O'Brien & Ulibarri, P.C., is a law firm of trial attorneys. Our emphasis is civil trial and appellate work. Simply put, we try civil lawsuits. Each lawyer in our firm handles civil litigation and appeals, and participates in a variety of alternative dispute resolution techniques. We have tried cases in almost every judicial district in New Mexico, including in such cities as Albuquerque, Carlsbad, Clovis, Las Cruces, Los Lunas, Lovington, Roswell, and Santa Fe. We are committed to providing high-quality, cost-effective legal services, for Plaintiffs and Defendants.

We have substantial courtroom experience and are able to advocate our clients' positions on a wide variety of substantive legal issues and are at home in courts, agencies and informal settings.

As litigators, we are grounded in evidence and procedure and have become highly experienced in trial tactics and the presentation of evidence. We handle many trial cases and are known for our skill, aggressiveness, hard work and ingenuity.

We cultivate experience in developing effective fact witnesses and experts who can communicate with juries in a variety of courtroom settings. This, in turn, enhances the likelihood that our clients will obtain not only favorable litigation results but also succeed in Alternative Dispute Resolution settings.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is the process of resolving legal conflicts without going to trial. Our attorneys represent clients in mediations and arbitrations on an ongoing basis. We have extensive expertise in determining when a form of ADR is in the best interest of clients and meets their needs better than traditional litigation, and we routinely advise our clients on the legal consequences flowing from particular terms and conditions of ADR options.

O'Brien & Ulibarri, P.C., has an extensive practice involving the prosecution and defense of personal injury, property damage and economic loss cases based on tort theories of recovery, including negligence, gross negligence, products liability, workplace injury, intentional tort claims, wrongful death, survivor actions, catastrophic injury and fraud. Our lawyers handle personal injury cases in state and federal courts throughout New Mexico. We aggressively investigate personal injury claims of any type with the goal of winning through an early summary judgment, an advantageous settlement or a favorable jury verdict.

Every tort case has two parts, liability and damages, connected by the concept of causation. More often than not, cases are complicated by allegations that the actions of several parties contributed to the loss. Success in tort law requires the attorney to reduce the complex to the simple, to prepare experts to testify in a way that juries can understand and to maintain focus on the core issues.

Our Firm's lawyers bring a significant level of experience to the handling of General Tort Liability Claims. We have successfully defended cases throughout New Mexico referred by a wide variety of insurance companies, third party administrators and self-insureds arising from auto or truck collisions; premises related injuries; construction claims; and intentional torts, including civil assault, sexual abuse, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. When requested, our lawyers also serve on a "quick response team" to investigate significant losses within a day or two of the occurrence, in order to find and preserve evidence that would otherwise be lost. On behalf of Plaintiffs, we work aggressively to resolve the case as favorably as possible. While every case is unique, and must be evaluated on its own merits, we have in the past five years settled plaintiff's cases for six and seven figure amounts.

O'Brien & Ulibarri, P.C., is proud of its varied experience in the field of products liability. Traditionally, we have primarily represented defendants in court proceedings. However, we do represent plaintiffs in appropriate cases as well.

We can assist clients with questions regarding issues ranging from appropriate warnings to be given users or consumers of products, placement of such warnings, appropriate content for operating or equipment manuals, and necessity for inspection or testing.

We have represented clients who either brought or faced claims arising from, among other things: heavy industrial equipment, automatic doors and automatic door sensors, kitchen equipment, tires, pharmaceuticals, breast implants, medical supplies, bottling equipment, chemicals, asbestos, car equipment, hand tools, consumer products and other manufacturing and design defects.

Physicians, surgeons, medical technicians, nurses, and other health care professionals owe a duty to their patients. In New Mexico, that duty is based on a recognized standard of care. Medical malpractice claims typically involve the negligent breach of the applicable standard of care and often involve negligent treatment, misdiagnosis, or the failure to diagnose existing injuries or conditions that result in serious injuries, illness, disease, or suffering that may have been avoided or prevented.

We can help you determine whether medical malpractice has occurred when you or someone you love is injured as a result of negligence or misconduct of individuals in the medical field.

Our attorneys have handled insurance coverage disputes involving all types of liability and first-party property insurance policies, including policies that provide comprehensive general liability, all-risks, fire, environmental, directors' and officers', employment, liability, vendors and advertising coverage.

We advise employers in every facet of the employment relationship in order to help our clients create and maintain a productive and well-managed work force. We assist employers with respect to work force restructuring and employee terminations, discipline and performance. We counsel employers on compliance with the various leave of absence issues under the Family and Medical Leave Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, and COBRA, as well as applicable state and local laws.

We provide advice and assistance with respect to investigations of employee misconduct including allegations of harassment, discrimination, dishonesty and substance abuse. We conduct comprehensive audits of employment practices and present seminars to our clients' managers, personnel/human resources directors and other employees on pertinent employment-related subjects, including sexual harassment, wage and hour laws, disability leaves, and equal employment opportunity laws.

We draft employment documents of all types including personnel policies, employee handbooks, and affirmative action plans which are designed to fulfill employers' obligations under the law and to anticipate issues that arise in the work place.

We represent employers and employees with respect to such federal laws as the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as applicable state and local laws prohibiting discrimination and harassment in employment.

We have experience in representing clients in litigation in federal and state courts and administrative proceedings involving claims of discrimination on the basis of age, sex, race, national origin, religion, disability, and other protected characteristics, as well as claims of sexual and racial harassment and/or retaliation.

Employment-at-Will/Employment Contracts/Wrongful Discharge: The recent past has created new and varied nuances within the traditional employment-at-will principle. In some instances the employer-employee relationship has been altered by court decisions. These recent decisions have created new rights and causes of action for employees and also defined new opportunities and defenses for employers. These changes sound in both contract and in tort and have significantly affected the dynamic between employers and employees.

O'Brien & Ulibarri, P.C., has an extensive practice involving the prosecution and defense of personal injury, property damage and economic loss cases based on tort theories of recovery, including negligence, gross negligence, products liability, workplace injury, intentional tort claims, wrongful death, survivor actions, catastrophic injury and fraud.

From the typical auto accident to "slip/trip and fall" claims to the more serious cases involving rape, murder and assault, our lawyers have substantial expertise in defending the whole realm of auto and commercial liability claims. Our experience includes retail establishment security cases, parking lots, apartment complexes, wet floors, latent defects, electrical contractor and attractive nuisance claims, as well as property claims involving damage to land by virtue of design/drainage difficulties.

The O'Brien & Ulibarri, P.C, Collection and Subrogation Department is one of New Mexico's most comprehensive and experienced subrogation collection and claims recovery firms.

The subrogation department is currently pursuing collection in over 4,500 litigated and non-litigated files. We are also pleased to offer many different state of the art mechanisms to locate people who owe you money, but are no longer at an address known to you.

We have access to credit bureau reporting information. We have the ability to also review public records regarding any and all filings in the District and State Courts of New Mexico. Further, we maintain access to databases, via a leading web based information and law source provider. Those databases allow us to find information in any state of the union and provide alternate addresses and potential contact information as well as last known familial contacts. It also provides information regarding property ownership within each county in the state, which allows for the filing of lis pendens during the action itself.

Whether the debtor is an individual or a corporation, there is a dizzying amount of information available to us regarding their assets and location.