Matheny, Sears, Linkert & Jaime, LLP

Matheny Sears is comprised of experienced trial attorneys with a combined 100 years of trial experience.

Doug Sears, Rick Linkert and Matt Jaime are members of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), a distinguished national organization comprised of the most skilled and experienced trial lawyers in the United States. ABOTA is an organization that invites its members to join after an internal nominating process and vote of the local chapter and requires, at a minimum, ten civil jury trials to verdict in the state and/or federal courts and a proven reputation for competence, civility and ethics.

Doug Sears, Rick Linkert and Matt Jaime are also AV Rated by Martindale Hubbell ? one of the most prestigious peer review publications devoted to impartially assisting consumers and corporations in providing feedback as to competence and integrity of practicing lawyers. Douglas Sears, Rick Linkert, and Jack Klauschie have also been named as Northern California Super Lawyers, and another of the firm's partners, Jeffrey Levine, has been named a rising star by the same organization.

Matheny Sears has been retained by clients who have faced the prospect of a potential catastrophic verdict learned prior to trial that their "trial attorney" in a "bet the ranch case" has little or no trial experience. Matheny lawyers have "smoke jumped" into high-stakes cases for individuals and corporations, as well as some of the largest and most sophisticated insurance companies in the world with verified success.

Matheny Sears has provided second opinions to corporations and individuals engaged in complex litigation with high exposure so as to gain further insight into trial strategy and an independent evaluation of risk/benefit of trial versus resolution.

Matheny Sears takes pride in providing its clients with a team of skilled litigators that actually have trial experience.

For example:

Doug Sears, can explain what it is like to successfully defend and win a case in which a plaintiff seeking $35 million when the penultimate issue is whether the husband of the quadriplegic plaintiff initiated a "road-rage" sequence and whether his client (the other driver) was "in the course and scope of employment".

Rick Linkert can explain from actual experience what it is like to obtain a defense verdict in a $5 -7 million fire loss claim where a finding of 1% of liability for an admittedly flawed design would have resulted in liability for the entire loss. Recently, Mr. Linkert was part of a defense team on a fire loss claim that secured the dismissal of six consolidated cases seeking more than $80 million. In addition to dismissal, the court awarded terminating sanctions and attorneys' fees of $32 million to fully reimburse all defendants for every nickel spent over four and a half years of litigation.

Matt Jaime calls upon his experience history in the last several years of forty jury trials in cases ranging from sexual harassment to motor vehicle accidents with substantial and life changing injuries in which he obtained defense verdicts based on preparation and exceptional trial skills.

Mr. Levine recently obtained a judgment of nonsuit in favor of defendant in a 5 week wrongful death trial as lead trial counsel. Decedent claimed client defendant Construction Company negligently installed an electrical utility pole and improperly rehung 12,000 volt electrical distribution lines at a dangerous elevation. The decedent's aluminum ladder contacted the electrical distribution lines. In addition, decedent's brother also alleged a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress for observing the accident occur. At verdict, the client was included on verdict form for purposes of determining any percentage of fault for the accident. While plaintiffs ultimately obtained verdict against other defendants for $4.7 million, the jury found client 0% at fault.

In short, Matheny Sears is a full service law firm consisting of excellent hard working trial attorneys who provide high-quality and cost effective representation in complex high exposure cases.

Locations	No. of Attorneys
Sacramento, CA	11

Practice Areas	No. of Attorneys
Construction	5
Labor & Employment	7
Litigation	8
Litigation - Construction	3
Trusts and Estates	7