Jeffrey Rager Named One of California’s Top Labor and Employment Lawyers for 2026

The Daily Journal named Jeffrey Rager one of California’s Top Labor and Employment Lawyers for 2026. The list ran July 1, in the paper’s yearly labor and employment supplement. Jeff has practiced for 30 years, and almost all of it has gone to representing people against big institutions. “I have always been drawn to fighting for the little guy,” he told the Daily Journal. “I have a firm dislike for bullies and there is no more relevant time than today in American history to be fighting against injustice.”

An $8.5 million award for a doctor who spoke up

Last November, Jeff won an award of $8.5 million for Dr. Richard Loftus. The case was decided in a judicial reference hearing. Loftus had spent 10 years at Eisenhower Medical Center in the Coachella Valley. He was assistant program director for the internal medicine residency there. His record was clean. “He had zero discipline in his file and was widely regarded as an excellent clinical physician and teacher,” Jeff said.

Then the pandemic reached the valley. In March 2020, Loftus pushed the hospital to require masks and run COVID tests. Administration pushed back, and around the same time he raised a second problem. The residency program’s director had a pattern of mistreating female physicians. Loftus took it to the hospital’s chief operating officer, its chief medical officer and human resources.

The response was not aimed at the conduct he reported. It was aimed at him. The program director filed a complaint against Loftus. It said Loftus had publicly called him sexist and had fought the mask policy. The chief medical officer then questioned Loftus’ mental fitness in front of the medical executive committee. The committee handed Loftus a behavior agreement.

The agreement asked for a lot. To sign it, Loftus had to admit he had behaved badly. He had to see a psychiatrist the hospital picked, for a forensic evaluation. He also had to accept psychiatric care, drop his legal claims, agree to arbitration and let the hospital share his medical records. He refused. Signing would have blocked him from getting credentialed at other hospitals. It also risked a report to the Medical Board. For a working doctor, that combination ends a career.

The referee found for Dr. Loftus on all claims. The award came to $1.6 million in compensatory damages, $4 million in punitive damages, and nearly $3 million in attorney’s fees, costs and prejudgment interest. The case is Loftus v. Eisenhower Medical Center, et al., CVPS2106540, filed in Riverside County Superior Court on December 23, 2021.

The Merced County trial that changed the practice

Jeff points to an earlier trial as the turning point in his career. His client was an OB/GYN. The doctor had reported being forced to do a C-section without anesthesia. He said the hospital was short on coverage, supplies and nurse training. The hospital retaliated by reporting him to the Medical Board. By the time the case reached Jeff, the doctor could no longer pay attorneys by the hour. The defense had offered nothing. Jeff tried it in Merced County against a team of veteran trial lawyers and won punitive damages. “That was a critical point in my career because I overcame a team of hometown lawyers in a reputedly conservative jurisdiction,” he said.

What both cases have in common

Employees who call our office describe the same pattern. Someone reports a safety problem or a pay problem. The employer does not argue about whether the report was true. The process turns toward the person who made it. It shows up as a fitness review, a personnel file that suddenly fills up, or a document they are pushed to sign fast. Doctors have it worse, because a Medical Board report follows them to every hospital they ever apply to.

California law treats that response as its own violation. A whistleblower claim does not require you to be proven right about what you reported. You do have to show two things. First, that you reasonably believed you were reporting something unlawful. Second, that the employer acted against you because of that report. Dates and documents are what carry that second point. The weeks right after a complaint usually shape the rest of the case.

Jeff also sees the work as a duty to the courts, not just to clients. “We have a responsibility as attorneys to file only meritorious cases so the judges have the time to do their jobs,” he said.

Read the Daily Journal feature

The full profile ran on page 25 of the supplement. It covers the Eisenhower case in more detail than we have here. That includes the full terms of the behavior agreement and what the referee found. Read the original below, or open the PDF.

Credit for the recognition

Recognition like this never belongs to one name. Jeff thanked his partner James Yoon, along with the colleagues and staff who carried these cases with him: Melanie Savarese, Julieta Hernandez and Alana Luna.

If your employer turned on you after you raised something, write down the dates now, while you still remember them. What you can document in the first month often decides what the case is worth two years later. Rager and Yoon represents employees across Los Angeles and Southern California in whistleblower and retaliation cases, including claims against hospitals. The first call costs nothing. Call 310-527-6994.