General Info

What makes the difference in success in wrongful death and personal injury cases, especially those involving complex facts, like oilfield or refinery deaths and injuries, or medical issues outside the ordinary?

The answers are ability, experience, knowledge and resources. Our firm has all those bases covered. I have been in countless depositions when another attorney had little or no clue what a witness was talking about when he was discussing a simple mechanical process, such as arc welding or fluid transfer, or a doctor was discussing a medical condition or treatment. It is frustrating and sometimes amusing to watch, and often leads to evidence that remains uncovered, which is good for our clients if the evidence is against them.

My mom and dad were sharecroppers. I was raised on a farm, and learned to operate heavy machinery and weld and repair it at an early age. I married at the age of seventeen, and worked my way through college and law school with the help of my wife, (my eventual and one of my current law partners,) working on the farm, in a paint and coatings store, in a hospital, as a painter, as a pumper and well service hand in the oil field, as a sandblaster and pipe coater in an oilfield pipe plant, and I then spent six years as a Texas State Trooper, investigating auto accidents, including numerous fatalities, before I went to law school. I was valedictorian of my Texas State Law Enforcement Academy graduating class.

After law school, from which I graduated with highest honors and numerous academic awards, I began to represent injured people in various types of cases. We filed one of the first breast implant injury cases in Texas, and one of the first fen-phen cases as well, going on to represent over two hundred individuals in these two areas of product liability, which involved huge amounts of scientific and medical evidence, depositions and testimony. Our firm has represented clients in death and injury cases arising from tank explosions, drilling rig incidents, fuel truck explosions, truck accidents, auto accidents, medical device failures, vehicle product failures, medical errors and various other scenarios. We have employed and/or deposed experts in a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines, including medical, analytical and engineering fields. Our daughter Misty, the third member of the firm, is a capable and experienced trial lawyer, licensed in both Texas and New Mexico. Whether the witness is a welder, a truck driver, a driller, a doctor, an engineer, a metallurgist or an Indian Chief, we typically know what he’s talking about, and when he’s pulling the wool over someone’s eyes or hiding important information. That is an edge that many other firms do not enjoy.

We also remember what it’s like to be without enough money or resources, and to have to live hand to mouth like a lot of the good folks who come in to seek our help with their injury case, or to seek fair and just compensation for the death of a loved one.

Our firm has enjoyed considerable success, and we have the wherewithal to prosecute a case in the manner it deserves. All these factors add up to a big difference in how our clients’ cases are perceived and valued by opposing counsel and insurance companies.

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