Protection After Your Civil Rights Are Violated
At Montgomery Law Firm LLC, attorney James D. Montgomery Jr. has significant experience representing who have been harmed when their civil rights have been violated. Having spent most of his life sitting in on high-profile cases tried by his famous father in the 1960s, he learned how to hold authority figures to account for their wrongful actions. As a result, Mr. Montgomery has resolved numerous high-profile cases against law enforcement officers and prisons.
Mr. Montgomery believes that proper access to justice is a fundamental right and not a privilege. Authority figures cannot abuse their power by violating your rights. If they do, Mr. Montgomery will serve as the strong legal advocate you need to correct the injustice.
Civil rights claims are much more than hurt pride, unfairness, and disrespect. Actionable violations involve serious injuries, even deaths. Contact our law firm if you have suffered harm due to civil rights violations, such as:
Mr. Montgomery has a proven track record of fighting injustice and achieving a fair outcome for victims in Chicagoland.
Equality is worth fighting for, and Mr. Montgomery is committed to fighting hard for his clients.
Civil rights cases don’t succeed on outrage alone. They succeed when jurors understand exactly how a government agency crossed the line and why that violation matters. Montgomery Law Firm LLC builds every case around that reality. Civil rights lawyer James D. Montgomery Jr. prepares his lawsuits carefully for trial from day one, organizing his case around what 12 jurors can clearly understand and agree upon. This approach, honed over decades of experience, drives accountability and produces results in the courtroom.
If a police officer or government agency violated your Constitutional rights, Montgomery Law Firm LLC is ready to fight for accountability. Call today to learn how our founding attorney’s trial-focused approach can work for you.
Federal law allows lawsuits against cities, counties, and government agencies when unconstitutional conduct stems from an official policy or tolerated practice. These cases demand deep knowledge of police operations and the ability to show jurors how institutional failures lead directly to injury or death.
Municipal liability claims require proof that a government agency knew about dangerous practices and failed to correct them. That often means uncovering training deficiencies, flawed policies, ignored complaints, and internal disciplinary failures. Montgomery Law Firm LLC builds these cases by dissecting everything from manuals to internal investigations and disciplinary histories to reveal patterns that departments work hard to hide.
Jurors don’t respond to abstract legal theories. They respond to clear stories supported by evidence. That principle drives Mr. Montgomery’s courtroom strategy. Each case centers on simple, direct questions: What went wrong? Who allowed it to continue? How could this have been prevented? Our lawyer answers these questions in a way that the jury can understand—and, more importantly, believe.
The $5 million settlement in Estate of Chiquita Adams v. City of Chicago demonstrates this approach in action. The case involved a fatal high-speed chase that began when on-duty officers pursued an off-duty officer through residential streets. A conventional strategy might have targeted only the officers behind the wheel. Mr. Montgomery focused instead on the department’s pursuit policy, supervision failures, and the culture that discouraged officers from reporting dangerous conduct.
That strategy required showing how flawed pursuit guidelines and the so-called “Code of Silence” created deadly conditions. By shifting the narrative from isolated mistakes to systemic misconduct, Mr. Montgomery put the Chicago Police Department’s culture itself on trial.
The $8.5 million verdict in Johnson v. City of Chicago is one of the firm’s most significant courtroom victories. Police shooting cases carry enormous legal and emotional barriers. Officers have broad legal protections under the doctrine of qualified immunity, which shields government officials from liability, with rare exceptions.
Winning against qualified immunity requires precise legal framing and exceptional jury storytelling. Montgomery Law Firm LLC built a case that confronted jurors’ natural assumptions about law enforcement conduct and carefully reconstructed the shooting through physical evidence and witness testimony.
That verdict showed Attorney Montgomery’s ability to dismantle institutional defenses and present complex legal issues in a way jurors could clearly grasp. The outcome brought accountability in a case where many lawyers might have expected dismissal or minimal recovery.
Every civil rights case must anticipate how jurors process information. Montgomery Law Firm LLC prepares cases around that reality, taking an approach that Mr. Montgomery calls his “recipe for success.” Each lawsuit begins with one guiding principle: jurors must understand the injustice in plain terms. That focus shapes everything from discovery requests to witness preparation.
Police reports, body camera footage, surveillance video, and dispatch recordings are often key parts of civil rights litigation. Our law firm analyzes these materials line by line to find the flaws. Our goal is to expose the policy failures and deficiencies that make police departments and government agencies liable for the harm they cause.
This approach avoids technical legal arguments that confuse jurors. Instead, it frames misconduct through everyday concepts of fairness and preventability.
Mr. Montgomery is dedicated to protecting the rights of Chicago residents. He cares about your well-being and your future.
If your rights were violated, partner with an attorney that has a track record of success. He will closely work with you throughout your case to ensure that he knows the details of your situation and that he is there to answer any of your questions.
Call the Chicago office to schedule an initial case consultation. You may also contact Montgomery Law Firm LLC online.
When you need guidance, we are happy to answer your questions. Common questions include:
When a loved one suffers catastrophic injuries or dies after a civil rights violation, any information surrounding the issue can quickly vanish. Even when you are entitled to the information you need, the relevant authorities may still not disclose it. Thankfully, your lawyer has several methods of securing that information, such as subpoenas and FOIA requests. Instead of trying to fight for this information on your own, let a lawyer put the law to work for you.
Yes. There are some key differences between federal and state courts where civil rights are concerned. One consideration is which party particular juries tend to favor. The juries in some courts tend to side with the police officer, while another court may produce an outcome more favorable to the plaintiff. Another factor to consider is whether or not attorney’s fees can be recovered. In federal court they can, whereas in state court they cannot. Mr. Montgomery will consider the full scope of your case and select a courtroom that will be most favorable.
