Jones Bell represents businesses, their principals, partners, officers, directors, and employees in actions involving matters of contract, business torts, and statutory liabilities. In addition to traditional business claims, such as breach of contract, negligence, misrepresentation, and breach of fiduciary duty, we regularly litigate unfair competition, false advertising, trade secret, licensing, antitrust, UCC sales and secured transactions, product liability and environmental disputes. Jones Bell has also taken an active role in the litigation of new e-commerce issues, including one of the earliest cases enforcing trademark rights over internet domain name registration in California.
In addition to traditional litigation in state and federal courts, Jones Bell has decades of experience in resolving cases by means of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and settlement on terms favorable to our clients. Thus, while Jones Bell is exceptionally proud of its strong trial practice, we make sure that every matter we handle is assessed for possible benefits of ADR and settlement.
Jones Bell’s civil trial and appellate practice runs both broad and deep. The firm has successfully litigated from trial through appeal matters in state and federal courts, including bankruptcy court. The firm’s cases range from routine contract disputes to high-profile and complex cases, representative actions, mass actions, and class actions, frequently involving national corporations and issues important to thousands of consumers, investors, or employees.
Examples of our work at the highest levels and in the forefront of civil litigation may be found in published decisions, such as: Dean Witter Reynolds v. Byrd, 470 U.S. 213 (1985) (the leading U.S. Supreme Court case holding that the Federal Arbitration Act requires courts to compel arbitration of claims even when the result would be the possibly inefficient maintenance of separate proceedings in different forums); Kwikset Corp. v. Superior Court (Benson), 51 Cal. 4th 310 (2011) (the leading California Supreme Court Case concerning the standard for determining whether a plaintiff has standing to assert a claim under California’s Unfair Competition Law (the “UCL”) (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200)); Dodge, Warren and Peters Ins. Services, Inc. v. Riley, 105 Cal. App. 4th 1414 (2003) (the leading case concerning the right to preliminary injunctive relief requiring the preservation of evidence in trade secrets cases); TITAN/Value Equities Group, Inc. v. Superior Court (Balestrieri), 29 Cal. App. 4th 482 (1994) (the leading case holding that a court lacks jurisdiction to interfere with litigation once the dispute has been ordered to arbitration); Reed v. Mutual Service Corporation, 106 Cal. App. 4th 1359 (2003) (the leading California case affirming arbitrators’ authority to dismiss time-barred claims without a hearing on the merits); and Colgan v. Leatherman, 135 Cal. App. 4th 663 (2006) (a leading case concerning the showing required to obtain restitutionary relief under the UCL and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (the “CLRA”)).