Robert B. Ryder

Mr. Ryder's practice focuses on Retail, Hospitality, Construction, Business Litigation and Counseling, and Transportation. Mr. Ryder is a long time member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), where he is a volunteer for the ABOTA Jury Trial Education Program. He is also member of the Los Angeles Bar Association, Orange County Bar Association, Clark County Bar Association, Association of Southern California Defense Counsel, the Defense Research Institute, and the Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA).

Trial results include: Hayes v. New Albertsons, Inc., wherein he successfully defended a truck driver client in a wrongful death case in Orange County, California, brought by the wife and daughter of the decedent who was run over.  Following a 10 day jury trial, the jury deliberated for only 2 hours before returning a unanimous defense verdict.  In Sykes v. Albertsons, he defensed a personal injury case on behalf of the supermarket involving a 69-year-old woman with an alleged claim that a beer case falling on her head led to multiple closed head injuries in Orange County, California. In Gruber v. Waechter, Hursman, Spectrum Med Systems, he was lead counsel on a case assigned 10 days before the 5th scheduled trial date, after all discovery had been handled by a solo corporate attorney with no litigation experience, who took no depositions.. Four plaintiffs had sued the designer and manufacturer of a unitary catheter system over a contract dispute. After one juror swayed the panel into a large verdict completely unsupported by the evidence, the court recognized the impropriety of the verdict and granted a new trial, at which point the plaintiffs settled the action for $81,000 versus the $5.6 million sought.  More recently, along with partner Eric Lamhofer, in Bush v. Marriott Resorts, Mr. Ryder defended a negligent security case in Los Angeles Federal Court in which plaintiff, argued for a verdict of $3.5 million and was only awarded the total sum of $7,300.

Mr. Ryder's aggressive litigation work has resulted in numerous positive resolutions. In one case, he obtained a successful outcome for the City of Hermosa Beach, California, after a plaintiff argued the City police officers were responsible for not fully investigating the scene of a fall and paramedics misdiagnosed plaintiff's head injury, leaving plaintiff with brain damage following the surgical evacuation of a subdural hematoma. The prevailing summary judgment motion was based upon causation and discretionary immunities.

In another case, Mr. Ryder defended a Las Vegas supermarket in a third party criminal assault case in which plaintiff alleged emotional distress and psychological treatment after surviving a shooting rampage at the store which left four employees dead and a fifth employee seriously wounded. His work resulted in one of the very few summary judgments in this area of law in Nevada under the "totality of circumstances" rule.