James Roberts | Gardendale Personal Injury Lawyer

• Member | Alabama State Bar Association

• Jim Roberts res both plaintiffs and defendants in civil litigation. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, he became an Army Engineer. He received a law degree from the University of Alabama Law School, where he was a senior editor of the Alabama Law Review, a member of the scholastic honor societies of Phi Kappa Phi and the Order of the Coif, and in the top 10% of his class. Jim was a shareholder in the law firm of Sirote & Permutt, P.C., when it was the largest firm in the state, then a named partner in the firm of Townes, Woods, & Roberts, PC, and is now the managing member of The Jim Roberts Law Firm, LLC.
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• Jim was one of the plaintiff's lawyers in the trial of Steiner Marine Corporation v. RCA Corporation and General Electric Company, which resulted in a jury verdict of $51,300,000. It was the largest jury verdict in Alabama history at the time. He has extensive experience with bid protests and other litigation related to government contracts and subcontracts, including the protection of intellectual property, small business set-aside contracts, 8(a) and SDVOSB contracts, and the application of federal contracts law to mergers and acquisitions of government contractors. He reed two small business federal government contractors in the acquisition of their companies by Thermo Electron Corporation and BAE Systems for $130,000,000 and $82,000,000 respectively.
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• Jim also has a very active general litigation practice. He was lead counsel in the wrongful death trial of Fry v. High Note Lounge, Inc., which resulted in a jury verdict of $20,000,000. He obtained judgments for his clients in the amount of $6,500,000 in a nationally publicized case where a minister shot his wife and daughter. Jim reed the plaintiffs in the personal injury case of Murray v. Moore Asphalt and Paving, Inc., which resulted in a jury verdict of $3,050,000. He negotiated settlements of more than $4,000,000 in a murder for hire case, nearly $4,000,000 for two deaths caused by a tractor-trailer, more than $1,000,000 for a severe back injury caused by a drunk driver, more than $1,000,000 for a car wreck death on I-65, nearly $1,000,000 for the state law claims related to a sexual harassment case, and almost $1,000,000 for a family who was wrongfully accused of arson by their insurance company when their house caught on fire. He obtained nearly $1,000,000 for 7 families in a subdivision whose homes were collapsing due to subsidence caused by underground mining.
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• Some of Jim’s current cases include the reation of a family whose mortgage company caused them to be significantly underinsured for a fire that destroyed their home, a family who was defrauded by a termite company, a pedestrian who was hit by a delivery van, and the reation of a pedestrian who was hit and badly injured by a drunk driver.
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In 2017, a 70 year old daughter sued her 89 year old mother for $5,000,000. The mother had given a deed to the family business to the daughter in 1983 while the mother was going through a bad divorce. The mother forgot about the deed once the divorce was resolved, and operated the family business there for the next 37 years. Mother also allowed daughter to build a $350,000 house on land the mother owned, but would not give the daughter a deed to that land because mother allegedly told daughter that she would ""inherit everything anyway once I am gone."" In 2015, mother and daughter became crosswise, and mother changed her will to completely disinherit daughter. Mother also changed the beneficiary on her annuities and other investments, and placed most of her assets in a trust that would benefit a grandson upon the mother's death. Daughter filed her lawsuit in an attempt to establish her claim to the 1983 deeded property, to establish a claim on the house that she built, and to take the rest of the mother's estate on the theory that once mother made the promise that she would ""inherit everything"", mother was obligated to keep daughter in the will. After 18 months of litigation in federal court, we saved all of the mother's assets. We got the case settled for less than what the house was worth, with daughter executing a deed to return the family business to mother and the dismissal of all other claims. Example case No. 2: In 2016, a driver under the influence of alcohol hit and nearly killed my client in Fairhope, Alabama. Another lawyer had the case for almost 2 years, and did not make any progress on resolving it. The client asked me to handle the matter because the statute of limitations had almost run. We filed a lawsuit in federal court based on diversity jurisdiction (my client was a citizen of Florida, and the defendants were citizens of Alabama). We sued the defendant driver for negligence and wantonness, and the local Elks Lodge (where the driver obtained his alcohol) for Dram Shop Act claims. We settled the case in 2018 against the driver for his policy limits, recovered the plaintiff's underinsured insurance (""UIM"") policy limits, and made a substantial confidential recovery in 2019 against the Elks Lodge. Example case No. 3: A Methodist minister shot and killed his wife and shot his daughter on January 10, 2013. We filed a lawsuit against the minister and against the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church (the ""Conference"") related to the shooting after the minister was acquitted by reason of mental defect and sent to the state mental institution for therapy. Our theory was that the minister was having mental problems that the Conference knew about, but the Conference did not provide effective assistance to him which would have prevented the shootings. We took a $6,500,000 judgment against the minister in 2016, and settled the case against the Conference for a confidential amount in 2017. During that litigation, two insurance companies (Cincinnati Insurance Company, and GuideOne Insurance Company) should have provided a defense and insurance coverage on the minister's behalf, but they refused to do so. We sued the two insurance companies for claims under Alabama's Direct Action statutes in 2018, and we are currently pursuing that case. Example case No. 4: A Mexican citizen on a US work visa was stopped in a local town for DUI, possession of marijuana, failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, improper lane change, and speeding. This created a severe complication for the Mexican citizen because if he were convicted of the DUI and possession of marijuana charges, agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (""ICE"") would have him deported back to Mexico. The problem was made more serious because the Mexican client could not participate in the typical deferment from prosecution programs offered by most cities in Alabama because he would have to enter a guilty plea, then be approved for the deferment program, and then have his case nolle prossed at the end of the program. The entry of the guilty plea would be reported in the NCIC system, which would alert ICE to have the client deported. We worked out an informal deferment from prosecution program with the prosecutor and judge, which is believed to have been the first of its kind in the municipality involved in this case. The Mexican client (1) was allowed to voluntarily install an interlock device on his car, (2) he was allowed to enter into the drug and alcohol program called TASC on a voluntary basis, and (3) he voluntarily went to defensive driving school. Once all three of those programs were completed, he appeared before the judge on September 6, 2019, where the DUI and the marijuana charges were nolle prossed without the entry of a guilty plea, and he paid fines on the moving traffic violations so that no report was ever made which would trigger ICE's involvement.

First, the lawyer and the client must get along with each other. The lawyer will have more experience in legal matters, but he cannot ever forget that the client is the boss. By the same token, the client should realize that a lawyer will give him/her candid opinions and guidance, and will not always tell the client only what the client wants to hear.

Name, address for confidential mail, phone numbers, age, email address, a description of any documentation the client has related to the case, how the client got our phone number, the client's timeframe for the resolution of the matter, the date of the incident (for statute of limitations purposes), the names and contact information for any witnesses, and similar information.

Former mayor of Morris, Alabama, former President and Board member of the Cullman-Jefferson Counties Gas District, sponsor and coach of the Debate Team at Mortimer Jordan High School, sponsor the Teacher of the Month program at Hewitt Trussville Middle School, Member of the Gardendale Chamber of Commerce, general counsel to Gardendale First Baptist Church (largest Southern Baptist Church in Alabama), former city attorney for Morris, Alabama, on the interviewing panel for Congressman Gary Palmer's Service Academy nominating committee, mentor to numerous younger lawyers.