Earlier this year Ziff Law Firm partner Jim Reed headed out of the firm’s Elmira, NY office on a happy errand. He was delivering two checks — one for $38,000 and another for $10,000 — to attorneys who had done nothing more than refer personal injury clients to the Ziff Law Firm. This was just one of many “happy errands” Ziff Law injury and malpractice attorneys regularly make to lawyers in their Referring Attorney Network.
Most attorneys recognize personal injury and malpractice are very distinct areas of law and they acknowledge clients are best represented by attorneys who specialize in these areas. At the Ziff Law Firm, Carl Hayden, Jim Reed, Adam Gee and Christina Bruner limit their practices to personal injury and malpractice cases only. Carl is the only plaintiff’s lawyer in the Twin Tiers to be named a prestigious Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. Jim and Carl are the only Plaintiff Lawyers in our area to be designated as New York Super Lawyers. Jim Reed was selected for membership in the Multi Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Carl, Jim, Adam and Christina are all active in the N.Y.S. Trial Lawyer Association and the N.Y. Academy of Trial Lawyers. If you do not have a track record of trying “and winning” these kinds of cases, you do not want to try to handle them yourself!
Perhaps the single greatest difference between these practice areas and other legal specialties is the financial arrangement. Personal Injury cases typically use contingency fees, where lawyers only get paid by winning compensation for their clients. In other words, the law firm risks everything — the attorney’s time, travel, research, preparation of exhibits, expenses of expert witnesses, and on and on — and fronts all costs of pursuing a settlement or victory in court.
