James R. Ballard

Partner

E-mail: jim@sshbclaw.com

Telephone: 619-236-8821

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Biography

Mr. Ballard specializes in civil litigation, alternate dispute resolution and trial practice, primarily in the areas of business and commercial litigation, employment litigation and securities arbitrations. Mr. Ballard represents individuals, small businesses and institutional clients. He provides each client with personal service regardless of the size of the client or the complexity of the legal services to be rendered. Although primarily a trial attorney, Mr. Ballard is adept at finding creative solutions to pressing problems in an effort to avoid litigation and the attendant costs.

Mr. Ballard was honored with a 2008 Outstanding Trial Attorney Award from the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego and was honored at CASD's annual "An Evening With The Trial Stars" dinner.

Mr. Ballard was named to the 2009 and 2010 editions of Super Lawyers in the Labor & Employment Category.

Mr. Ballard is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest rating possible.

Recent Cases/Settlements

On November 5, 2007, James Ballard received a judgment in excess of $6.3 million on behalf of 75 clients involved in failed land deal in Colorado. Factoring in settlements reached prior to the trial, Mr. Ballard recovered over $8 million for the defrauded clients. The lawsuit, a combination of contract and security claims, was the culmination of over two years of work investigating and prosecuting the claims.

On October 31, 2006, James Ballard obtained a $5.96 million jury verdict (later reduced after post-trial motions) in a malicious prosecution action on behalf of his client Dr. Sara Sukumar. The case was tried to a jury for over four weeks and resulted in one of the biggest verdicts for malicious prosecution in the history of San Diego County and one of the largest verdicts for the 2006 year. Jim also handled the appeal of the matter which resulted in the judgment being affirmed. Ultimately, after costs and interests were added to the judgment, Jim collected over $3 million for his client.

On April 18, 2007, James Ballard successfully defended Neopost, Inc. against two claims of disability discrimination and one claim of failure to accommodate a disability by Plaintiff Anthony Kuchta. The matter was tried to a jury for over three weeks in Alameda County Superior Court. The jury took less than two hours to return defense verdicts on all claims. This is Mr. Ballard's second successful defense of Neopost, Inc. against claims of discrimination.

On January 30, 2006, James Ballard successfully prosecuted a claim for misappropriation of trade secrets on behalf of Neopost, Inc. against a former Neopost employee. In the same trial, Mr. Ballard also successfully defended Neopost against the former employee's cross-claims for discrimination, harassment and retaliation. The case was tried before Judge Bert Glennon, Jr., in Van Nuys Superior Court over the course of three weeks.

Practice Areas

Employment Litigation

Business & Commercial Litigation

Landlord-Tenant

Securities Arbitration

Education

University of California at Los Angeles (B.A., 1992)

University of San Diego School of Law (J.D., 1995)

Member

San Diego County, California and American Bar Associations

Consumer Attorneys of San Diego

William B. Enright Chapter of the American Inns of Court

Mr. Ballard is also a lecturer for Continuing Education of the Bar in the areas of discovery, trial preparation and trial techniques.

Member, University of San Diego School of Law Alumni Association Board of Directors