About John Coletti
John Coletti is a trial lawyer who represents individuals and families in catastrophic injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death, product liability, and complex civil litigation. He graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in English in 1991 and from Willamette University School of Law in 1994, where he served as associate editor of the Willamette Law Review. John is licensed to practice law in Oregon and Washington. He is a member of The Inner Circle of Advocates, an invitation-only group of 100 of the nation's top trial lawyers, and a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
He is also a member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the American Board of Trial Advocates, and the International Society of Barristers. John has served as an adjunct professor of Advanced Trial Advocacy at Lewis and Clark Law School. He is a former board member of the Make-A-Wish Organization and continues to volunteer as a wish granter. Notable results include a $58 million confidential settlement for electrical burns and wrongful death
- a $49 million verdict against PacifiCorp for survivors of the 2020 Labor Day Fires
- a $48 million confidential trucking collision settlement
- a $20.365 million verdict for a woman struck by an impaired driver
- a $13.9 million verdict against a garbage truck company
- a $13.8 million settlement for a pedestrian hit by a delivery van
- a $12.1 million verdict against the manufacturer of a defective lathe
- and a $7 million verdict for a young man killed on high-energy transmission lines
His verdict against a pain pump manufacturer was the first in the country to hold such manufacturers liable for defective pain pumps. John has been named Best Lawyers' Lawyer of the Year multiple times for Personal Injury, Product Liability, and Admiralty and Maritime Law, and has been ranked as a Top 10 lawyer in Oregon by Oregon Super Lawyers.
Proven verdicts and settlements
John Coletti and co-counsel won a $49 million jury verdict on behalf of seven survivors of PacifiCorp's 2020 Labor Day wildfires, the fourth trial in the ongoing class litigation in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
A Multnomah County court awarded $20 million after a drugged driver killed 23-year-old Grant Fisher on Highway 26; the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled the state's $500,000 noneconomic damages cap unconstitutional as applied, restoring the full award.
Scott Busch was crossing a Portland crosswalk with the right-of-way when a McInnis Waste Systems garbage truck struck him and severed his leg; a jury awarded $13.5 million, and the Oregon Supreme Court struck down the state's $500,000 noneconomic damages cap as applied to his case.
John Coletti won a multimillion-dollar jury verdict against I-Flow Corporation after the company's intra-articular pain pump destroyed Matthew Beale's shoulder cartilage following routine arthroscopic surgery, in what trial watchers tracked as the first verdict of its kind against a pain-pump manufacturer.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
