Who is Aaron Meyer?

Aaron Meyer started this firm to fight. No one should be a quiet victim of injustice. For that reason, if Aaron Meyer can help you find justice, he will.

Whether by greed, malicious dishonesty, or compliance with political pressure, powerful entities too-often engage in unlawful conduct and take advantage of too many vulnerable people, seemingly without recourse.

Long before entering the practice of law, Aaron Meyer felt the need to critically analyze and challenge perceived authority in our communities. He learned that if it seems unfair or wrong, do not blindly accept it, but challenge it. Aaron found himself targeted and pushed aside before becoming a lawyer, having his own personal experiences with lawyers who were jaded, passionless, just making a buck. He wondered if anyone was actually fighting for him. Because of that, he now stands up so aggressively and effectively for his own clients.

Aaron Meyer was commissioned as a Marine Officer and Judge Advocate (JAG) in the United States Marine Corps in 2004. Quite simply, he wanted to help Marines protect innocent people. He quickly found that our nation’s warriors themselves were often the ones needing protection. When a Servicemember is broken in war or merely suspected of a crime, he often becomes labeled as an inconvenience, distrusted, discarded, or abandoned by his leadership. Although many commanders do protect their troops’ rights, sometimes the Military Justice machine is abused to trample these vulnerable individuals.

Aaron fought to defend Marines his entire time on active duty. Military defense attorneys face intimidation, personal consequences, and career suicide if they fight “too zealously” for their own clients. That external influence only made Aaron fight that much harder against it.

He happily took on entire systems stacked against the individual Servicemember. He found new ways to present the truth of each hero’s story. As wins piled up, powerful enemies lined up right behind them. The same officials he kept defeating pursued him for “insubordination” and “disrespect” even during a case. Yet, the system was not broken from his vantage point. He turned to the courtroom, the jury, and the law. And won. Every time.

For as long as trial records have been kept, while working in the busiest trial team in the Department of Defense, Aaron Meyer amassed more full jury-trial acquittals than any past or present military attorney ever on the West Coast of the United States. Ever. His clients never lost a case. That means, in case after case, from Camp Pendleton to Hawaii, not one jury ever convicted his client of a single charge. Sure, the conviction rate in the military is normally very high and the system is built for convictions. But you must never underestimate the power of a close attorney-client relationship and an advocate who goes all-out until there is justice.

Alongside the jury trials, hundreds of service members saw their charges dropped, careers saved, or cases won before Trial or in Administrative Hearings. He would not let Marines be turned into casualties of politically-motivated prosecutions. He would not let Wounded Warriors become statistics. He still will not.

In addition to service members, he has successfully represented hundreds of everyday people against insurance companies, landlords, corporations, debt collectors, dealers, governments, and third parties.

Recent Defining Cases

• In a 2013 trial, Aaron Meyer represented a young father accused of killing own child via so-called “Shaken Baby Syndrome.” Medical Examiners, doctors, experts from the world-renowned Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, and investigators all insisted that our client’s 26-day-old daughter had been murdered. After multiple interrogations, investigators coerced what they called a confession. Aaron Meyer poured himself into the science and medical evidence. Together with a team of dedicated experts, Aaron Meyer identified the pre-existing medical cause of the child’s death. Aaron Meyer systemically deconstructed each of the doctors, medical examiners, and experts the government paraded to the stand over the course of the three-week trial. Our experts then presented what was previously undiscovered in the medical records and autopsy. Originally facing life in prison for First Degree Murder, this falsely-accused father was found Not Guilty of all charges and finally got his life back.

• In another 2013 case just months later, a Bonze-star bona fide combat hero was accused of 3 pages of charges including aggravated assault, child abuse, and sexual assault. Facts may have seemed cut and dried, and prosecutors demanded an outrageous plea bargain. However, at the time of the allegations, this Wounded Warrior was suffering from severe combat-related Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury. A revolving door of doctors had also been switching his medications rather recklessly. This senior Marine had demonstrated a history and propensity for “dissociative episodes” brought on by PTSD and medication withdrawal. We were able to convey the truth of this Marine’s mental condition and behavior at the time of the alleged offenses to the jury. He was found Not Guilty due to his lack of mental responsibility at the time of the offense. The Marine has since retired from the Marine Corps honorably, still daily battling both his visible and invisible war wounds.
• In a 2012 case covered by each major national media outlet, a Marine was charged with involuntary manslaughter for hazing a fellow-Marine in a combat zone to the point of suicide. Congressional Hearings were held on this matter before trial. Ill-informed politicians were calling for our client to be crushed. Despite most of the Commander-selected jury members all knowing about the case beforehand, we were able to effectively present the difficult truth that the accused Marine was not derelict in his duty, did not assault the deceased Marine, and did not intend to humiliate, mistreat, or cause the death of his peer. He was found Not Guilty to all charges. Although a widely criticized verdict, Aaron Meyer worked to expose the truth against a very stacked deck and political manipulation from many angles.
• In 2012, another Wounded Warrior was falsely accused without reasonable basis, with military prosecutors heaping charges upon him once we refused to take a deal and started to expose the weaknesses of their case. He was charged with aggravated assault, financial fraud, child abuse, conspiracy, false official statements, and anything else desperate prosecutors could stomach. They even ordered the Marine to stay away from his 9-year-old son. His commanders engaged in unlawful influence from the start. We took them to trial. We presented evidence of PTSD medication withdrawal affecting his mindset at the time of one of the minor alleged offenses. We systematically exposed the lack of credibility of each and every other charge. Aaron Meyer devastated the government’s witnesses on the stand. This Marine and Navy jury understood the truth of the Marine’s circumstances and acquitted him of all charges, allowing him to continue with the proper treatment he had been previously denied. Immediately after the trial, we ensured he was rightfully promoted to the rank Gunnery Sergeant, receiving years of back pay. During the course of that case, in a matter covered by several news outlets, we even worked sue the Secretary of the Navy and the Marine’s Commanding Officer in Federal Court in the Southern District of California to successfully obtain an injunction preventing the military from vindictively tampering with the Marine’s relationship with his own son. He is now thriving and happy with his daughter and son in Southern California.

In these cases, like so many others, had Aaron Meyer and his clients simply accepted the easy, “fair” deals when the cases initially looked bleak, these men would not be free today. You need a relentless, detailed, creative advocate who will fight tooth and nail to expose the truth, even in the difficult cases.

Background and Education

Born in the railroad town of Galesburg, IL, Aaron Meyer earned his B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago in 2003, and received his Law Degree cum laude from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in 2007. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in the Marine Corps in 2008 and was Honorably Discharged in 2014. He won the New York Bar Association’s Award for Trial Advocacy from the Navy and Marine Corps’ Justice School in 2009. He has presented numerous times in the Southern California area on topics such as cross-examination, trial advocacy, forensic experts, motions practice, and new attorney tips and strategy.

Affiliations and Memberships

• American Association for Justice
• National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
• Orange County Bar Association
• Consumer Attorneys of California

Bar Admission

• California
• Illinois
• Military Courts Worldwide
• Various Federal admittances