Jonathan Gerber

Headshot of Jonathan Gerber
Jonathan is married to his wife Sarah, a cardio-thoracic ICU nurse practitioner; they have one young son and a 100-pound wrecking ball of an adopted pittie. When not practicing law, Jonathan enjoys working out, cheering on his hometown Miami Dolphins and alma mater Florida Gators, and all things Bruce Springsteen.

Jonathan Gerber

Partner / Owner

Practice Areas
Trial Lawyer and Civil Litigator: Personal Injury, Catastrophic Personal Injury, General Liability, Premises Liability, Products Liability, Commercial Transportation, Construction Accidents, Entertainment Venue Incidents, Wrongful Death, Civil Rights, Discrimination, and Complex Litigation.
Biography

Jonathan Gerber is a founding partner of Schonbuch Hallissy LLP, and heads the Ventura County Office. He handles a wide variety of cases as a civil defense trial lawyer. His cases have involved an extremely wide range of incident types including everything from auto accidents, stabbings, shootings, defamation, mosh pits, crowd surfing, catastrophic building collapses resulting in death, scuba diving fatalities, comedy club incidents, child car seat fatality, electrocution, boundary line disputes between neighbors, and a 200-pound tire bouncing down the freeway at 60 mph. This wide range of incident types has led to Jonathan litigating or trying to verdict cases involving catastrophic injuries including severe traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, wrongful death, severe burns from electrocution, assault and battery, mold resulting in personal injury and property damage, and injury to virtually every body part in the human anatomy. This invaluable experience gives Jonathan the ability to hit the ground running on any case from the outset.

Most importantly, Jonathan knows how frightening and upsetting it is for his clients to be sued. He has seen the doom and gloom letters from the other side saying they are going to take your house and everything you have. Jonathan will do everything he can to not just represent you zealously, but to guide you and take care of you along the way. Whether you are a small business owner or a large corporation, he knows how important it is to have counsel you trust and believe in.

  • September 2016, Bubonic v. Howe: An alleged traumatic brain injury case wherein Jonathan faced a demand of over $10 million. Not only did the jury return a verdict of only $25,000, he also easily beat his 998 and was able to collect costs from the Plaintiff.
  • August 2017, Lima v. Steffey: Jonathan tried this pedestrian v. auto case against renowned Plaintiff’s attorney Gary Dordick. Jonathan was able to get a 60% comparative finding against the Plaintiff while she was in a crosswalk.
  • August 2018, Barreto v. Betancourt: This case involved a cervical fusion as well as a subsequent fusion at an adjacent level. Jonathan was able to convince the jury that the subsequent surgery was in no way related to the current case, greatly depleting the potential value of Plaintiff’s claims.
  • March 2020, Flick v. Reyes: Jonathan tried an alleged open policy severe TBI case against the Ernst Law Group where his client rear-ended Plaintiff while driving DUI at more than 102 mph. Defendant was criminally convicted and admitted liability in the civil case. During the trial, Jonathan directed the examination of defendant’s father and used that testimony to draft a successful motion for nonsuit for on a negligent entrustment cause of action. Plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury to award approximately 25 million against defendant driver in closing. Jonathan limited the verdict to just over 1.6 million -which was right in the range of what the defense told the jury to award Plaintiff.
  • October 2023: Catastrophic brain injury case involving multiple defendants in which Plaintiff demanded tens of millions of dollars. Plaintiff issued a 998 demand for $12 million to our client and said the demand would only go up from there. After a jury was impaneled and it was time to put the evidence to the test Plaintiff caved and accepted a third of the demand they said they would “never” move from.
  • April 2024: 9 days before trial, Jonathan parachuted in to try an alleged civil rights and discrimination case. The day of trial, with all of the exhibits prepared and the witnesses ready to be called, suddenly Plaintiff was willing to negotiate, and a settlement was reached for far less than they demanded.

  • Association of Southern California Defense Counsel
  • Los Angeles County Bar Association
  • Ventura County Bar Association
Education

J.D. Loyola Law School
B.A. University of Florida, Cum Laude
Extern for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
Extern for the Honorable Craig Richman, Felony Trials

Bar Admissions

State Bar of California
United States District Court-Central District of California