Wright, Richard Steven

Lissa A. Martinez represents individual and group policyholders in disability, long-term care and life insurance bad faith actions and group ERISA matters. She specializes in ERISA litigation and heads up the firm's Law and Motion Department. Martinez is a Super Lawyer Rising Star and is co-author of many articles on the topic of disability and long-term care insurance, including:

• Disability Insurance: Individual Disability Dollars or Litigation Disaster
• Combating a Disability Carrier's Efforts to Dictate an Insured's Medical Care: Whose Body is it Anyway
• How to Perfect Your Insurance Claim and What to do if You are Denied
• Defeating the Disability Carrier's Top Ten Defenses
• Long-Term Care Insurance: The Next Generation of Bad Faith Litigation
• Suing Health Care Providers and Insurers – Bad Faith and Other Claims

Ms. Martinez' notable decisions include Hubka v. Paul Revere Life Insurance Co., 214 F. Supp. 2d 1089 (S.D. Cal. 2002) (denying insurer's motion for summary judgment regarding bad faith and punitive damages) Arnett v. Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Co., 2006 WL 5781982 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 19. 2006) (awarding pre-judgment interest in an ERISA action at rate of 10% per annum pursuant to California Insurance Code § 10111.2); Arnett v. Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Co., 558 F. Supp. 2d 975 (C.D. Cal. 2007) (awarding attorneys' fees); Staffeld v. Prudential Insurance Co., 2007 WL 1975448 (S.D. Cal. June 11, 2007) (denying insurer's motion for summary judgment in ERISA benefits case); Garrison v. Aetna Life Insurance Co., 558 F. Supp. 2d 995 (C.D. Cal. 2008) (finding ERISA plan administrator abused its discretion in denying LTD benefits).

Ms. Martinez has been featured as a guest lecturer on Insurance Law at her alma mater, Western State University, where she received her J.D. summa cum laude, was class valedictorian and Technical Editor of Western State University Law Review and authored the Note, Prilliman v. United Air Lines, Inc.: Employers' Duty of Reasonable Accommodation Under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act, 26 W. St. U. L. Rev. 71 (1998/1999). During law school, she also had the honor of serving as a Judicial Extern for Presiding Justice David G. Sills, of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth District.

Before she began practicing law, Ms. Martinez was a licensed insurance agent with a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation, during which time she sold and marketed individual and group disability insurance policies for Provident Life & Accident Insurance Company. This experience is the basis of her expertise in insurance policy analysis and provides her with valuable insight into the disability insurance business.

Ms. Martinez is admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the United States District Courts for the Northern, Central, Eastern and Southern Districts of California, and the California state courts. She is a member of the American Association for Justice, American Bar Association, The Litigation Section of the State Bar of California, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles and Consumer Attorneys of California.