Personal Injury
Contingency Fees
Contingency Fees We never charge hourly fees. All of our work is done on a contingency fee basis – our fee is a percentage of the recovery we obtain for our client. If we don’t get money for our client, we don’t get a fee, and we lose the money, the costs we’ve paid to…
Read MoreHow Fast Will My Case Settle
How Fast Will My Case Settle? By Chuck Geerhart One of the questions most often asked by clients is “How long will it take to get my case settled?” Good question! Most people who have been injured want to get their claim settled and move on with their lives. The answer varies depending on the…
Read MoreTort “Reform” Marches On at the Expense of Public Safety
Tort “Reform” Marches On at the Expense of Public Safety By Chuck Geerhart I recently presented at a local law school about a great program run by the Diversity Committee of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers’ Association (SFTLA) aimed at bringing diverse young lawyers into the plaintiff bar. I was speaking to students who were…
Read MoreWhat Is This Case Worth? Part 2
Many lawyers (people) go through life with no thought of questions like “who am I?” and “what is my story?” They just know, or it just isn’t an issue for them. I spent years successfully representing injured clients without asking myself these questions. Things changed for me after a string of successes (and a couple…
Read More“The pedestrian always has the right of way”- true or false
By Chuck Geerhart I am handling more and more pedestrian injury cases. There are a lot of cars, trucks, buses, bikes, and skateboards out there. Everyone is looking into his or her phone. It’s not surprising pedestrians are getting hurt all the time. What are your rights and responsibilities as a pedestrian? Under the law,…
Read MoreTom Paoli & Chuck Geerhart Profile
The public defender was not hiring, so he threw himself into personal injury law and never looked back… Tom Paoli via Plaintiffmagazine.com, download pdf here. “With us, it’s our client’s only case. We have a much more personal connection.” Chuck Geerhart via Plaintiffmagazine.com, download pdf here.
Read MoreA Pro Bono Victory
By Chuck Geerhart It was just another Saturday at the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Lawyer Advice and Referral Clinic (LARC) in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. I’ve been volunteering at LARC for 21 years. I call it “bite size pro bono” because you don’t take on clients for representation– you simply try to…
Read MoreWhat Is This Case Worth
It’s the question everyone asks. And the answer is in the story of the case. What happened (injury – past damages), why did it happen, what was the cause (liability and causation), and what does the future look like (future damages)? I just read an email on the list-serve for the San Francisco Trial Lawyers…
Read MoreDon’t get beaten up by an assault case
Plaintiff Magazine Article How to decide whether to take on these challenging cases, and a game plan for when you do If your practice is like mine, you get calls from prospective clients who have been assaulted by someone. If it’s simply a case of “some guy attacked me in the street,” the case probably has no recover-able damages.…
Read MoreCan I Sue for Assault?
By Chuck Geerhart One of the most common calls we receive at Paoli & Geerhart is about assault. Often, a person has been suddenly assaulted in the street. Or by someone in the home. Or by a landlord, a bar bouncer, or another bar patron. Are these types of cases worth pursuing? The answer is,…
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