Despite significant state and federal efforts to curb workplace sexual harassment, it continues to be an issue for millions of Americans every single year. Think about it: millions of employees, who spend their workdays agitated, embarrassed, and constantly in fear of when their harasser will target them next. Not only does sexual harassment create an inhospitable and unproductive work environment, it can even be illegal once it escalates. As a victim, you have rights! No one should have to work in an environment where they are constantly in fear of sexual harassment. If you’ve been subjected ..read more

In April 2024, California’s 500,000+ fast food workers will get a pay raise! The California minimum wage is increasing to $20 per hour for fast food workers. This is an increase from the current minimum wage of $15.50, which was set to increase to $16 an hour on January 1st. In September 2023, California Governor Gavin Newson signed the new legislation (AB 1228), which also authorized the Fast Food Council to set fast food restaurant standards for minimum wage and working conditions. This was good news for the many fast food workers across the state who have been fighting for better wages and ..read more

Los Angeles, Calif., Dec. 8, 2023 — A federal civil rights lawsuit may proceed against the Los Angeles Police Department and several officers in a case that involves officers’ beating the founder of Black Lives Matter South Pasadena and shooting her multiple times at point-blank with so-called “less lethal” projectiles. Fahren James was left with a hole in her abdomen, embedded with metal fragments from the projectile, multiple contusions, and still suffers from injuries she sustained on May 30, 2020, outside CBS Studios, when citizens were protesting the killing of George Floyd at the hands o ..read more

MARINA DEL REY, CALIF., Nov. 20, 2023 – V. James DeSimone has been named one of California’s top plaintiffs attorneys by the Daily Journal. The honor was announced Nov. 15 where DeSimone was among a select group of men and women honored in the publication’s “2023 Top Plaintiffs Attorneys” list. An accompanying story focused on DeSimone’s recent activities inside and outside the courtroom, including earlier this year when he argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a lawsuit involving LAPD officers responsible for the death of Daniel Rivera. DeSimone successfully contended that a dis ..read more

LOS ANGELES, CALIF., Oct. 26, 2023 – A security guard was left blind in one eye following a violent arrest by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies outside a popular Inglewood hookah lounge he was assigned to protect, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday. Blake Anderson, 25, was escorting a woman to her car about 1:15 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2022, when an LASCD cruiser rolled into the Good Batch Hookah Lounge parking lot. A deputy hopped out and approached Anderson from his right side, according to the lawsuit. Previous injuries had left Anderson with hearing loss in ..read more

MARINA DEL REY, CALIF., Oct. 27, 2023 – V. James DeSimone has been named one of the leading employment attorneys in Southern California by the Los Angeles Business Journal. The honor was announced Oct. 23 where DeSimone was among 62 men and women honored in the publication’s “Leaders of Influence – Employment and Labor Attorneys 2023” special supplement. In announcing the honor, the publication’s authors noted the evolving intricacies of employment law: “The leading employment attorneys and experts in the region have their finger on the ever-changing pulse of labor legislation, what changes ha ..read more

Riverside, Calif., Sept. 12, 2023 — A Riverside Superior Court judge upheld an attorney’s First Amendment rights to free speech involving a lawsuit filed on behalf of a family suing a UC Riverside fraternity over an alleged 2018 hazing death.  Tyler Hilliard, a 20-year-old business major died Sept. 16, 2018, during an alleged hazing ritual while pledging to Alpha Phi Alpha – Pi Epsilon Chapter. One of the family’s attorneys, V. James DeSimone, of V. James DeSimone Law, posted a TikTok discussing the Hilliards’ wrongful death lawsuit, drawing attention to the fears witnesses and victims ha ..read more

Court Strips LAPD Officers of Qualified Immunity in Rivera Death Case, Victory for V. James DeSimone in 9th Circuit Appeals LOS ANGELES, July 19, 2023 — The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed and remanded a lower court’s decision which granted four LAPD officers qualified immunity in the 2020 death of Daniel Rivera. Rivera, 37, died at the scene when several officers applied force upon finding him in a semiconscious position lying face down at the bottom of a wash. * Download Memorandum Ruling * READ Original Press Release From April 2021 Here In their July 17, 2023, memorandum decision ..read more

Los Angeles Civil Rights attorney V. James DeSimone on June 7, 2023, argued before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that a district court ruling to grant four LAPD officers qualified immunity should be overturned due to alleged police misconduct in the 2020 death of Daniel Rivera, who was having a mental health crisis. In August of 2020, LAPD officers responded to reports of Mr. Rivera acting disoriented and approaching people’s doors and windows. Upon their arrival, Mr. Rivera hopped a fence and rolled down a steep embankment, eventually landing in a muddy wash below. The officers found him ..read more

6:30 pm Saturday, May 13 – On the corner of Venice Blvd. and Cardiff Ave. CULVER CITY, CALIF., May 11, 2023 – The family of Guillermo Medina will be joined by community activists at a peaceful vigil to be held to commemorate what would have been his 40th birthday as they seek justice for his death at the hands of Culver City Police. Medina was unarmed and jogging away from where he had wrecked his car when he was shot in the back and killed on Dec. 18, 2022 by an officer with a military-style rifle. Police had been called earlier to help when Medina, who had paranoid schizophrenia, was h ..read more