Personal injury and Civil Rights representation is the art of representing the client against institutions of power for wrongs done by those institutions or the people those institutions represent. In the context of personal injury cases, the opponent is almost always an insured person’s insurance company with stockholders, a profit motive, and little regard to the injuries sustained by the victim. To the insurance company, the client is a statistic and a business decision. The attorney’s job is to gather evidence to establish legal liability of the defendant, to prove legal damages from the injuries, and to negotiate with the insurance company on the client’s behalf. After a settlement or judgment is obtained for the client, the attorney also negotiates the client’s medical bills to put as much money in the client’s pocket as possible and to ensure that all medical bills are paid from the settlement or judgment. Car, truck and motorcycle accidents, and dog bites are examples of personal injury cases, but also include intentional acts like assault and battery or theft of property.

In the context of civil rights cases, the opponent is either the federal, state or local government and its agents or employees and it involves the violation of a constitutional right and the redress of damages for the violation of that right. For instance, all persons have a constitutional right to be free from the excessive use of force by law enforcement officers and if a law enforcement officer uses excessive force against a person which results in injury to the person, the officer and the agency can be sued for violating that person’s constitutional right to be free from excessive force and can obtain damages for their injuries. This can apply to other constitutional rights, such as the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure or the right to freely expression. These claims can exist in under federal and state law. The representation of the client in these circumstances is like personal injury representation except the opposing party is the government, which often means nearly unlimited resources to be able to defend the case. Both insurance companies and government agencies have nearly unlimited resources to defend the case and can hire competent civil defense attorneys, effective expert witnesses, and investigators to dig up useful information, so it is particularly important to have legal representation to counter these inherent advantages.

I have been representing clients in New Mexico in personal injury and civil rights cases since 2003. Let me bring my knowledge and experience to obtain the best possible resolution to your personal injury or civil rights case.