Practice Areas
Our practice areas cover the criminal, civil, education, employment, and business matters that put a person's liberty, livelihood, license, or family at stake. Ratliff Jackson LLP is a trial and appellate firm. We appear in state and federal court, before administrative agencies and licensing boards, and in school and university proceedings that operate under their own rules rather than the rules of evidence. If you are not certain which of the areas below fits your situation, call and describe what happened. Attorneys of the firm are licensed in Alabama, California, Hawaii, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
Speak with our team about your matter.
Funeral Home Litigation
A funeral home, cemetery, or crematory takes custody of a family's decisions at the point when the family is least able to supervise anything. Claims in this area commonly involve mishandled or misidentified remains, cremation errors, procedures performed without authorization, burial in the wrong location, failure to deliver what a pre-need contract promised, and billing that does not match what the family was told. These matters sit inside our civil litigation practice and frequently combine contract, consumer protection, and emotional distress theories in a single case. Because the licensing bodies and governing statutes differ by state, we maintain separate resources for funeral home litigation in New Jersey and funeral home litigation in Pennsylvania.
Professional License Defense
A licensing board complaint is an administrative proceeding with its own burden of proof and its own consequences, and it can run in parallel with a criminal charge or civil suit arising from the same facts. Statements made in one forum are frequently used in the other. We represent licensed professionals in board investigations, hearings, consent order negotiations, and appeals. Read more about our professional license defense practice.
Criminal Defense
We defend people charged with felonies, misdemeanors, and disorderly persons offenses, including homicide, assault and battery, weapons offenses, drug offenses, DUI and DWI, theft, burglary, robbery, arson, fraud, sexual assault, harassment, kidnapping, cybercrimes, and juvenile matters. We also handle probation violations, obstruction and perjury allegations, official misconduct charges, and post-conviction relief. Investigators and prosecutors begin building a file before charges are filed, and decisions made in that window shape everything that follows. Read more about our criminal defense practice.
Education Law
We represent students, parents, and educators in special education disputes, free appropriate public education and least restrictive environment claims, evaluation disputes, due process hearings, Section 504 plan compliance, disability accommodations, private school placement and reimbursement, transition planning, harassment and bullying matters, teacher rights, charter and private school issues, and higher education matters. Because the governing procedures and administrative forums differ by state, we maintain separate resources for New Jersey education law and Pennsylvania education law.
Student Discipline Defense
A disciplinary charge at a school, college, or graduate program is decided in a proceeding that is not a court, does not follow the rules of evidence, and often gives the student no right to counsel in the room. The record it produces can still follow that student into transfer applications, graduate admissions, and professional licensure. We represent students facing academic integrity and plagiarism allegations, misconduct investigations, suspension and expulsion, disciplinary hearings and appeals, scholarship revocation, residency accusations, protest related discipline, campus safety charges, and removal from professional programs. Read more about our student discipline defense practice.
Title IX Defense
Title IX matters are resolved inside a school's own grievance process rather than in court, and the procedural protections available to the parties depend on the institution's policy and the federal rules in effect at the time. We advise students from the first notice of investigation through hearing and appeal, including the advisor role, the evidence file, and the written record that carries forward. Read more about our Title IX defense practice.
Federal Practice
Federal matters run on their own procedural rules, sentencing framework, and timelines, and the resources on the other side are different from what a state case involves. We handle federal criminal defense, white collar allegations, organized crime and RICO matters, civil asset forfeiture, federal civil rights claims, Federal Tort Claims Act litigation, federal administrative law and agency appeals, health care law, and Social Security disability. Read more about our federal practice.
Civil Litigation
We try civil cases on both sides of the caption, including breach of contract, collections, defamation, and consumer fraud. A civil case is a sequence of decisions about leverage, cost, and exposure, and we advise clients on all three from the first pleading through trial or resolution. Read more about our civil litigation practice.
Employment Law
We represent employees in disability discrimination claims, employee benefits and ERISA disputes, disability insurance denials, and bad faith insurance conduct. Employment and benefits claims carry filing deadlines and administrative exhaustion requirements that run independently of any internal complaint a worker has already made, which is why timing questions come first in these matters. Read more about our employment law practice.
Business Law
We counsel founders and established companies on entity formation, employment agreements, franchise agreements, supply chain contracts, and commercial real estate, and we litigate when an agreement fails. The objective is documentation that holds up at the point of conflict, not documentation that reads well while the relationship is working. Read more about our business law practice.
Creators Law
We represent athletes, artists, influencers, and other talent on name, image, and likeness rights, endorsement contract review, talent agreements, sponsorship agreements, intellectual property licensing, and trademark matters. Most disputes in this field trace back to a term that was never negotiated or a right that was assigned more broadly than the client understood. Read more about our creators law practice.
Family Law
We handle divorce, child custody, spousal and child support, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, parental relocation, grandparents' rights, termination of parental rights, surrogacy, name changes, domestic violence proceedings, and abuse and neglect matters. Family cases move on court calendars and emergency application timelines that do not wait for a client to feel ready. Read more about our family law practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
You do not need to know. Many matters do not sort cleanly into one category, and the label matters less than the forum, the deadline, and the record. Describe what happened and what you have received in writing, and we will identify which proceedings are involved and what has to happen first.
Attorneys of the firm are licensed in Alabama, California, Hawaii, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Not every attorney is licensed in every jurisdiction. If your matter arises in a state where we are not admitted, we will tell you that at the outset.
Frequently. A criminal charge can trigger a licensing board complaint. A campus disciplinary case can involve both Title IX and disability accommodation questions. An employment dispute can carry a benefits claim inside it. Proceedings that run in parallel create risk, because what is said in one can be used in another, and that is a reason to look at the whole picture before responding anywhere.
Yes. We handle trial and appellate matters, including administrative appeals from agency and licensing board decisions and appeals within school and university disciplinary systems. Appellate deadlines are typically shorter than trial deadlines and are often measured from the date a written decision is issued rather than the date it is received.
Bring any document that states a date. Charging papers, a notice of investigation, a complaint or summons, a board letter, a hearing notice, a termination letter, or a school decision letter each carry a deadline, and the deadline usually determines what can still be done. If you have nothing in writing yet, call anyway and describe the sequence of events.
Resources
- New Jersey Courts, the official judiciary site for court information, forms, and self help materials.
- Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, the official site of the Pennsylvania courts.
- How the Pennsylvania courts are structured, an overview of the magisterial district courts, the Courts of Common Pleas, and the appellate courts.
- New Jersey Legislature, which hosts the searchable database of current New Jersey statutes.
Tell us what you are facing.
Call (856) 209-3111 or email intake@ratliffjackson.com
Ratliff Jackson LLP
The content of this page is provided for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice on any subject matter. Viewing this page or contacting the firm does not create an attorney client relationship. An attorney client relationship is formed only through a written agreement signed by the firm. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome in any future matter.