Kurt Edward Kananen

Attorney Kurt E. Kananen is a partner in Kristy & Kananen and manages the Westlake Village Office of Kristy & Kananen. Mr. Kananen has practiced Civil Trial Litigation for 31 years. Kurt Kananen is a trial attorney that has represented plaintiffs and recovered over 50 Million dollars for his clients. Mr. Kananen litigates and tries many types of cases but his practice is primarily focused on the following areas of practice:

• Construction Defect Trial practice representing all types of plaintiffs including residential homeowners, Homeowners Associations or commercial building owners.
• Failure to Disclose Trial practice involving claims against sellers, all types of real estate agents and inspectors of homes wherein the buyer was not provided all the required information to purchase a residential property.
• Insurance Law representing policy holders against insurance companies.

After graduation from Loyola Law School Los Angeles in 1991, Mr. Kananen was employed as an associate attorney at the A-rated general business law firm England, Whitfield, Schroeder & Tredway. Associate Kananen learned Civil Litigation at England Whitfield. Mr. Kananen tried his first case within two months after passing the bar exam and because of his success in Civil Litigation he went on to become one of youngest partners at the firm after only practicing only 4 years of trial practice.

After serving as a partner for six years at England Whitfield, Kurt became an associate managing attorney at plaintiffs’ firms Quisenberry and Kabateck and Kabateck & Kropf. At these firms, in or about 2000, Mr. Kananen first established his plaintiffs’ only practice specializing in Construction Defect Litigation and Insurance Bad Faith as well as a general Plaintiffs’ practice.

In 2005, Mr. Kananen decided to go out on his own and was one of the founding partners of Hartmann & Kananen, a plaintiffs’ only practice that specialized in Construction Defect Litigation, Class Actions and all types of construction and insurance litigation. After almost 18 years of practicing at Hartmann & Kananen, Mr. Kananen formed a partnership with his longtime friend, associate and oftentimes co-counsel James R. Kristy of Kristy & Kananen. Kristy & Kananen is a Civil Trial Practice Plaintiffs’ firm specializing in various litigation including but not limited to Construction Defect Litigation, Employment Law, Failure to Disclose Litigation, Real Estate law and Product Liability.

Kurt Kananen has represented thousands of building owners (residential and commercial property) throughout California in a variety of construction defect claims against real estate developers, general contractors, sub-contractors, design professionals (architects and engineers) and product suppliers (windows, drywall, plumbing pipes, etc.). He is very experienced in representing residential and commercial property owners (both original buyers and subsequent buyers) in construction defect disputes. His clients include homeowner associations in condominium projects or planned development projects against the community developer, individual claims (one homeowner versus developer), owner of custom homes against the builder, “mass action” or “group actions” in which multiple homeowners join together in one lawsuit against the developer and class actions in which hundreds or thousands of homeowners participate in litigation against a defendant to recover for a common problem.

Moreover, Mr. Kananen also represents building owners who own large custom single family homes and semi-custom homes, single family tract homes condominiums, condominium conversions from apartment buildings, apartment buildings, commercial building and home re­ models.

Over the past ten years, Mr. Kananen has established a particular expertise in soils related construction defect issues. These types of cases involve suits against the builder of homes for failing to engineer, design and prepare the soil and building foundations relating to structures. Kurt has litigated many cases relating to slope creep, consolidation and expansive soils and has a particular expertise in these construction defect types of cases.

Kurt Kananen thrives on complex matters but challenges the notion that “bigger is better”. When you hire Mr. Kananen you get Kurt Kananen litigating your case and not a bureaucratic system that is difficult to navigate. Mr. Kananen’s philosophy is that his hands- on legal work does best for his clients. He just cannot do it any other way.