Ryan D. Saba

Civil Litigation

Saba has been focusing on trial work since launching his firm with partner James R. Rosen in 1999. “We’re trial lawyers,” he said. “That’s what we like to do.”

Current matters include representing Keith Griffin, a former nonequity partner in the now-defunct firm Girardi Keese, in contempt proceedings related to the Lion Air disaster.

He and his firm are often brought in on existing cases as trial approaches. For instance, he is suing the California State University system along with co-counsel Dustin L. Collier. They allege the university allowed buildings on its 23 campuses to deteriorate into health and safety hazards for students and faculty. Collier came up with the idea to file the case under PAGA. Shepler v. Board of Trustees of the California State University, BC705095 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed March 4, 2018).

Saba & Rosen’s two decades of experience isn’t the only reason for their success. “Sometimes we go outside the box to find evidence,” Saba said.

For instance, in one of his better-known victories, he brought in a $25.7 million jury verdict for a teenager paralyzed by a truck while crossing the street by showing the city was at fault for a badly designed and placed crosswalk. The jury laid 80% of the blame on the city for the placement and design of a dangerous crosswalk. Tusant v. City of Hemet, MCC1701026 (Riv. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 12, 2017).

“We found our best witness by just combing the neighborhood and knocking on doors,” he said. “She was actually on the city’s parking and transportation committee, and she told us that people had been complaining about that [crosswalk’s] particular location for years.”

Saba and his team achieved a confidential eight-figure settlement last summer in a medical malpractice case after learning that the defendant neurosurgeon, whose errors left a man paralyzed, had a mental disorder making surgery risky, but that his employer’s medical group ordered him to continue working. “We discovered it on our own,” Saba said. “We expect that’s why they settled.”

– Don DeBenedictis