James Metzger

James Metzger is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ Los Angeles office. He has a varied and eclectic practice, with a focus on personal injury insurance defense, including defense of insureds involved in auto accidents, construction accidents, premises liability suits, and product liability suits.

Mr. Metzger has years of litigation experience in both state and federal courts. He has prepared, argued, and won summary judgment motions in both California and U.S. District Courts. He has participated in numerous mediations and arbitrations which have resulted in settlements. Mr. Metzger has also prevailed in many discovery disputes, including disputes overseen by discovery referees and retired judges. He has also prepared numerous Minor’s Compromise Petitions and appeared in probate courts throughout California to settle injured minors’ accident claims on behalf of insured defendants. Mr. Metzger also draws on his extensive experience as a research attorney at the U.S. District Court, where he worked for federal judges reviewing briefs and writing orders and opinions, a position he held for many years until he retired from the court an went to work in insurance defense.

Mr. Metzger obtained his J.D. from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in 1998. He obtained his B.A. in English from Yale University, where he won the James A. Veech fiction writing prize.

Mr. Metzger is married, and he has two grown children and three dogs. He practices meditation and yoga; in the 1980s, he worked for a nonprofit yoga organization, and he lived for two years in India in the ashram featured in the book Eat, Pray, Love. He plays guitar in an Americana roots rock band, and he also enjoys tennis, pickleball, and golf.