J. Bernard Alexander III

When attorneys get stuck on a strategy for their clients, many turn to Alexander, an employment lawyer known for winning large awards in discrimination, harassment and retaliation cases.

“I rarely get the easy cases,” he said.

Two of Alexander’s most recent wins come from cases that were brought to him. This past March, he won a $5.3 million verdict for Harold Carter, a 25-year FedEx Corp. employee who claimed the courier-delivery service fired him after failing to accommodate his disability following an on-the-job neck injury.

The challenge came from Carter’s history of filing internal complaints throughout his career, making him “less sympathetic,” Alexander said. Rather than ignore them, Alexander created a visual listing all of Carter’s prior complaints, none of which were related to the injury he sustained in 2014. Carter v. Federal Express Corporation, BC658923 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Apr. 24, 2017).

The result? “Every time the defense tried to bring up issues back then, they made themselves look bad,” Alexander said. “It looked as though they didn’t want to fight the root battle.”

A month later, Alexander won another case he co-counseled, this time a $1.3 million award for Aron Monterroso, a 29-year employee for Los Angeles-based aviation company Hydraulics International Inc. The company claimed Monterroso abandoned his $19-an-hour job after he flew to Guatemala to visit his ailing mother.

Hydraulics International claimed Monterroso called and said he would come back to work early then terminated him when he didn’t show up. When he got the case, Alexander immediately noticed the inconsistencies.

“He never changed his ticket,” Alexander said. “They were basically relying on the fact he was not going to find an attorney willing to take the case of a guy making less than $20 per hour, speaking Spanish, who couldn’t explain why he got fired.”

Instead, Alexander filed suit claiming the leave was protected under the California Family Rights Act and brought up members of Monterroso’s family, who also traveled with him to Guatemala, to corroborate his story. Monterroso v. Hydraulics International Inc., BC654053 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Mar. 14, 2017). Alexander said these kinds of cases excite him the most because he can help workers that employers regularly underestimate and devalue.

“Every time I win a case like this where a person is making less than $30-an-hour, that case becomes the basis for others to settle their cases,” Alexander said. They also become fodder for the California Employment Lawyers Association’s annual trial college, which Alexander started in 2014 to give younger attorneys a crash course in litigation involving low-wage earners.

“There are no perfect cases,” Alexander said. “There are just attorneys who are able to maximize the important issues and minimize the problems.”

— Glenn Jeffers