Jonathan H. Colman has been practicing law in California since 1980 and is the managing attorney for Colman Perkins Law Group. He is rated AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer rating for lawyers in the United States.

In addition to civil litigation, Jon began specializing in the investigation and litigation of suspect claims in 1986, a concentration on which he has continued to focus.

His practice includes the defense and investigation of suspect insurance claims, including MIST (minimum impact soft tissue automobile losses), premises liability (slip and fall, food-foreign objects), first and third party automobile claims (including uninsured motorist and staged accidents) and automobile theft and arson (examinations under oath).

Jon has represented numerous insurance carriers in first party claims (commercial, homeowners, rental, watercraft, jewelry), from property and arson to business interruption and suspicious water losses.

SIU procedures expert
Jon has testified as an expert witness on SIU procedures and before the California State Assembly on the scope and purpose of the examination under oath.

He lectures extensively across the U.S. on matters relating to the evaluation and investigation of suspect claims. His areas of specialty include examinations under oath, automobile theft, arson, suspect medical and chiropractic treatment and the avoidance of “bad faith” in the investigation of first party claims.

Suspect loss trials, arbitrations and mediations
In addition to defending general liability claims, Jon has firstchaired countless jury trials, arbitrations and mediations involving suspect losses of all types. His experience extends to unlawfully operated medical facilities clinics, illegal and upcoded medical billings, suspect chiropractic and medical treatment, staged automobile accidents and staged slip-and-fall incidents.

Jon is a member and legal advocate of the International Association of Special Investigation Units (IASIU) and was previously elected vice president of the Southern California Fraud Investigators Association (SCFIA).

He has also served as panel counsel for IASIU and drafted anti-trust guidelines for the IASIU Southern California chapter, while serving as its first general counsel.

Jon was an original faculty member of the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) Special Investigation Academy, creating and teaching the course “Fraud and the Legal Profession.”

The early years
Jon obtained his undergraduate degree from U.C.L.A. in 1975. After a two-year stint living at Mammoth and skiing, he attended law school and received his juris doctorate from Southwestern University School of Law in 1980. He joined Gilbert, Kelly, Crowley and Jennett as a law clerk and was made a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office. He established his own law firm, originally in Sacramento, California, in 1992.