John C. Taylor is a nationally recognized trial lawyer in California. The broad variety of cases he has tried during his career is matched by few attorneys, trying more than 140 cases to verdict, including: police shootings and civil rights, sexual abuse, serious personal injury, wrongful death, products liability, insurance bad faith, and employment. In 2022, Taylor was named to the Lawdragon Legends list, and in 2026, Taylor was named to the Lawdragon Hall of Fame. Taylor holds the rank of “Diplomate” in the American Board of Trial Advocates, an invitation-only organization of the best trial lawyers in the country. He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Attorneys, another invitation-only organization.
Lawdragon Honors
Some of Taylor's record-setting outcomes include:
- $57.5 million verdict in an insurance bad faith action arising from an aviation accident resulting in the death of three men. Santesson v. Beech Aircraft
- $35 million verdict on behalf of an adult woman who was raped by her adult, male track coach when she was a minor high school student at Pomona High School in the 1990s.
- $35 million verdict against a California hospital for failing to protect a vulnerable ICU patient who was sexually assaulted by a nurse while unable to move or speak.
- $28 million settlement for seven women who were sexually abused by their first-grade teacher in the 1990s.
- $25 million verdict for a former student of Dos Pueblos High School in the Santa Barbara Unified School District who was sexually abused by an assistant coach.
- $25.3 million verdict against the Westerly School, a private school in Long Beach, on behalf of a client who was subjected to sexual abuse over the course of his four years there. Stephen W. v. Westerly School of Long Beach
- $18.6 million verdict for negligent entrustment of an automobilewhere a company president allowed his wife to drive a company-owned vehicle four days after she failed the DMV road exam and caused serious injury to a motorcyclist. Mallabo v. Wan Hai Lines (America)
- $13 million verdict on behalf of a woman who was sexually molested by a paraprofessional while she was attending Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in Van Nuys.
- $10 million verdict in a wrongful death case against the LAPD, 30 years in the making. In a published decision, the California Court of Appeal upheld the verdict against Los Angeles Police Detective Stephanie Lazarus for the murder of Sherri Rasmussen more than 30 years ago. Nels Rasmussen et al. v. Stephanie Lazarus
