Chumash representatives have recently sent a "Cooperative Agreement" letter to members of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors requesting that the 1,400 acres be annexed to the Chumash's already 135 acres in Santa Ynez.
Business borrowers are beginning to feel the ripple effects of the financial crisis as lenders tighten commercial lending in a cautionary attempt to stop further erosion of capital and assets, says lender liability expert A. Barry Cappello, managing partner with the Santa Barbara law firm of Cappello & Noel, LLP. He says the coming commercial credit crunch will be hard felt--especially by small businesses and borrowers in certain industries.
By A. Barry Cappello Note: This article appeared in the Letters to the Editor column of the Los Angeles Daily Journal, Sept, 20, 2011 This letter responds to "Reality check: A bank's liability is not that simple," by Jill Switzer (Sept. 1). In cautioning the reader not to assume that bank liability for depositor claims is "a snap," Switzer [ More... ]
June 13, 2011 Santa Barbara Independent - By Tyler Hayden Attorney Says Deputy at Fault for 2009 Accident Involving DUI Driver Judge James Brown decided earlier this month to let a wrongful-death lawsuit against Santa Barbara County and the Sheriff's Department proceed to trial. The complaint, in short, accuses a deputy dispatched to chase a DUI motorist speeding down the [ More... ]
May 14, 2011 8:09 AM Leila Noēl, a partner in the Santa Barbara law firm Cappello & Noēl LLP, was named by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journals as one of top 75 women lawyers in California. Ms. Noēl, who works in lender liability, complex business litigation and catastrophic personal injury cases, is the only attorney from [ More... ]
Leila J. Noël, partner with the Santa Barbara law firm of Cappello & Noël LLP, was named one of the "Top 75 Women Lawyers" in California by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journals. Noël was the only attorney selected from Santa Barbara County or surrounding counties (Ventura and San Luis Obispo). The list of top attorneys was released [ More... ]
May 12, 2011 LOS ANGELES, CALIF.--MGA Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based toymaker best known for its Bratz product line, filed a lawsuit against several large European banks over their alleged concealment of accounting fraud at French toymaker Smoby prior to MGA's purchase of the company. Because the banks manipulated Smoby's internal finances, the lawsuit says MGA now stands to lose as [ More... ]
Posted By JON PRIOR On March 24, 2011 A Los Angeles Superior Court jury ruled against Wells Fargo Thursday in a mortgage discrimination case, awarding borrowers $3.5 million. The class-action lawsuit alleged the bank knowingly discriminated against borrowers in minority neighborhoods. As a result, borrowers were charged more for their loans than those in predominately white areas of Los [ More... ]
Amanda Bronstad March 24, 2011 A jury has awarded $3.52 million in damages to a class of Los Angeles homeowners who sued Wells Fargo & Co. for lending discrimination. Leila Noël The class members had alleged that Wells Fargo discriminated in its lending practices so that borrowers in predominantly minority neighborhoods were forced to pay more. On March [ More... ]
LOS ANGELES, CALIF.--After a three-month trial, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury returned a $3,520,000 lending discrimination verdict today against Wells Fargo Bank. (Opal Jones, et. al v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, et. al Los Angeles Superior Court, Case No. BC337821) The class action lawsuit alleged the bank consistently and knowingly discriminated against borrowers in minority [ More... ]
