Representative Matters

Trials

Fulton Superior Court · 2022–2025 · Jury trial

A builder recorded a lien against our clients' home and sued them on the construction contract. After we moved for partial summary judgment, the builder cancelled both the lien and its notice of lis pendens, and we pressed our clients' counterclaims for negligent construction, slander of title, and conversion. The case was tried to a jury in September 2025. The jury rejected the builder's claim for breach of contract, and the judgment that followed was paid and marked satisfied.

Fulton Superior Court and Court of Appeals · 2021–2024 · Jury trial

Our clients' neighbors had placed a fence and an air-conditioning unit on our clients' lot and claimed the ground beneath them by adverse possession. The court sanctioned the neighbors during discovery, and when they appealed the court's ruling on summary judgment, we defended it in the Court of Appeals. The case then returned to the superior court for a jury trial in the spring of 2024. After the verdict the neighbors moved for judgment notwithstanding it, and the matter closed with the judgment satisfied.

Fulton Superior Court · 2018 · Jury trial

Homeowners sued the neighbors who had taken possession of a strip of land along their shared line and who claimed it by adverse possession. We carried the case through summary judgment and an application for interlocutory appeal and then tried it to a jury. The court entered judgment for our clients, and we went on to pursue the ejectment and the collection that followed.

Boundary

Fulton Superior Court · 2025–2026

A neighboring landowner had occupied part of our clients' property and claimed it by adverse possession. We brought an action for ejectment, defeated the neighbor's motion to open its default, and obtained a final judgment after a hearing on attorney's fees. The neighbor paid the judgment in full, and we cancelled the writ of fieri facias on the record.

Fulton Superior Court · 2023

Two households in Atlanta disagreed about where their line ran along a shared alley, and about who should bear the cost of the dispute. The case settled with a boundary-line agreement, which we recorded so that the line would bind later owners as well, and the suit was dismissed with prejudice.

Easement

Cobb Superior Court · 2022–2025

Construction on a neighboring lot sent stormwater across our clients' property. We brought claims for nuisance and trespass, developed the case through engineering experts and depositions, and settled it at mediation for a payment and a drainage easement, which was recorded before the suit was dismissed.

Forsyth Superior Court · 2021–2023

Retained through a title insurer, we represented a lender whose security deed carried a faulty legal description and whose borrowers reached their home by a driveway across a neighbor's land. We sought reformation of the descriptions and a prescriptive easement in a case referred to a special master, took a default judgment against a prior lienholder, and settled the remaining claims at mediation. When the neighbor later moved to enforce different terms, we opposed the motion, and the easement agreement and corrective deeds were signed and recorded as agreed.

Title

Fulton Superior Court · 2023–2025

For the heirs of a family property, we brought a quiet title action against all the world, which was referred to a special master. We served heirs and other interested parties in five states and the District of Columbia and made service by publication on those who could not be found. The court entered a final judgment quieting title in our clients.

DeKalb Superior Court · 2021–2022

Our client held a tax deed, and the former owner sued to redeem the property. We settled that suit in exchange for her quitclaim deed, and we then quieted title against all the world before a special master, recording the final judgment on the land records.

Superior courts of Georgia · 2019–2022 · Twenty-six actions

For an investor holding tax deeds, we brought twenty-six quiet title actions, each before a special master and many requiring service by publication on former owners and their heirs. More than twenty of them ended with a final judgment recorded on the land records.

Fulton Superior Court · 2019–2020

A stranger to the title recorded a fraudulent lien affidavit against our client's property. We brought a quiet title action, served the filer by publication, and resolved the case with a consent order, a quitclaim deed, and a payment to our client.

Purchase & Sale

Settled before suit · 2026

After buying a home, our clients found a problem with its septic system and asked us to pursue the sellers for fraud. We assembled the home inspection, the appraisal, and the costs of repair, sent the sellers a demand, and answered their lawyer's response through several rounds of negotiation. The matter settled without a lawsuit, and the sellers paid our clients.

DeKalb Superior Court · 2025

After buying a home, our client found defects in it and came to us. We reviewed the home inspector's report and the limits of the inspection agreement, and then turned to the sellers, who lived out of state. We sent them a demand letter, filed suit, and had them served where they lived. The case settled within four months of filing, with the sellers paying our client's full damages plus attorney's fees, and the suit was dismissed with prejudice.

Settled before arbitration · 2020–2021

Our clients bought a newly built home directly from its builder and then found defects in its construction. We served the builder with the notice of defects that Georgia law requires before suit, revised our damages as the repair invoices came in, and prepared a demand for arbitration. The case settled before arbitration, and the builder paid our clients.

Settled after suit · 2020

After buying a newly built home, our clients found the boundary of their lot in question. We made a demand on the builder, filed a claim under our clients' title insurance policy, and brought suit. Within three weeks of filing, the case settled with a boundary-line agreement, which we recorded; the suit was then dismissed and the title claim withdrawn.

Lenders

Paulding Superior Court · 2024

When the State sought the civil forfeiture of a parcel of real property, we intervened for the holders of security deeds on it. The court granted our motion for summary judgment and entered a final order in our clients' favor.

Cobb Superior Court and Court of Appeals · 2019–2024

We enforced an assigned home equity loan, obtaining summary judgment on the debt and the dismissal of the borrowers' counterclaims. We then defended the judgment in the Court of Appeals and pursued its collection through garnishment in Georgia and North Carolina until it was paid in 2024.

Landlord / Tenant

Cobb State Court · 2018–2019

Tenants sued our landlord client over mold in the premises, alleging fraud and seeking punitive damages, and our client counterclaimed. The court granted our motion for partial summary judgment, and the following year it granted summary judgment on our client's counterclaim as well.

Fulton State Court · 2018

We tried a commercial landlord's dispossessory action to the bench and won judgment for our client. The tenant appealed, and the appeal was dismissed, as was the tenant's later motion for reconsideration.

Interpleader

Gwinnett Superior Court · 2026

A closing law firm held earnest money that both the buyer and the seller claimed. We filed the interpleader for the firm and moved to dismiss the counterclaim the buyer brought against it, and the court entered an order discharging the firm from the dispute and awarding its attorney's fees.

Earlier Work

Before concentrating on real estate, James represented employees in overtime, discrimination, and family-leave claims, in the federal courts and before the EEOC, and resolved most of those cases through negotiated settlements approved by the court where the law required it. Earlier still, he worked on the defense of freight brokers and motor carriers in cargo-loss litigation under the Carmack Amendment in federal courts in Washington, Florida, and Georgia, on a veil-piercing and fraudulent-transfer case that was tried to a jury in Alabama, and on the collection of commercial judgments through garnishment in several Georgia counties.