About Fred James
Fred James is a lifelong Iowan, born and raised in Des Moines as the eldest of five siblings. His father was a trial lawyer, and Fred grew up visiting the Polk County courthouse and watching litigation from a young age. He attended Coe College, the University of Iowa, and Drake University College of Law, graduating in December 1987 and admitted to the Iowa Bar in January 1988.
He ran his own firm, The James Law Firm, P.C., for 34 years before joining RSH Legal in 2023. He is a National Board of Trial Advocacy-certified civil trial advocate, a fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers, and a fellow of the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is a past president of the Iowa Association for Justice and the Iowa Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
Proven verdicts and settlements at RSH Legal
These results are credited to RSH Legal. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
Cedar Rapids' insurer paid $8 million to Jerime Mitchell, a quadriplegic man shot by Officer Lucas Jones during a 2016 traffic stop, in what attorneys described as the largest police-misconduct settlement in Iowa history.
A Waterloo man lost all feeling below the waist after a cervical radiofrequency ablation at the C5-6 level in December 2014. A Black Hawk County jury found Dr. Ashar Afzal and Cedar Valley Medical Specialists negligent and awarded $7.36 million to him and his wife. The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed in 2021.
Ross Hall died after what his family alleged was negligent cardiology care. The jury awarded $5,500,000, and the allocation is the striking part: only $250,000 for his own pain and suffering before death, and the remaining $5.25 million to his widow and three children for what they lost.
A Black Hawk County jury awarded $1.8 million to Massachusetts sound engineer Frank Sgambellone after a State of Iowa forklift operator ran over his ankle during post-concert teardown at the UNI-Dome in February 2016.
A Cerro Gordo County jury found Good Shepherd, a Mason City nursing home, negligent and willful and wanton in its care of an 84-year-old dementia resident who lost 43 pounds and died of dehydration in April 2015. It awarded her four children $150,000 in compensatory and $750,000 in punitive damages. The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed in 2018.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
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