Why hire a national law firm?

Experience: We have handled over 8,000 personal injury and wrongful death cases all across the United States involving virtually every state's laws, procedures and choice of law rules. Over the 25 plus years our firm has been practicing, we have developed more than 35 pages of step-by-step checklists, including a separate checklist for commercial trucks, to handle our cases from intake through trial or settlement to the distribution of the proceeds obtained. We have over 75 staff members, including 17 attorneys, two of whom are engineers, 12 paralegals, and 4 legal secretaries. Our trial attorneys have many, many years of experience and all are AV® Preeminent Peer Review Rated (highest possible rating) through Lexis-Nexis Martindale Hubbell.

Minimize Fees and Eliminate Costs: Because of our efficient handling of these cases and because we only handle major claims involving death or catastrophic injuries, our contingent fee is only 25% and that fee includes all costs. That means that out of our 25% fee, we pay all costs incurred to prosecute your case such as costs for experts, investigators, travel, court filings, copying, telephone, fax, FedEx, postage, printing, couriers, and electronic legal research. Personal injury attorneys traditionally charge 33 1/3 to 40% plus repay themselves all of those costs from your recovery after deducting their fee. We take only our 25% fee and that’s it.

Availability to You: Proximity to you should not be a concern since no matter where you are in the United States or Canada, we are a toll-free phone call away. We have an office telephone receptionist Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time in our Washington, D.C. office and from 6:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time in our Los Angeles office together with automated voice mail, fax and email 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at both locations. When you call during business hours, you will get a person, not a recording. If the person you want to talk with is not in, we will see to it your call is promptly returned, usually within one business day. We also offer to meet with our clients in person or conduct conference calls with family members in multiple locations throughout the U.S. and can accommodate simultaneous video over the Internet provided our clients have available compatible equipment.

Beyond the Courtroom: Collateral to the settlement or litigation of a claim, we have, on numerous occasions, sought to create change outside of the courtroom. We have, for example, testified before various State and Federal governmental committees on safety issues involving various modes of transportation, including commercial trucks, with the hopes of preventing accidents or reducing injury.  We have also personally met with state legislators and U.S. Senators and Representatives multiple times in order to gain their cooperation and support in creating legislation for better consumer safety. Some of our campaigns have specifically targeted groups to encourage them to make changes to their vehicles and practices that we are convinced will save lives, reduce injuries, and still increase efficiency and profits.

Strategic Filing: While the majority of commercial transportation cases settle before a trial is conducted, we always prepare each one of our cases as if it were going to trial. If your case does not resolve without a lawsuit, we will have to determine the best place to file that lawsuit. Naturally, this consideration would begin with the accident location. Sometimes, however, by comparison to other available jurisdictions, the accident location does not afford the best place to litigate because, among other considerations, the types of recoverable damages are limited, the people who can seek those damages are limited, the dollar amounts recoverable are limited, the time to file suit is too limited, potential jury awards are low, and/or the courthouse is inconvenient.  In those cases, we will also look to litigate in the areas of a residence or headquarters of any defendant, and, in rare occasions, if the area of residence of any plaintiff or plaintiff’s decedent, is available.

Experience in Legal Hurdles: We have attorneys licensed to practice law in California, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Additionally, we are licensed to practice in federal courts in California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. We are also licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeal in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh ninth and tenth circuits.  If we file your lawsuit in a state in which we are not initially licensed, we will hire a local attorney, at our own expense, to obtain a license to practice before the Court in your case.

Expert Support: We have relationships with accident reconstruction experts, medical experts, animation experts, economic experts, and professional investigators all across the United States and can quickly assemble a formidable team of experts and investigators anywhere in the United States whenever necessary.

Unbiased Representation: Our Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles locations provide assurances that we will not be limited, restricted, or concerned by local politics or relationships in your case.