James D. McQueen Jr.

I am a trial lawyer and have practiced law throughout the State of West Virginia for more than 40 years.  I am a native of Williamson, Mingo County, West Virginia, but have had offices during my career in Huntington and Charleston.  I have handled cases in most of the State and Federal Courts in West Virginia, and I have actually taken cases to verdict in 27 of West Virginia's 55 counties and 5 of 9 Federal Courts.  I have handled more than 40 appeals in the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.  Overall, I have conducted more than 250 civil or administrative trials to verdict or decision.  I am an AV rated attorney by Martindale Hubbell and a committed member of the West Virginia Association for Justice. 

I graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1967 and served as an officer in the Navy for 4 years, aboard two surface ships in the Atlantic Fleet.  I graduated from law school at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky in 1974.

For approximately the first 25 years of my career, I practiced defense litigation in larger firms, usally representing insurance companies or their policyholders.  During the past 15 years, my practice focus has shifted to the extent that i am now exclusively a Plaintiff's lawyer, representing individuals and small companies who have a legal claim against insurers, their insured policy holders, the government, large corporations, professionals and others.  My prior defense experience is very beneficial to me and to my clients because I fully understand and appreciate how insurance companies operate and how their claim managers think. 

Presently, my primary interests as a trial lawyer are in the fields of insurance  law, employment law, and personal injury law.  In the insurance area, I handle coverage claims or disputes, bad faith claims, unfair claims settlement practices disputes, property damage claims, and arson/fraud/explosion cases on behalf of the insured policyholder.  In the employment law arena, I handle wrongful termination cases, discrimination cases, deliberate intent cases, workers' compensation fraud and workers' compensation discrimination cases, and wage payment and collection act cases.  In the personal injury area, I have vast experience in handling all kinds of vehicular accidents including large truck litigation, product liability claims, slip and fall cases, traumatic brain injury cases, and wrongful death cases, particularly those involving coal mining accidents. 

As a separate area of interest, I also represent doctors, nurses, lawyers and other professionals who have claims made against them by their licensing agencies.  I also handle commercial litigation involving real estate, disputes among owners, and construction disputes. 

I do not handle criminal litigation, domestic relations matters, boundary-line disputes, collections, claims against police officers or agencies of State or Federal Government, or Social Security Disability Claims.