Teanna L. Buchner
Partner
Teanna L. Buchner is an accomplished litigator with over 10 years of experience representing clients in transactional and litigation matters ranging from contractual disputes, premises liability, professional liability, and catastrophic personal injury cases involving trucking and transportation matters. She counsels and defends insurance carriers of trucking and transportation companies, business owners, and landowners in both state and federal court, from pre-lawsuit negotiation and evaluation through trial or arbitration.
Teanna defends clients in catastrophic accidents, including wrongful death and severe and mild traumatic brain injuries. She defends motor carriers across the nation, applying her in-depth knowledge of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and experience in managing emergency accident response teams. She also has experience representing both landlords and tenants in commercial and residential disputes over issues regarding title, easements, covenants, conditions and restrictions, local rent control laws, and California’s Mobile Home Residency Law.
Teanna draws on a background representing national banking institutions in both pre-judgment and post-judgment proceedings regarding the management of troubled assets and collection of debt. She has domesticated foreign state judgments throughout California and has handled matters through all collection efforts. In her representation of creditors, Teanna has experience in a variety of bankruptcy proceedings, including those brought under Chapters 7, 11, and 13 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Industries
Experience Highlights
- Defended interstate trucking company and its driver in an action involving a collision with a vehicle parked on the side of the highway allegedly resulting in a traumatic brain injury.
- Achieved a favorable settlement after demonstrating comparative fault on the part of a plaintiff and establishing pre-existing brain injury and cognitive deficiencies.
- Attained successful settlement defending an interstate trucking company and its driver in a stipulated liability case after utilizing the plaintiffs’ social media accounts to establish that claims regarding debilitating injuries were inflated and unsupported by fact.
- Defended an interstate trucking company and employee in an action brought by the plaintiff, a department store employee, who claimed permanent orthopedic injuries resulting from alleged negligent operation of yard goat during the plaintiff’s unloading of a trailer.
- Negotiated a favorable settlement in action where the alleged negligent loading of cargo resulted in serious injuries to the plaintiff. Settlement was reached at mediation after demonstration of contributory negligence of plaintiff in climbing onto the flatbed tractor in an effort to assist in unloading cargo.
- In an action brought by the plaintiffs alleging conversion, intentional infliction of emotional distress, elder abuse, and conspiracy, successfully obtained dismissal of entire complaint and judgment for client’s attorneys’ fees pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure § 425.16 based upon the defendant’s conduct arising out of protected petitioning to change use of multitenant rental property.
- Defended a national grocery store in slip and fall resulting in elderly plaintiff’s broken hip. Obtained a favorable settlement, prior to defense depositions, after establishing the plaintiff’s pre-existing gait and balance issues and lack of evidence to demonstrate existence of a dangerous condition.
- Negotiated a favorable settlement in mediation after demonstrating that the plaintiff misrepresented pre-existing injuries and upon establishing that the condition allegedly causing the fall constituted a trivial defect.
- Obtained beneficial settlement before trial in favor of a maintenance company responsible for waxing floors of the office building, where the plaintiff claimed significant orthopedic damages and lost earnings arising out of an alleged slip and fall.
Honors & Awards
Southern California Super Lawyers, Rising Stars, 2017-20
Admissions
- California
- U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southern Districts of California
Education
- University of San Diego School of Law, J.D., 2010
- University of California, Santa Barbara, B.A., 2006
Professional Affiliations
- American Bar Association
- Commercial Transportation Litigation Committee: Chair-Elect, 2021
- Defense Research Institute
- Trucking Law Committee, 2012 to present
- Trucking Law Committee: Newsletter Editor, 2018-20
- Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA)
Publications & Events
- “CSA’s Slow Response to FAST Act Mandates: What to Expect Next,” DRI In Transit, Volume 21, Issue 3, 2018
- “Assembling and Disassembling the Deposition of a Vocational Rehabilitation Expert,” DRI In Transit, Volume 18, Issue 2, 2015
- “I’ll Make You an Offer You Can’t Refuse: The Dark Underworld of Fraud in Trucking Litigation,” DRI Trucking Law Conference, November 19, 2020
- “Vicarious Liability, Broker Liability, & ‘How Could I be Liable?!’” Liability, BFL Canada Transportation Law Seminar, February 21, 2019
- “CSA: What Is It, How to Understand It, and Why You Should Care About It,” DRI Webinar, November 7, 2017
- “The Ghost of Treatment Past: Phantom Medical Bills, Medical Litigation Funding, and How to Fight Them,” DRI Webinar, March 5, 2020; Rebroadcast with live Q&A June 17, 2020
Recent Insights
August 2, 2021