Edward J. Weiss, Esq.

• Numerous disputes involving contract interpretation and breach of contract. Significant involvement in disputes involving consumer fraud, misleading or inadequate disclosures, and statutory violations (e.g. PAGA, CLRA and UCL violations), partnership, LLC and shareholder disputes, business torts including interference with contract and prospective economic advantage, defamation, on-line dating, entertainment including concerts, sporting events, theatre, venue management, event promotions and ticketing.
• A federal court breach of contract lawsuit involving dispute of gate fees between an airport authority and one of its constituent airlines.
• Breach of contract action for commissions allegedly owed to an executive search firm which sourced an employee who accepted and then rescinded an acceptance of an offer of employment and then later joined the company, which alleged it did not owe a finder’s fee.
• Three separate arbitrations against a cryptocurrency platform asserting claims for violations of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. Section 1693 et seq.) alleging that security flaws in a product for holding the consumer’s cryptocurrency resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars of losses.
• Two-day arbitration hearing on claims that a used vehicle was sold with an open recall, and the dealership allegedly failed to disclose a vehicle condition report indicating the vehicle had engine problems. The dealership allegedly failed to determine and disclose the vehicle had been in a prior accident that resulted in the hood being replaced. Claimant sought, among other things, an injunction to prevent dealership from selling vehicles with open recalls, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

• Commercial arbitration by consumer who used his RV for business purposes against an RV repair facility which failed to fit the vehicle with properly measured and sized replacement doors allegedly resulting in the vehicle being unavailable for use and forcing the owner to forego and cancel lucrative business opportunities. Consumer brought a claim for breach of contract.
• Claimant, a homeowner listed her home for short term rental on an online platform. She alleged the renter held a party and damaged the home and sued the rental platform for breach of the rental listing agreement and failure to compensate them adequately for the damage.
• Claimant, a renter of a home listed on a short-term rental platform, alleged the room they rented was uninhabitable and not commensurate with what was advertised, likewise a second room in the same home to which they were relocated. The claimant brought claims for breach of contract and violations of the CLRA and UCL.
• Corporate governance including disputes involving shareholder rights, compliance with charters and by laws, timing of annual meeting and corporate authority.

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• Breach of contract cases involving consumer protection claims relating to terms of use, delivery of goods and services promised, manufacturing, supply, licensing, franchising, stock options, restricted stock grants, compliance with non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, online and offline marketing agreements, vendor agreements and consulting agreements.
• Consumer cases involving claims of misleading advertising, adequacy of disclosure, failure to disclose and terms of use.
• Consumer data breach action against online clothing reselling marketplace, primarily for sneakers, alleging Fair Credit Act violations, Michigan Credit Act violations, violations of California Privacy Act, California Business & Professions Code, negligence, negligent misrepresentations and declaratory judgment.
• Consumer action against cryptocurrency platform for mishandling private information resulting in the consumer being locked out of their account and preventing them from accessing and selling the cryptocurrency before it diminished in value.
• Data breach, negligence and California Consumer Privacy Act claims alleging a telecommunications provider allowed the consumer’s personally identifiable information including password to be stolen.

• Consumer arbitration against telecommunications provider alleging negligence in connection with the swapping of a SIM card resulted in the loss of cryptocurrency. Claims included alleged violations of the Federal Communications Act, Consumer Fraud and Abuse Act, negligence, negligent hiring and California Consumer Privacy Act.
• Consumer arbitration alleging a telecommunications provider allowed unauthorized access to the consumer’s private and confidential information to a third party who transferred and converted more than $100,000 of cryptocurrency. The consumer brought claims among others under the Federal Communications Act and the California Consumer Privacy Act.
• Consumer alleged a credit card company negligently provided false information to one of the credit bureaus resulting in denial of credit and the inability to purchase a vehicle among other items. The consumer brought a claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. Sections 1681 et seq.
• Consumer brought claims under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law against a car dealership and financing company for falsely advertising the price of the vehicle that the consumer purchased, failed to properly identify the make and model of the vehicle in its advertising as required by the Vehicle Code, and charged for emissions test not performed.
• Consumer action under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and breach of contract for prematurely reporting the consumer’s delinquencies to credit reporting agencies.
• As an attorney, handled numerous FTC and State Attorneys General and District Attorney cases involving consumer issues. Involved in managing numerous investigations by governmental regulators, federal and state, relating to concerns relating to disclosures, cash discounts, pricing, access to tickets and how products and services are bundled, and unfair competition and trade practice claims of competitors.
• Consumer class actions: national class actions challenging the disclosures relating to delivery and handling fees and services; national class action challenging how cash discounts are offered.
• Data breaches and privacy cases and compliance with recently amended California Consumer Protection Act.
• Credit card cases, including managing claims against credit card processors with respect to interchange fees on card transactions.

