Ovando v. County of Los Angeles

Opinion

CROSKEY, J.

Javier F. Ovando appeals an order granting a new trial after the jury awarded him $6.5 million in damages against his former defense attorney, Tamar Toister, and her employer, the County of Los Angeles, for legal malpractice resulting in his false conviction. The trial court concluded that a juror had committed prejudicial misconduct by failing to disclose her knowledge of facts concerning a police corruption scandal involving officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division, and that the jury’s apportionment of zero percent fault to rogue former police…