Welcome to my Injury Board page. I hope that while you’re here, you will see that we really do care about the people we represent. I’m a very active member of my community, and it was my desire to help people that led me to become a personal injury lawyer in the first place.
So let me tell you a little bit about myself. I was born in Paterson, New Jersey, but I grew up in Miami, FL. I went to the University of Miami (go ‘Canes!) where I got a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, before going on to law school. While in law school, I worked part-time as a clerk for a Circuit Court Judge. This was one of the more valuable experiences of my life. If you ever go to law school, I suggest you clerk for a judge. It will help you gain experience in the field of law, and make plenty of contacts in your community.
I graduated from the University of Miami Law School with honors in 1978. I then moved to Lake Wales, a small town in central Florida, where I’ve lived and practiced law ever since. It was in Lake Wales that I met my beautiful wife, Janet, and raised our two wonderful daughters, Lauren and Lyndsey. Some people might think that moving from a big city like Miami to a small town like Lake Wales would be boring, but I love the slow pace and strong sense of community that a place like Lake Wales provides.
I live by the motto of Edward Bok, “Make the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.” I try to make the world better by getting involved with my community in as many ways as I can. I have taken on many leadership roles, including being the President of the
Lake Wales Chamber of Commerce and the President and Board of Directors member of Unity in Community, which is an organization dedicated to promoting inter-faith and inter-racial understanding.
I also helped found the Lake Wales Youth Football League. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, my family helps the
Lake Wales Care Center by donating meals and gifts to families that cannot afford them, which is a very rewarding experience. I am also an active member and leader in the Early Learning Coalition, the
Polk County Trial Lawyers Association, the
Circle of Friends ministry, the Lake Wales Family Literacy Coalition, the Lake Wales Kiwanis Club, the
Lake Wales Little Theatre, and local schools of all levels, where I speak to students about the importance of an education.
It is because of my desire to help my community that I became a trial lawyer in the first place.
I see over and over how large companies and insurance companies try to take advantage of the public. They believe they can take unfair advantage of people and get away with it because no one will take the time or effort to step up and stand up to them, especially on smaller matters where most attorneys wont get involved because it's not worth it. I can’t stand to see that happen and I can’t help but to jump right in.
It's amazing how just a phone call or a letter from an attorney will get results that otherwise would not happen. It makes me feel just as good as winning some big trial. I go home at night knowing I helped someone who was being taken unfair advantage of and need my help.
Many people think that personal injury law is about ambulance-chasing lawyers and clients who want to get rich quick off of a minor injury. But this just isn’t true! Most of my clients were hard-working, productive members of society before an accident injured them so badly that they could not perform their jobs anymore. This accident was almost never their fault, and was caused by the negligence of someone who didn’t do their job properly. As a result, my clients have astronomical medical bills to pay, and no job with which to pay them.
My most meaningful accomplishment was a case that came to me after five other law firms had turned it down. I represented two parents that had placed their brain-injured son in a large facility in Wauchula, Florida, where he strangely died one evening. His death was ruled "accidental" from epilepsy.
Something didn’t sit right so I took the case and after six years of intensive investigation and litigation, the cause of death was changed to "homicide" by asphyxiation. A jury returned a verdict of $5 million against the brain injury facility (the largest jury verdict ever in that county). This was truly "not about the money" Their son's death had been resolved and they finally had closure. That was great satisfaction for me and we have stayed in touch since then.
This is a job that I’ve been doing for over 20 years, and while it isn’t always easy, and it’s almost always heartbreaking, I know I have to keep doing it, because there are people that need my help.