Success Stories

For virtually every kind of lawsuit and transaction discussed on the Practice Area pages, Joel Ruben has successfully handled a similar matter in the past.  While no two cases or transactions are exactly alike, Mr. Ruben can probably tell you a success story about a matter he has handled that is similar to yours.  Experience matters and so does your case or transaction when you retain the Law Offices of Joel D. Ruben.

Below are a few examples of success stories that Mr. Ruben has helped his clients write.

Mr. Ruben represented the owner of a beach front home who began to discover hidden construction defects 8 years after he purchased his home. The homeowner moved to compel arbitration under the Purchase Agreement.  Within about a year of filing a Petition to Compel Arbitration, Mr. Ruben obtained an arbitration award and judgment against the developer for almost $500,000.

Mr. Ruben was co-counsel with a national law firm for a commercial lender against two former key employees who left the company with 21 employees to operate a similar affordable lending business for GMAC Commercial Mortgage.  This unfair competition case settled for a sum well into the seven figures.

Mr. Ruben represented a real estate company in the sale of its entire portfolio commercial real estate, including two office buildings in downtown L.A., two industrial buildings (one of which had soil and groundwater contamination), undeveloped real property that was part of a Superfund site, a bank building, and a partnership interest in a resort property in Guam.  The seller did not have a post-closing dispute with any of the buyers.

In a case involving alleged fraud in connection with the sale of a custom house in Rancho Palos Verdes, Mr. Ruben successfully defended the sellers in a six-week trial in the Los Angeles Superior Court against multi-million dollar claims by the buyers.  He then successfully represented the sellers on appeal.  Mr. Ruben’s clients recovered substantial attorney’s fees for the trial and appeal.

Mr. Ruben represented the plaintiffs in a jury trial involving his clients’ right to offset a portion of a mortgage payment owed to the seller because they failed to make necessary repairs to an apartment building during escrow.  After the jury returned a verdict in favor of Mr. Ruben’s clients, the issue of attorney’s fees remained.  The Judge said that the attorneys should not submit legal briefs on the issue and instead should submit only case citations.  But the attorney’s fee issue was complicated.  So Mr. Ruben submitted a two page poem in order to comply with Court’s prohibition on legal briefs.  There was no way for the other side to respond to the poem, so they capitulated and paid plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees.

Joel Ruben represented a lender in an action to recover the proceeds of an unusual unsecured loan made in connection with a redevelopment project in Pasadena.  The defendant was an LLC owned by members of the Pritzker family.  After obtaining a writ of attachment for $800,000 and conducting considerable discovery, Mr. Ruben’s client settled for the full amount of the attachment.

Mr. Ruben successfully mediated a complex case involving development project in Ventura County.  His client, the owner of undeveloped land, entered into an agreement to sell the land to a developer, subject to reimbursing the developer for the costs of processing entitlements if it decided not to purchase the property.  Mr. Ruben coordinated a team of experts who redesigned the 1100 lot subdivision and 18-hole golf course to prove that the developer had breached the duty of care to the owner by failing to consider important land use constraints when it designed the project.