January 2021

We are proud to be featured in both this month’s Orange Coast Magazine & Super Lawyers Magazine as Super Lawyers Top Attorneys. Congrats Greg & Keith on 10+ years of being named in Super Lawyers Annual List of Top Attorneys. #top50inOC #top100inSoCal

Since its founding in 2016, Bentley & More LLP has litigated on behalf of injured victims and

workers throughout California and the U.S., securing untold millions in compensation. The firm

continues to have the resources, experience and creativity to handle the most complex cases.

At Bentley & More, the attorneys listen closely to their clients. They develop a deep understanding

of each client’s unique story, then devise customized solutions to challenging, often life-changing

problems. Fueled by their compassion for their clients and their drive for justice, these lawyers

provide hard-hitting representation that delivers maximum results.

The firm’s winning record extends to personal injury, wrongful death, automobile crashes,

product liability, workers’ compensation, insurance bad faith, e-cig explosions, and injury and

property loss from the California wildfires.

Gregory L. Bentley, Matthew Clark, Jaimi Groothuis and Farnaz Salessi of Bentley & More LLP obtained a favorable ruling on a motion for summary judgment/adjudication filed by Korean electronics giant Samsung SDI in a case involving an exploding e-cigarette Samsung lithium-ion battery. According to the complaint, Bentley & More’s client had purchased the Samsung batteries on the recommendation of an e-cig retailer, and used them without issue until April 14, 2018, when the Samsung battery exploded in his pocket, inflicting second- and third-degree burns on his left leg and genitalia, requiring a brutal skin-graft surgery, and leaving him with permanent scarring, discoloration, and hyper-sensitivity.

According to the lawsuit, Samsung had known since at least January 2016 that individual consumers were purchasing and using Samsung batteries for use in electronic cigarettes—a use that Samsung allegedly knew would subject consumers to potential harm. Instead of taking meaningful action to limit the risk or remove its batteries from the marketplace, Samsung ignored the problem, failed to even attempt to discern its scope, and instead placed profits over public safety by continuing to flood the market with hundreds of millions of its batteries—resulting in at least 88 cases filed against Samsung for similar battery explosion issues.  In the ruling at issue here, the Court denied Samsung’s attempt to summarily dismiss the case, and found triable issues of fact as to both Samsung’s liability for the explosion, and Samsung’s culpability for punitive damages, which are designed to punish and deter manufacturers from knowingly distributing harmful, dangerous products.

CLICK HERE for the full Press Release.

Greg Bentley, Matthew Clark, and Farnaz Salessi of Bentley & More LLP reached a confidential 8-figure settlement on behalf of multiple homeowners who lost their homes in the October 2017 Northern California wildfires. Despite maintaining insurance with the same carrier for years, and despite the insurance company recommending and even selecting the policy limits, the devastating wildfires left the homeowners without adequate insurance to even begin rebuilding their lost homes.

This underinsurance problem—all too common in the property insurance industry—was instigated by insurers falsely promising to conduct detailed estimates of replacement cost value, falsely claiming they revised that estimate yearly to account for changes in construction costs, and by relying on software that knowingly underestimates the cost to rebuild insureds’ homes.  Despite the vast majority of homeowners believing they are adequately insured, these factors have combined to leave upwards of 80% of homes throughout the United States underinsured in the event of a total, catastrophic loss.  With natural disasters seeming to arrive ever more frequently, this underinsurance problem is sure to be magnified in the years to come.

Though the families can never get back the four years of struggle with their insurer, due to the efforts of Bentley & More LLP, this settlement will allow the families to regain some semblance of normalcy by rebuilding their homes and trying to move on with their lives.