Jonathan H. Colman has been practicing law in California for twenty eight years. Since 1991, he has been rated AV by Martindale-Hubbel, its highest rating for attorneys in the United States. Mr. Colman obtained his undergraduate degree from U.C.L.A. in 1975. After a two-year stint living at Mammoth and skiing, he attended law school and received his juris doctorate from Southwestern University School of Law in 1980. He joined Gilbert, Kelly, Crowley and Jennett as a law clerk and was made a partner in the firm's Los Angeles office. He started his own law firm in 1992.

Mr. Colman is admitted to the State Bar of California as well as the United States District Court of California (Central and Eastern Districts) and United States Court of Appeals (Ninth Circuit).

In addition to an active civil litigation practice, Mr. Colman began specializing in the investigation and litigation of suspect claims in 1986, a concentration on which he has continued to focus. During that time his practice has included the defense and investigation of a wide variety of suspect insurance claims including MIST (minimum impact soft tissue automobile losses), premises liability (slip and fall, food-foreign objects), first and third party automobile claims (including uninsured motorist and staged accidents) and automobile theft and arson (examinations under oath). He has represented numerous insurance carriers in first party claims (commercial, homeowners, rental, watercraft, jewelry) including property, arson, business interruption and suspicious mold claims.

A recognized expert in the field of S.I.U. claims and procedures, Mr. Colman has testified as an expert witness on SIU procedures and before the California State Assembly on the scope and purpose of the examination under oath. He lectures extensively throughout the United States on a wide variety of matters relating to the evaluation and investigation of suspect claims including examinations under oath, automobile theft, arson, suspect medical and chiropractic treatment and the avoidance of "bad faith" in the investigation of first party claims.

Throughout his legal career, in addition to the defense of general liability claims, he has firstchaired countless jury trials, arbitrations and meditations involving suspect losses of all types including unlawfully-operated medical facilities clinics, illegal and upcoded medical billings, suspect chiropractic and medical treatment, staged automobile accidents and staged slip-and-fall incidents.

Mr. Colman currently serves on the Board of Directions of the Southern California Fraud Investigators Association. In the past, he served as Panel Counsel for the International Association of Special Investigation Units (I.A.S.I.U.) and also drafted Anti-Trust Guidelines for the I.A.S.I.U., Southern California Chapter, while serving as its first General Counsel. He was an original faculty member of the National Insurance Crime Bureau (N.I.C.B) Special Investigation Academy, creating and teaching the course entitled "Fraud and the Legal Profession."

Previously a Judge Pro Tem, arbitrator, mediator and special referee, Mr. Colman is presently on the panel of CRASH voluntary settlement officers for the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Practices
Civil Litigation and Trials
First and Third Party SIU Investigations
Examinations Under Oath

Education
University of California, Los Angeles, B.A., cum laude, 1975
Southwestern University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 1980

email: jcolman@mcdowelllaw.com

© 2006–2010 McDowell, Shaw & Colman