Ortega v Corvi, Los Angeles County Superior Court Case Number BC610320.



Rocky Ortega is listed by the court of appeals as the plaintiff and appellant for this matter.






From the court of appeal ruling it is Lawzilla's understanding the following happened:

Attorney Rocky Ortega represented Corvi and Corvi's corporation in a lawsuit. After the case was over Ortega said he was "done with the case" and left Corvi's file on his driveway.

Corvi then hired a new attorney who was able to recover money from the lawsuit.




Rocky Ortega then sued to get a portion of the money, based on an alleged contingency fee set in a written retainer agreement involving Corvi (but oddly, not the corporation).




However, the trial judge ruled the client's signature on the contract was forged.

The court then threw out the contract and excluded it from evidence.




Afterwards, the judge ruled that Corvi, the client, was entitled to win and did not have to pay attorney Ortega anything.




Attorney Ortega filed an appeal, and the three court of appeal justices unanimously agreed: a handwriting expert appropriately testified and Ortega had not rebutted a presumption that the judgment against him was correct.




As part of the opinion, the court of appeals justices noted that Rocky Ortega:

- Failed to demand an exchange of expert witnesses.




- Failed to show that he had objected to the handwriting expert.




- Failed to establish any prejudice from what happened at trial.




- Only provided "bits and pieces" of the trial court records.






Lawzilla Commentary and Review: In our opinion, if an attorney forged his client's signature to a document, he should be jailed and disbarred. It is an unbelievable case.

How would you like your attorney to toss your file on the driveway?

Then later sue to recover money another attorney you had to retain recovered?

Then find out your signature was forged?

Things seemed fishy to us when the court of appeal noted the claimed signed contract only required Corvi the individual to pay an attorney's fee contingency and not the corporation. Maybe there is more to the story not described in the court of appeal's opinion, but even then, it appears to us, based on the opinion, that attorney Rocky Ortega did a bad job in his own case.

We do not recommend that this attorney be retained.

Rocky Ortega was admitted to the California Bar in 1984. Bar Number 112580.

Law Office Rocky Ortega
405 El Camino Real #302
Menlo Park, California 94025

Law School: New College of California




The California State Bar is reporting that attorney Rocky Ortega has been the subject of multiple disciplinary actions.

First, there was a public reproval with conditions Ortega was supposed to comply with.

Second, when Ortega did not comply with the conditions for his first discipline he was disciplined again. This time he was put on probation, had a stayed suspension for a year, and ordered to take a professional responsibility test.

Note: It appears Ortega may have committed further wrongdoing by not listing his current address with the State Bar, as he claimed in the Corvi appeal his address was now in Nevada.