Jason S. Hartley

Antitrust, Unfair Competition, Class Action & Breach of Contract

Jason S. Hartley is the managing partner of the firm he founded in 2018, Hartley LLP, to handle commercial contingency class actions, antitrust matters and unfair competition claims.

“This was a practice I’d begun to build beginning in 2001 working at other firms,” he said. “Then I decided it was time to take all the risks and reap all the rewards myself.”

Business is good. “If you’d asked me 16 months ago whether I could be any busier, I’d have said no and I would have been wrong,” he said. “Now I have eight attorneys working full time, and we’re starting to do individual commercial claims, business versus business, and I find that rewarding as well.”

Hartley explained such cases involve clients more invested in the matter than class plaintiffs. “Also, clients in individual cases often cover the costs. In class actions, we attorneys cover the costs. And these individual business cases are less complex and they often offer a better story to tell the jury than antitrust claims.”

So far this year he has obtained a $52 million ice-breaker settlement in a large commodities antitrust case as he continues the litigation against the remaining defendants.

Hartley declined to name the case until an opt-out deadline has passed. “It’s always good when a first defendant breaks the dam because the others know they won’t get out for less,” he said.

Earlier this year, Hartley was appointed liaison counsel in a data breach class action involving the disclosure of medical information on thousands of UC San Diego Health patients. Tsvetanova v. Regents of the University of California, 37-2021-39888-CU-PO-CTL (San Diego Super. Ct., filed Sept. 20, 2021).

“We’re in discovery to learn the number of individuals affected. We believe it’s in the tens of thousands, and that’s especially important because, under the CCPA [the California Consumer Protection Act], there are statutory damages of up to $750 per individual. We need the number to inform our settlement talks,” Hartley said.

Hartley is lead counsel in a class action on behalf of high school girls who were the victims of a voyeuristic male coach who operated a hidden female locker room bathroom camera for years. Baker et al. v. Chaffey Joint Union High School District et al., CIVSB2128630 (S. Bernardino Co. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 8, 2021).

“It’s a horrible Peeping Tom case, and fortunately, the perpetrator is in jail. I wear the white hat in this one,” Hartley said.

– John Roemer