V. James DeSimone 

With more than 30 years of experience in the plaintiff-side of employment law, DeSimone has represented an array of clients in many employment and civil rights matters.

At V. James DeSimone Law, the firm founder has gone up against several cities and counties in California in litigation involving wrongful termination based on medical or racial discrimination, COVID-19 wrongful death matters, and other cutting-edge employment cases.

In 2022, DeSimone secured a $1.5 million jury verdict for the grieving family of a schizophrenic homeless man over the Orange County Coroner’s misidentification of his body. Kerrigan and Meikle v. Orange County Coroner’s Office, 30-2018-00973047 (Orange Sup. Ct., filed Feb. 13, 2018).

“The family was told the body had been found on a sidewalk behind a Verizon store and that his identity had been verified through fingerprints and identification, when in fact the body was that of another homeless person,” DeSimone said.

He was able to secure the verdict by demonstrating in a jury trial that the county of Orange acted negligently on “multiple levels” in its misidentification of the body, and that it also engaged in a cover-up and made intentional misrepresentations to his father and sister. The jury found for the plaintiff on negligence and intentional and negligent misrepresentations.

DeSimone also secured last year a $3.5 million settlement for the family of a female inmate who was hanged within earshot of corrections officers by her cellmate inside the California Institution for Women in Chino. This followed weeks of officers who later admitted they witnessed the escalating conflict between the two women but disregarded the victim’s pleas to change cells. Sheri Graves v. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 5:17-cv-01086 (C.D. Cal., filed May 31, 2017).

“This is a textbook case on what not to do in the face of ongoing threats and we are hopeful that lessons learned can be applied to better assure the safety of women in prison,” he said.

—Devon Belcher