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• Franchisee and franchisor dispute involving franchisee alleging they were actually misclassified employees owed back wages and penalties for various Labor Code violations.
• Internal investigations: conducted or oversaw numerous investigations involving potential employee and executive malfeasance or misconduct and reported results to senior management and the board of directors.

• Handled numerous technology disputes including patent, trademark and copyright infringement, theft of trade secrets and preservation and protection of trade secrets, and licensing. Cases involved federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and trespass to chattels (e.g. developing and implementing the successful legal strategy to protect the Ticketmaster ticketing system and consumers from unscrupulous ticket brokers and technology providers who were obtaining unfair access to event tickets; managing defense of trade secrets case involving claims of theft of technology to manage resale ticket inventory).
• Federal court patent infringement case between medical device and light therapy company and a competitor.
• Due diligence disputes involving allegations of violating NDAs and misusing or misappropriating proprietary data and trade secrets.

• Personal injury case, where plaintiff, a bicyclist, suffered severe injuries in an accident allegedly caused by large cracks on the street of a municipality. The city acknowledged cracks in the street but alleged the cracks did not cause the accident and presented GPS evidence which the city claimed proved that the cyclist did not actually ride over the alleged dangerous condition but instead was several feet away from the crack when the accident occurred.
• Motorcycle v. motor vehicle accident on 91 freeway where the car allegedly made an unsafe lane change. The driver of the car alleged that they motorcyclist accelerated suddenly just as his car was making the lane change.
• Three car accident in which the plaintiff, a 68-year-old woman, was a pedestrian in a crosswalk and was injured by the second car to be rear-ended.
• A bus passenger, the only passenger on an MTA bus, allegedly was injured when the bus accelerated too quickly in violation of MTA operational guidelines, which the MTA disputed.
• A slip and fall case in which the plaintiff, a shopper at a supermarket, allegedly slipped on water that splashed on the floor by workers stocking shelves with ice. The handling of the ice bags and the plaintiff testing the water with her foot and then slipping were both captured on the store’s video camera.

• Plaintiff, an elderly woman, allegedly slipped on food in a restaurant on her way to the restroom. The plaintiff alleged the restaurant staff ignored and failed to clean up food that had fallen and sought damages of $100,000.
• Plaintiff’s vehicle was rear ended by a Metro vehicle.
• Plaintiff was injured when the defendant, a British citizen on an approximately 11-hour layover at LAX, made an unsafe turn on La Cienega.
• Plaintiff was injured in a crosswalk on Ventura Boulevard in Encino when the defendant, whose vehicle had stopped at the crosswalk and allegedly was distracted, possibly by texting, abruptly accelerated too quickly and struck the plaintiff, resulting in moderately severe injuries.
• Plaintiff was bitten and suffered severe lacerations by a pitbull whose owner allegedly was renting an apartment on defendant’s property. Defendant asserted that while he had seen the pitbull before, he did not think it was his tenant’s dog and disputed that the biting incident occurred on his property.

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• Real estate cases including leases, boundary disputes and adverse possession and partnership disputes over buy – sell provisions and timing of sales.

• As a Hearing Officer for California Horse Racing Board (“CHRB”), heard and submitted a 42-page proposed decision on the appeal of a prominent thoroughbred horse racing trainer suspended by the Stewards for a year based on findings by the Stewards that the trainer’s barn administered substances to horses within the 48-hour period prior to post time during which such substances are prohibited.
• Appeal from a decision of an investigator of the CHRB to deny the license of applicant to serve as a security officer at Golden Gate Fields based on the applicant’s criminal history and false statements on the license application.
• Appeal from a decision of an investigator of the CHRB to deny the application for a license to work as a groom at Golden Gate Fields based on the applicant’s criminal history.