We are proud to announce the addition of Joseph Helfrick to the firm as an Associate. Joe received his Juris Doctor degree from Lincoln Law School in Sacramento, California in 2015. Joe will focus on civil litigation, particularly professional negligence liability defense, personal injury defense and general and tort liability defense.
In October 2018, Ray Gates, Tony Lauria and Artak Paskevichyan, successfully defended Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe in a wrongful death case involving an in-bounds avalanche occurring in December 2016 while decedent was skiing in an area known as “The Chutes”. Plaintiffs argued that Mt. Rose failed to place rope lines along a boundary line and failed to have conspicuous boundary signage to properly notify skiers of the danger. Plaintiffs also argued that the resort trail map was inaccurate and the ski patrol was not properly trained. Plaintiffs’ sought in excess of $5,000,000. Defendant was able to refute plaintiffs’ contentions with ski industry/avalanche experts utilizing animations, photos and videos as well as attacking the credibility of plaintiffs’ experts. The jury ultimately returned a defense verdict finding that the deceased assumed the risks of downhill skiing and failed to familiarize himself with available information, warnings and signage provided by the resort. The case was tried in the Second Judicial District Court in Reno, Nevada.