Piccuta Attends Consumer Attorneys of California Travel Seminar
Piccuta Attends Consumer Attorneys of California Travel Seminar
On November 25, 2023, attorney Charles Tony Piccuta travelled to Maui to attend the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) Hawaii Travel Seminar. The four-day conference was held from November 27th to November 30th. It included presentations from some of the top plaintiff and consumer attorneys in the State of California.
This is Piccuta’s fourth year attending the conference. Unlike other legal conferences in California, the Hawaii conference attracts the best attorneys in California and the true leaders in the legal profession. Other California-based conferences are easy to get to. As such, the commitment to attend is not as rigorous as the Hawaii conference.
Attorneys must make a significant commitment to attend the Hawaii conference. The conference requires extensive travel. Typically, an attorney must devote one week to participate in the conference. This includes four days of instruction and two full days of travel.
In addition, the costs of the multi-day conference is more than other California-based conferences. Here, an attorney cannot stay at his or her home and commute to the conference. As such, the attorney must secure accommodations for each night he attends the conference. The conference is regularly held at the Fairmont Kea Lani in the southwest Maui Wailea area. This area is known for its beautiful beaches and captivating sunsets.
However, the effort to attend the conference is worth it. The attorneys in attendance trade ideas with other attorneys who are engaged in the same practice as them. The attorneys who speak at the conference are leaders in the industry. This includes attorneys who have a history of service fighting for individuals and plaintiffs throughout California. This year’s presentations included several by past presidents and board members of the CAOC.
The Conference also provides opportunities to network with other attorneys when not learning in the classroom. These relationships are valuable as they provide attorneys the opportunity to meet others who specialize in cases that an attorney may not handle. For example, Piccuta does not specialize in asbestos litigation or nursing home neglect cases. While at the conference, Piccuta was able to forge relationships with those who do. These relationships allow Piccuta to offer advice to those who contact him for these cases and referrals to attorneys who can help them.
At the same time, the relationships Piccuta forges at the event allows him to establish connections with attorneys who do not practice in the area of civil rights and police excessive force. Piccuta finds that many of the attorneys who attend the conference do not regularly handle such cases and prefer state court over federal court. Piccuta is the opposite.
Piccuta regularly handles civil rights cases involving police excessive force and prisoner rights in federal court. It is the diversity of the attorneys that makes the conference so valuable. In sum, Piccuta meets attorneys who can send him clients for cases those attorneys do not handle and vice-versa.
Piccuta is a contributing member of the CAOC. He has been a member for more than a decade. He has regularly attended its conferences over that period of time. He also contributes to the CAOC list serve—an email-based platform where members can ask other attorneys legal questions and share information.
The conference also promotes philanthropy. The conference regularly conducts a donation drive for the Maui Food Bank. Piccuta has contributed to the drive every year since the drive started. The money raised by CAOC for the Maui Food Bank helps feed less-privileged citizens of Hawaii who may not be able to afford food. Last year, the CAOC drive raised over $20,000. This year the drive raised over $27,000.
The drive was especially important this year. The conference occurred in the wake of the Maui fires that devastated Ka‘anapali and surrounding areas. As a result, the donations were more timely than ever.
The CAOC Maui conference is a serious commitment. It requires an attorney to disengage from his or her practice for a week during which time they learn and collaborate with other plaintiff lawyers. It provides invaluable connections and exposure to legal trends and concepts that are essential for high-level practitioners.
Some of the topics presented on at this year’s presentation included: the interplay between worker’s compensation and personal injury cases, government design immunity and implications from a 2023 California Supreme Court decision, toxic airline uniforms and mass actions brought by airline workers who suffered injuries from the chemicals emitted from those uniforms, playground injury cases, carbon monoxide exposure cases, attacking defense lifecare plans, damages in sex abuse and school bullying cases and new diagnostic criteria in TBI cases, among other things.
About the author: The content on this page was written by California personal injury attorney and civil rights lawyer Charles “Tony” Piccuta. Piccuta graduated with honors from Indiana University-Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana (Previously ranked Top 35 US News & World Report). Piccuta took and passed the State bars of Arizona, California, Illinois and Nevada (all on the first try). He actively practices throughout California and Arizona. He is a winning trial attorney that regularly handles serious personal injury cases and civil rights lawsuits. He has obtained six and seven figure verdicts in both state and federal court. He has been recognized by Super Lawyers for six years straight. He is AV Rated by Martindale Hubble. He is a member of the Consumer Attorneys of California, American Association for Justice, National Police Accountability Project, Arizona Association of Justice, and many local county and City bar associations.
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