Ratliff Jackson LLP is a litigation and defense firm built for matters where the outcome carries lasting consequences: a criminal charge, a university disciplinary proceeding, a licensing board investigation, a civil dispute with real money or real reputation attached. Our attorneys try cases, argue appeals, and appear before administrative bodies and licensing boards. We are structured to take a matter from the first phone call through hearing, trial, or appeal without handing it off.

Clients come to us at a specific moment: something has already gone wrong, a deadline is running, and the institution or agency on the other side has more experience with the process than they do. Our work is to close that gap quickly and take control of the record before positions harden.

How We Practice

Three things shape how we handle a file.

We treat the record as the case. Most of the matters we handle are decided long before a hearing. What a client said in an initial interview, what got entered into an institutional file, which deadlines passed unanswered: these become the evidence. We move early to control what goes into the record and to correct what should not be there.

We prepare for the forum we are actually in. A Superior Court motion, a campus conduct hearing, a licensing board proceeding, and a federal filing each reward different things. Advocacy that works in one can damage a client in another. We adjust posture to the forum rather than applying a single style everywhere.

We account for parallel exposure. A single incident often triggers more than one proceeding. Campus discipline can run alongside criminal charges. A board complaint can follow an employment dispute. A civil claim can shadow a family matter. Handling one in isolation frequently damages the other, so we map every proceeding a client faces before deciding how to move in any of them.

What We Handle

Our practice concentrates in the areas below. Each links to a fuller description of the work and the issues involved.

Matters in federal court, including civil rights claims and administrative appeals, are handled through our federal practice. A full index is available on our practice areas page.

Our Attorneys

Every matter is staffed by an attorney whose practice covers it. Clients are told at the outset who is handling the file and who to contact.

Professional Staff

Case management and client contact are handled by staff who work directly with the attorney on the file.

Where We Practice

Our attorneys appear regularly in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania state courts and in the federal district courts and the Third Circuit. Through our attorneys and affiliated counsel, we handle matters in the jurisdictions listed below.

Certain areas of our practice, including student defense and Title IX representation, are national in scope. Institutional disciplinary proceedings are governed by federal law and by the institution's own policies rather than by the law of any single state, which allows us to advise students and families at colleges, universities, graduate programs, and private secondary schools regardless of where the school sits. Where a matter requires appearance in a court in which we are not admitted, we associate with local counsel.

What Working With Us Looks Like

People are usually contacting a law firm under pressure and without a clear sense of what happens next. Here is the sequence.

1. Initial contactYour first call or email reaches our intake manager, who collects the basic facts, the posture of the matter, and any deadline already running. If something requires immediate attorney attention, it gets escalated the same day.
2. Consultation with an attorneyYou speak with the attorney whose practice covers your matter. That conversation covers what you are facing, what the process ahead actually involves, what the realistic range of paths looks like, and what it costs to be represented.
3. EngagementIf we take the matter, the representation is set out in a written agreement that identifies the scope of work and the fee arrangement. No attorney-client relationship exists until that agreement is signed.
4. Case developmentWe gather records, identify the governing rules and deadlines for your specific forum, preserve evidence, and build the position. Where a proceeding is already underway, this is where we correct the record.
5. Resolution or hearingSome matters resolve through negotiation, motion practice, or an administrative disposition. Others go to hearing or trial. We prepare as though yours will, because the preparation is what creates the alternative.

Frequently Asked Questions

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