On Saturday, July 20, 2024, Retired California Supreme Court Justice Edward A. Panelli passed away. He was 92. He is survived by his three sons and three grandchildren.
At Biren Law Group, we want to honor Justice Panelli’s memory and remarkable legal career, which helped shape important California laws across the years he was a California Supreme Court Justice (from 1985 to 1994). More specifically, he was known for his influential decisions regarding personal injury claims, product liability claims, and insurance bad faith claims, all of which our law firm regularly handles for injured parties across California.
In a Daily Journal article about Justice Panelli’s passing, Attorney Matthew Biren was asked to share some of his stories about his time working alongside him. As one of the most prominent and trusted attorneys in Los Angeles, Attorney Biren frequently worked with Justice Panelli after he retired from the bench and went into private judging.
“As a person, Justice Panelli was a wonderful man, extremely intelligent, hardworking, and committed to fairness and justice. As a judge, and particularly as a mediator, he had a unique ability to size up the situation and find a way to get the job done; often facilitating settlements where it looked like a deal was impossible,” Attorney Biren shared with the Daily Journal.
Attorney Biren also spoke of a complicated insurance bad faith case that had been settled in no small part to Justice Panelli’s dedication to the intricate legal practice of mediation. In the case, the insurance carrier’s lawyers did not want to settle the case at all and clearly leaned toward dragging everyone through a prolonged trial. Yet the insurance carrier itself did seem open to settling. Recognizing that the differences between the carrier and their insurer were causing friction, Justice Panelli calculated a multimillion-dollar settlement proposal, showed it to our attorneys and the insurance carrier’s attorneys, and gave both sides just one hour to respond. With the pressure on them, the insurance carrier’s attorneys quickly accepted the settlement.
The insurance bad faith case that Justice Panelli mediated marks one of the larger settlements we have achieved for a client who was dealing with insurance bad faith. It also serves as a parable to everything that made the late Justice Panelli such a great man and unsurpassed judge; he was creative, sympathetic, and of course, sharp when it came to the finest details of the law.
From all of us at Biren Law Group, we send our sincere condolences to Justice Edward Panelli’s loved ones. He was an incredible and inspiring person to anyone who met him, either in or out of the court. If you would like to know more about Justice Panelli, you can click here to read the full Daily Journal article featuring Attorney Biren. Thank you.