Hon. Zerne P. Haning III (Ret.) has heard cases involving virtually all areas of California law during his 19-year judicial career. As a former appellate Justice as well as a Superior Court Judge, Justice Haning has experience in mediation at the appellate as well as at the trial and pre-filing level. He has settled numerous cases after judgment and while the cases were pending on appeal. Justice Haning has authored a wide variety of appellate opinions that govern the application of California law today.

Representative Matters

• Business Commercial
• Breach of contract actions involving national corporations
• Shareholder derivative actions
• Corporate partnership dissolution, fraud, etc.
• Complex Litigation
• Class actions, product liability, securities fraud, etc.
• Construction
• Commercial buildings, large-scale development, and single structures
• Employment Law
• Discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination cases
• Governmental & Public Agency
• Public entity liability for tort, breach of contract, land use, and inverse condemnation
• Health Care
• Health care matters involving provider-insurer, provider-provider, and reimbursement claims
• Insurance
• Insurance coverage and subrogration disputes involving both public entities and private parties, including bad faith
• Intellectual Property
• Trade secrets, unfair competition, and computer technology
• Neutral Evaluation
• Neutral evaluator of appellate case involving nationally followed products liability matter against multinational conglomerate
• Personal Injury
• Premises liability, workplace accidents, vehicular accidents, etc.
• Professional Negligence
• Complex medical negligence actions in the seven figure damages category
• Hospital and health care facility negligence
• Malicious prosecution actions
• Legal malpractice actions involving damages exceeding seven figures
• Real Property
• Commercial lease disputes
• Complex real estate development actions
• Eminent domain actions
• Premises effects, breach of lease, landslide, purchase and sale (disclosure issues, etc.), real estate broker liability, land use, and development
• Wildfire and Fire Cases
• Discovery assignment in highly publicized urban fire incident
• Fire cases relating to power providers and natural incidents

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

• Former Chair, Technology Committee, First Appellate District, oversaw hardware and software installation, networking and software training, 1987-1998
• Vice President, State Bar of California, 1980-1981
• Board of Governors, State Bar of California, 1978-1981
• Co-Chair, State Bar Committee on Law School Accreditation, 1979-1980
• President, San Mateo County Bar Association, 1977
• Co-author of California Practice Guide: Personal Injury, The Rutter Group, Thompson/West Publishing Co., Updated Annually
• Lecturer and Panel Moderator, California Education of the Bar (CEB), Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER), California Judges Association (CJA), The Rutter Group; National Conference of Chief Judges

Background and Education

• Associate Justice, California Court of Appeal, First District, 1982-2000
• Judge, Superior Court, San Mateo County, 1981-1982
• Managing Partner, Haning, Fox & Guheen, practicing general civil litigation, San Mateo, CA., 1965-1981