James S. Bostwick

TOP 100 TRIAL LAWYER IN THE NATION

James Bostwick is one of the most respected personal injury, medical and legal malpractice lawyers in the nation. As Founder of Bostwick & Peterson, he’s cultivated a reputation as a top-tier specialist in catastrophic injuries including brain, spinal cord and amputations. He has handled hundreds of complex negligence cases and has secured numerous record-setting verdicts and settlements for his clients in multiple jurisdictions. Read more about Bostwick in this recent Lawdragon Hall of Fame Lawyer Limelight. 

Representing the Injured Across the Nation

Bostwick has his main offices in the San Francisco Bay Area but practices in courts throughout California, Hawaii, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nevada, Washington, Florida, Arizona, and beyond. He is one of a few lawyers in the U.S. deemed a nationally Certified Medical Malpractice Specialist by the American Board of Professional Liability.

One of the Nation's Most Recognized Personal Injury Attorneys

Held in high regard by his peers, Bostwick has earned widespread recognition from many invitation-only organizations: Inner Circle of Advocates, limited to the top 100 plaintiff trial lawyers in the U.S., and considered the most exclusive trial lawyer organization in the world; The International Academy of Trial Lawyers, a group limited to the Top 500 plaintiff and defense trial lawyers in the U.S.; American Board of Trial Advocates; and the Lawdragon 500, all of which are based on peer selection. He’s been named to Best Lawyers in America© every year since its inception in 1983 and was named Best Lawyer’s Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2012, rated among the Top 4 Trial Lawyers by the California Bar Journal, and featured in Newsweek, Town and Country, and Forbes as one of America’s top trial lawyers.

In the past several years alone, Bostwick and the firm have secured many additional high-value settlements and verdicts in complex birth injury, medical malpractice, and personal injury claims ranging from $5 million to $21 million. These recoveries all reflect “present value,” rather than “payout” calculations which inflate the true value of case results.

A Legacy of Record-Setting Results

Bostwick has spent more than 40 years specializing in complex medical and legal malpractice as well as general personal injury law, and has set the bar for litigating some of the most complex and high-stakes cases in the country. He and the firm have set and broken many records – many of them his own.

In 1978, Bostwick obtained the largest medical malpractice verdict in U.S. history, and spent the years since setting state and national records for high-value recoveries in legal and medical malpractice, birth injury, and other personal injury claims.

Since January 2018, the firm has twice broken the State of California record for largest medical malpractice verdicts or settlements:

• In early 2018, Attorney Bostwick and the firm obtained a $14M malpractice settlement just before trial involving a neonatal brain injury. At the time, the result was the largest present value settlement in California history for a case that had not been tried to verdict.*

• In May 2019, Co-Founder Erik Peterson reached a $17M birth injury settlement over brain damage occurring during pregnancy – the largest medical malpractice present value result (settlement or verdict) in California state history.*

*Note that medical malpractice cases have strict “cap” limitations on non-economic damages in California. This very unfair law has not changed since 1975 and severely restricts recoveries. This explains why settlements and verdicts in California are much less than for comparable medical cases in other States.

Verdicts & Settlements

• $21M – Record verdict for a mild traumatic brain injury, auto/truck accident. (2000)

• $17M – Largest California medical malpractice settlement to date. (2019)

• $14M – Largest California medical malpractice settlement at the time. (2018)

• $11.4M – Largest California birth injury settlement at the time. (2010)

• $11M – Largest injury settlement in Hawaii history at the time. (2000)

• $8.9M – Largest birth injury award against the U.S. Government in the US Federal Court at the time. (Hawaii, 1985)

• $8.0M - Largest medical malpractice settlement in Oklahoma history at the time. (1985)

• $7.6M – Largest medical malpractice verdict in the U.S. at the time (1978).

• $6.4M – Largest legal malpractice verdict for an individual in California at the time. (1984)

Awards & Accolades

• Inducted into the Lawdragon 500 Hall of Fame

• San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association (SFTLA) Lifetime Achievement Award

• Lawdragon Top 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers (2020-Present)

• The Best Lawyers in America© (1983-Present)

• Best Lawyers “Trial Lawyer of the Year” (2012)

• Super Lawyers® Magazine (2004-Present)

• Super Lawyers® Top 100: Northern California Super Lawyers (2004-2008 and 2012)

• Top 4 Trial Lawyers, California Bar Journal

• Top 5 Medical Malpractice Trial Lawyers in SF (Chronicle)

• Top 60 Trial Lawyers in America (Forbes, Town & Country)

• Top Rating by Avvo.com

• AV® Preeminent™ Rated, Martindale-Hubbell®

Professional Memberships / Distinctions

• Invited Member, Past President (2003), International Academy of Trial Lawyers (Top 500 trial lawyers in the US)

• Invited Member, Inner Circle of Advocates (Top 100 plaintiffs’ trial lawyers in the US)

• Invited Member, American Board of Trial Advocates

• Founding Member, American Board of Professional Liability (Certification of special competence on the field of professional liability) and recertified in 2000

• San Francisco and California Trial Lawyers “Trial Lawyer of the Year” Nominee, 1978

• Consumer Attorneys of California “Trial Lawyer of the Year “Nominee, 2000

• Presidential Award of Merit, Consumer Attorneys of California, 2000

• National Law Journal Elite Trial Lawyers National Finalist, Medical Malpractice (2019)

• San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association Lifetime Achievement Award

Publications

• Author of published novel “Acts of Omission”, which was nominated for the 2020 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction (Post Hill Press, 2019)

• Author of “Medical Malpractice: Preparation and Trial of Birth Injury Cases” Plaintiff’s Magazine

Certifications

• American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys – Certified in Medical Malpractice

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