s findings that the client’s work was not faulty and the general contractor had withheld payment in bad faith could act as collateral estoppel, and prevent the plaintiff from pursuing its claims. The court found that the Administrative Law Judge’s decision, determined in a California State License Board hearing occurring while the court action was stayed, could be used as issue preclusion in the civil lawsuit and that the issues were identical in both actions. As such, it was held that the general contractor failed to show there was any triable issue of fact and the matter was disposed of in favor of our client.
Professional Affiliations
- Association of Southern California Defense Counsel
- Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) – Advisory Board Member for CEB’s Real Property Advisory Committee
Recent Presentations
- “Avoiding the Pitfalls of Home Flipping”
In the News
- “$31,530,000.00 Settlement Recovery For Two Minor Pedestrians And Their Families Against The City of Morgan Hill and Adverse Driver,” [prnewswire.com, 10, 15, 2019].
- “Oakland Counseling Guru Accused of Sexual Assault,” [East Bay Express, 12, 17, 2017].
Catherine volunteers for Lawyers for Good Government and enjoys researching her Creole and Irish ancestry. She loves reading, diving into history, watching movies, and spending time with family and friends.