What You Should Know

Consideration of the track record of a law firm should be guided by the following:

  • Many cases settle, and for substantial amounts, particularly when legal liability is clear, damages are severe or there is a death — and there is plenty of insurance. Knowing only the amount of the settlement of such a case, it cannot be determined whether an attorney did a great job, an average job, or a poor job.
  • No attorney wins all cases, particularly if the attorney will take on difficult cases where legal liability is uncertain. The law and often the facts of a particular accident may not allow recovery. The facts or the applicable law are often in dispute, and sometimes both.

The real test of a lawyer’s skill is not whether he wins cases that he should win, or whether he recovers large sums for injuries for which mere mention of the severity of the injuries suggests a substantial sum. The real test is whether the law firm is known to take and win difficult liability cases — cases that other attorneys might not take — and is known to present proof and argument on damages as allowed by Personal Injury Damages Law that consistently results in higher awards than others might expect. Insurance companies are aware of and keep track of the reputations of attorneys.

In presenting a few selected results above from the thousands of cases handled, we have not selected cases that we “won” that we should have won. Rather, we have selected cases that relate to what we believe is the real test of a lawyer’s skill.

Most cases, particularly large settlements, have confidentiality agreements that prevent disclosure of the names of the parties. We also respect our clients’ right of confidentiality. Consequently, the names of the parties are mentioned below only for cases that went to trial and were appealed and reported in law books.