Westerfield & Martin, LLC

07/21/2020

We had oral argument in the Colorado Court of Appeals today. It was interesting to do the oral argument via videoconferencing and to see the judges working from home. the technology was seamless and it went off without any issues.

The issue on appeal had to do with the interpretation of a portion of a fee agreement between an attorney and a client. There was a provision of that agreement which allowed for the prevailing party to recover attorney fees and costs if a collection process was initiated. The question is, was the legal malpractice case at issue in the underlying case a tort that was separate from a collection process, or are the two matters inextricably linked?

Here is a link to the oral argument, which begins at the 18:45 mark of the video and concludes at the 50:05 mark of the video.

06/01/2020

For the last 7 years, I’ve had the privilege to work with Logan Martin. He is dedicated, brilliant, committed to seeking justice and a dear friend. Today, he takes the next step of his journey and leaves our law firm to work at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. This is an amazing opportunity for him, and I wish him all the best! Good luck my friend.

07/11/2019

We had oral argument in the Colorado Court of Appeals yesterday. Last February, we had a trial in which our client sued for civil theft. His company was hired to do some web development work and after being partially paid for the work, his customer charged the monies paid back on his credit card. The jury found in our favor. After trial, the client argued that since he had filed for bankruptcy that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to try the case. It was undisputed that my client was not listed as a creditor in his clients bankruptcy proceeding. Video of the argument is below, and our argument begins at the 1:05 mark of the video.

https://cojudicial.ompnetwork.org/sessions/110009?embedInPoint=1&embedOutPoint=8163&shareMethod=link

05/15/2019

Yesterday we wrapped up a civil jury trial in Larimer county that we co-counseled with our dear friend Brandon Mark from Parsons Behle & Latimer in SLC, UT. Our client formerly worked for a large for profit college and was being sued for thousands and thousands of dollars for breach of contract and we thought there weren’t any damages. The jury agreed and we obtained a verdict that our client was thrilled with: the jury awarded the for profit college a single dollar. The case was filed in 2013 and after 6 years of highly contentious litigation against a prominent Denver law firm, we feel like justice was served.

12/11/2018

The link to today's oral argument in 17CA1257 can be found here, beginning at 48:30 of the video and ending at about 1:20 of the video.

While we had four issues on appeal, we only had time to discuss our argument regarding the defendants' counter claim for abuse of process. The Defendant took the position that the plaintiff could be found liable for abuse of process by filing his claim for legal malpractice. We took the position that the Defendant had to have proof of all three elements of the tort, including improper purpose, of which no evidence existed. We argued that as a result, the trial court should have granted our directed verdict on that claim. The court asked a number of good questions about this matter to both sides, and those questions seem illustrative of its thinking regarding this issue.

Unfortunately, we did not have time to express the other three issues on appeal, but felt comfortable with the arguments as they were presented in the briefs.

12/11/2018

We are back in front of the Colorado Court of Appeals this morning. You can watch our argument in the third floor courtroom in 17CA1257 on the Court’s live feed.

12/05/2018

The oral argument we had before the Colorado Court of Appeals had to do with a child support and maintenance arrearage in a domestic relations case.

The specific issue on appeal regards whether the trial court had the authority to retroactively modify a child support and maintenance judgment against our client's former husband. We argued that the trial court lacked that authority and that the Court of Appeals should reverse the judgment of the district court vacating the entire child support and maintenance arrearage and remand with instructions to calculate and reinstate the remaining unpaid balance.

The appellee took the position that despite paying less than half of the arrearage, that the trial court was correct in determining that he had substantially complied with the trial court's order, a position which we took exception to.

Video of the oral argument in 18CA31 can be found at the link below, starting at 48:15 of the video and concluding at 1:23:24 of the video should you have any interest in observing.

12/05/2018

We have oral argument this morning before the Colorado Court of Appeals!

04/20/2018

04/19/2018

After a verdict in favor of our client, we had a chance to speak with some members of our jury. It was a great experience.