A Strong Defense Starts Here
Biography
Ms. Bernhardt is an experienced trial attorney. Ms. Bernhardt has three decades of experience defending insurance defense and public entity defense cases. Ms. Bernhardt has tried cases to juries and judges in cases all throughout California. She has taken and defended thousands of depositions of every type of witnesses, from plaintiffs and defendants to expert doctors, economists, engineers, accident reconstructionists and human factors experts. Ms. Bernhardt was a senior insurance defense partner at a large law firm, serving as the insurance defense practice group chair, before coming to the DeMaria Law Firm. Ms. Bernhardt works on the defense team for all DeMaria Law Firm cases, in insurance defense and public entity defense.
Practice Areas
- General Civil Litigation In Areas of Agricultural Law
- Business Law
- Class Actions
- Commercial Litigation
- Construction Law
- Consumer Law
- Contracts
- Fraud & Deceit
- Unfair Competition
- Insurance Defense
- Negligence
- Personal Injury
- Premises Liability
- Products Liability
- Torts and Trucking Law
- Family Law Matters
Professional Associations
- State Bar of California, Member
- Association of Northern Defense Counsel, Member
- Fresno County Bar Association, Member
- California Women Lawyers Association, Member
- Fresno County Women Lawyers Association, Member
- Previously on the Board (2001-2008) and as President (2007) of the Fresno County Women Lawyers Association
- Previously served on the Board (2010-2023)
- President (2020-2022) of the Fresno County Bar Association
Current Employment Position
- Attorney, Of Counsel
Published Works
- A California appellate decision holds that trial courts cannot compel parties in a complex civil action to attend and pay for private mediation.
Education
- University of San Diego School of Law, San Diego, California
- Juris Doctor - 1991
- University of California, San Diego, California
- Bachelor of Arts - 1987
- Major: Management Science and Economics
Bar Admissions
- California, 1991
Pro-Bono Activities
- Board of Directors (2011 to present) for the Central California Women’s Conference
- Board of Directors for the St. Francis Homeless Project
- Serves on the steering committee for Project First Step (2005 to present) through Central California Legal Services
- Past Director and Mentor at R.O.S.E. (Realizing Options for Student Excellence)
Honors
- AV Preeminent Peer Review rated with Martindale-Hubble
- Selected for inclusion in the Northern California Super Lawyers list (2016-2024) for her primary area of practice in Civil Litigation Defense
- 2013, Ms. Bernhardt was recognized by the Fresno County Bar Association as Pro Bono Attorney of the Year
- 2014, she was the recipient of the prestigious Justice Pauline Hanson Award