Oliver King

My practice sits at the intersection of personal injury, mass torts, class actions, and institutional accountability. I represent people who have been seriously injured, but I am particularly drawn to cases where an individual injury may reveal a larger failure—a public agency that did not protect someone in its care, an institution that ignored warning signs, an insurer that failed to honor its obligations, or conduct that may have affected more than one person.

That means my work ranges from catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases to sexual-abuse and foster-care matters, civil-rights litigation, insurance bad faith, ERISA claims, mass torts, and class actions.

I also have a somewhat unusual background for a plaintiff-side lawyer. I am an NFLPA Certified Contract Advisor, previously represented professional soccer players as a FIFA-certified intermediary, and have served as General Manager of the Empire Strykers since 2020. Representing professional athletes taught me a great deal about negotiation, leverage, risk, future earning capacity, and the long-term consequences of injury. Those lessons translate surprisingly well to serious injury litigation.

At our firm, clients also work with a small, family-run team rather than being passed through layers of lawyers. My brothers Justin and Jonathan are my law partners, and we regularly collaborate on significant matters.

More about my practice:

https://justinkinglaw.com/attorney-oliver-king/

Most clients do not come into the office speaking in legal terminology. They come in with practical questions.

“Do I actually have a case?”
Usually, that requires looking at four things: what happened, who may be legally responsible, what evidence exists, and what harm resulted. Sometimes the answer is straightforward. Sometimes a case that initially looks simple becomes much more complicated once we obtain records, policies, video, insurance information, or other evidence.

“How much will it cost me to hire a lawyer?”
For the personal injury matters we handle on a contingency basis, the initial consultation is free and attorney’s fees are generally paid from a recovery rather than upfront. We explain the fee arrangement before representation begins.

“How much is my case worth?”
There is no responsible way to answer that from a five-minute conversation or an online calculator. We look at the injury, medical evidence, future care, lost income, liability issues, available insurance or other sources of recovery, and—most importantly—how the injury has actually changed the client’s life.

“Will I have to go to court?”
Many cases resolve without trial. But I believe serious cases should be prepared from the beginning as though the evidence may ultimately have to withstand scrutiny in court.

One thing I tell clients repeatedly is: focus on getting better and be honest with us. Our job is to handle the legal process and give you enough information to make good decisions.

One case that stayed with me involved a client who had been rear-ended and was dealing not only with her injuries, but with the very practical consequences of those injuries—she was struggling to do things as basic and important as picking up her children. Then the other insurance company denied the claim.

Those are the cases that remind you why personal injury law cannot be reduced to medical bills and settlement formulas.

Our team worked through the coverage and injury issues, helped the client navigate the process, and ultimately resolved the matter within approximately six months. What I remember most was not the negotiation itself. It was meeting with the client at the end and being able to walk her through the resolution after she had spent months dealing with pain, family responsibilities, and uncertainty.

A good result matters, of course. But clients also remember whether their lawyer called them back, explained what was happening, listened when they were worried, and treated the case as something happening to a real family rather than simply a claim number.

That is the kind of representation I want our firm to provide.

The hardest cases are often the ones where the client has already been failed once before he or she ever calls a lawyer.

That is especially true in sexual-abuse, foster-care, county-custody, civil-rights, and institutional-accountability matters. You may be representing someone who has experienced profound trauma and who is now being asked to revisit painful events while the institution on the other side has lawyers, records, policies, employees, insurance, and substantial resources.

The legal challenge is only part of it.

We may have to determine what an institution knew, when it knew it, whether earlier warnings existed, whether policies were followed, who was responsible for supervision, and whether evidence still exists. At the same time, we have an obligation to handle the client’s story with care. A survivor should not feel as though the litigation process is simply another institution taking control away from them.

That is why I believe these cases require both aggressive investigation and a survivor-centered approach.

The same principle applies in serious injury litigation generally: the lawyer has to be relentless about the evidence without losing sight of the human being the evidence is supposed to describe.

The law was part of my life long before it became my profession.

I grew up in Rancho Cucamonga in a family deeply connected to the Inland Empire legal community. My father, Jeffrey King, served as a Justice of the California Fourth District Court of Appeal after serving on the San Bernardino County Superior Court. My mother, Pamela Preston King, also served as a San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge after working as a prosecutor, civil litigator, and public defender.

But my own interest in representing individuals developed through experience.

During law school, I worked through the Disability Rights Legal Center on civil-rights matters involving people with disabilities and institutional defendants. I also interned in the Appellate Division of the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office in Mississippi and later externed at the California Fourth District Court of Appeal.

Those experiences gave me an early view of what happens when an individual is trying to navigate a system much larger than himself or herself.

That theme has followed me throughout my career. Whether I am representing an injury victim, a survivor of institutional abuse, an insured fighting a coverage denial, or—in another part of my professional life—an athlete negotiating a contract, I am usually advocating for an individual across the table from an organization with substantially greater resources.

That is work I find meaningful.

Sports have been a major part of my professional life outside traditional law practice.

I have been an NFLPA Certified Contract Advisor since 2016, representing professional football players in contract negotiations. I also co-founded a soccer representation business and previously worked as a FIFA-certified football intermediary representing professional soccer players in the United States and internationally.

Since 2020, I have served as General Manager of the Empire Strykers, the Inland Empire’s professional indoor soccer franchise in the Major Arena Soccer League.

I enjoy the fact that the sports and legal sides of my career continually inform one another. Both involve preparation, negotiation, judgment under pressure, understanding what matters to the person you represent, and knowing when an apparent short-term solution may have significant long-term consequences.

At a much more grassroots level, I have also volunteered as an AYSO coach. There is something refreshing about going from professional contracts and litigation to youth soccer, where sometimes the most important job is simply keeping everyone moving in roughly the same direction.

I came home to practice law.

I grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, and today I have the privilege of practicing here with my brothers, Justin and Jonathan. We know the Inland Empire because it is our community—not simply a market where we opened an office.

We have deliberately remained a relatively small firm. That allows us to work together on important cases and lets clients have meaningful contact with the lawyers responsible for their matters.

I also conduct consultations in English and Spanish, which is important to me in a community as diverse as ours.

The cases we handle can be complicated, but the philosophy behind the practice is fairly simple: listen carefully, tell clients the truth, prepare the case thoroughly, and be willing to stand up to defendants with substantially greater resources.

I think people can tell the difference between being processed by a law firm and being represented by one.

We want our clients to feel - above all - heard and well represented.