About Maida Law Firm

One of three attorneys, and you should ask which one before you sign anything. Sam A. Maida, Jr. founded the firm and has been licensed in Texas since 1993. Bernard G. Johnson III has been licensed since 1996 and is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and is admitted before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit. Gabriel de Vega has been licensed since 2009. This is a small firm rather than a volume operation, which means the attorney you meet is the attorney on your file — a question worth asking of any firm you consider.

Compare things you can verify rather than things you are told. Every Texas attorney has a Bar number that resolves to the State Bar's own record showing licence status, admission date and any public disciplinary history — ask for it and look it up, at this firm or any other. Ask whether anyone on the file is board certified, and in what. Ask who handles the case day to day and how often you will hear from them. Ask for the fee agreement in writing before signing. A firm that will not answer those plainly has told you something useful.

It is a specialist certification conferred by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, which requires substantial experience in the field, peer review from judges and other attorneys, and a written examination in the speciality. It is held by a small minority of Texas lawyers. Bernard G. Johnson III holds it under Bar No. 00796832. The reason it matters more than most credentials advertised by law firms is that it is awarded by an independent body against published standards, and its status is publicly verifiable rather than self-declared.

Injury and death claims arising from someone else's conduct. In practice that means vehicle collisions of every kind, commercial truck and bus crashes, motorcycle and pedestrian injuries, rideshare claims, drunk and distracted driving, hit-and-run, workplace and industrial injuries including Texas non-subscriber claims, maritime and Jones Act injuries out of the Ship Channel and the Gulf, defective products, and wrongful death. What we do not do is criminal defence, family law or business litigation — and being told plainly that a matter is outside a firm's practice is more useful than being taken on by someone learning it.

The consultation is free and the representation is on a contingency fee, which means the fee is a percentage of what is recovered and there is no fee if there is no recovery. Case expenses — medical records, filing fees, expert reports, depositions — are handled separately and are explained in the written agreement. You should receive that agreement, stating the percentage and how expenses are treated, before you sign anything. That is true of any firm, and a reluctance to put it in writing at the outset is a reason to keep looking.

The office is at 8313 Southwest Fwy Ste 102, Houston, TX 77074, on the Southwest Freeway a few minutes from the 610 Loop and Sharpstown, open Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 17:00. It is the firm's only office — we serve Baytown, Galveston, Katy, Pasadena, Sugar Land and The Woodlands from here rather than maintaining branch addresses. An initial conversation can happen by phone, and where someone is hospitalised or unable to travel, arrangements are made accordingly.

On our Google Business Profile, which is where the reviews on this site come from and where you can read all of them rather than the ones a firm chose to quote. Reviews tell you how it felt to be a client, which is genuinely useful information. What they cannot tell you is whether an attorney is licensed and in good standing, board certified, or admitted before the court your case belongs in — and those are the things you can check in a couple of minutes through the State Bar record.

Sooner than most people do, because the evidence expires long before the deadline does. Texas gives you two years from the day the cause of action accrues under § 16.003(a), but camera footage from businesses near a crash scene is routinely overwritten within days, vehicles are repaired or scrapped, and witnesses become harder to find. If a City of Houston, Harris County or METRO vehicle is involved, written notice is required within six months under § 101.101. Calling early does not commit you to anything; it preserves options that quietly disappear.

The same business day where possible. What happens first is a conversation about what occurred, what injuries there are, and whether there is a claim worth pursuing — including telling you when there is not, which is a normal outcome of a first call. If we take the matter on, you get a written fee agreement setting out the percentage and how expenses work before anything else happens. Nothing is signed at the first conversation and there is no obligation from making it.

Only for what it lets you verify. Length of practice is not a guarantee of outcome and no firm should suggest otherwise. What a 1993 admission date does give you is a long public record with the State Bar that you can inspect, and familiarity with the Harris County courts, the local defence bar and the insurers who operate in this market. Those are practical advantages rather than promises, and the honest way to present them is as things you can check rather than conclusions you should accept.

Because a credential you cannot check is not a credential. Any firm can describe itself as experienced or dedicated; almost none publish the identifiers that let you confirm licence status, admission date and disciplinary history against the State Bar's own record. Publishing them also protects against a real problem in legal search — namesakes. There is a different attorney named Sam Maida practising in Texas, admitted in 1970, and the bar number is what distinguishes the two beyond argument.

Check that a physical office address resolves to an actual office, that the attorneys named have Texas Bar numbers you can look up, and that the phone number reaches the firm rather than an intake service that sells the call on. Ask directly whether the firm will handle the case itself or refer it out, and get the answer before signing. Many sites that look like law firms are marketing operations that sell enquiries to whoever is buying that week, and the distinction is not visible from the design of the website.