30+ Years of Legal Experience Fighting for Injured Victims
Darrell M. Padgette is a Los Angeles personal injury trial lawyer that handles catastrophic injury, trucking and commercial vehicle collisions, slip-and-fall, trip-and-fall, premises liability, dangerous property, and defective product cases throughout California.
A former deputy district attorney and federal prosecutor, Mr. Padgette is AV-Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, has been selected year after year for inclusion in Southern California Super Lawyers since 2014, and maintains a 10/10 AVVO rating. Referral attorneys regularly turn to him for complex, expert-heavy, disputed-liability, and high-value injury cases.
Mr. Padgette has achieved multiple seven-figure recoveries, including a product-liability verdict recognized among TopVerdict’s Top 100 Personal Injury Verdicts in California for 2023 and a premises-liability settlement ranked among the 20 largest in the United States for 2018.
Court Admissions
- State Bar of California
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
- Multiple District Courts around the country on a Pro Hac Vice basis
Education
Juris Doctor, University of Dayton School of Law-, Dayton, OH 1998
Bachelor of Science in Business Economics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 1995
Memberships
- American Association of Justice (AAJ)
- Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA)
- Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC)
- Super Lawyers
- AV Rated Preeminent by Martindale Hubble
- Avvo Rating 10/10
- The Corporate LiveWire Global Awards 2015
- US Army Judge Advocate Generals Corps
- The National Trial Lawyers
- Top 25 Products Liability Trial Lawyers
- The National Trial Lawyers Top 100
- Association of European Attorneys
- Justinian Lawyers
Publications
- Combatant Activities Defense: Another Option for Military Product Manufacturers, DRI Skywritings Aviation Law Committee,2012
- Severing Bureaucratic Red-Tape to Secure Evidence from the Federal Government in Aviation Cases, Aircraft Builders Council, Inc. Law Report, 2012
- Death On the High Seas Act and the New Frontier, Aircraft Builders Council, Inc. Law Report, 2009
- California Adopts the Sophisticated User Defense by Placing a Label on Already Existing Legal Principles, Newsletter of DRI Aerospace Law Committee, 2008
Reported Cases
- Helman v. Alcoa Global Fasteners, Inc., 637 F. 3d 986 (9th Cir. 2011) (involving Death on the High Seas Act)
- Getz v. The Boeing Company, 547 F. Supp. 2d 1080 (N.D. Cal. 2008) (involving government contractor defense)
- McKinley v. XL Specialty Insurance Company (2005), 131 Cal. App. 4th 1572 (involving suits against own insureds)
- The United States v. Reyes-Platero, 224 F. 3d 1112 (9th Cir. 2000) (involving Hague Convention on Consular Relations)
