Bernard G. Johnson III

It is conferred by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and the requirements are substantive rather than nominal: a minimum period in practice with substantial involvement in the speciality, a required volume of relevant work, peer review from judges and other attorneys familiar with the applicant's work, and a written examination in the field. It must then be maintained. Because it is awarded by an independent body against published standards and its status is publicly verifiable, it is one of the few credentials in legal marketing that means something specific.

Because admission to a court is a prerequisite to appearing in it, and most personal injury attorneys never seek either. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit hears federal appeals from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi — relevant whenever a case is removed to federal court or involves federal law, which happens routinely in maritime claims and in cases against out-of-state corporate defendants. It is a verifiable admission rather than a description, and like the bar number it can be checked.

Reads them before they publish and takes responsibility for their accuracy. Every substantive page on this site carries a visible byline naming both the attorney who wrote it and the attorney who reviewed it, with the published and updated dates. That is deliberate: legal content affects decisions people make about their own claims, and a page that nobody has put their name to is a page nobody is accountable for. The statutory citations on this site link to the State of Texas's own published text so a reader can check them independently.

He leads the litigation department, which means the matters that are filed and tried rather than resolved in negotiation. In practice that concentrates his work on disputed liability, serious and catastrophic injury, cases with multiple defendants, and matters where an insurer's position makes settlement unrealistic. Board certification in Personal Injury Trial Law is specifically a trial credential, which is what makes that alignment meaningful rather than a job title.

You do, on advice. No case is settled without your agreement and none is filed without it either. What the firm provides is a realistic assessment of what the evidence supports, what the available insurance is, and what filing would add — including the honest answer that most claims resolve without a trial and that filing is a means rather than an end. Where an insurer's offer does not reflect the loss, the credible ability to try the case is what changes the conversation.

From the firm's office at 8313 Southwest Fwy Ste 102, Houston, TX 77074, with matters ordinarily filed in Harris County at the Civil Courthouse, 201 Caroline Street. Cases arising elsewhere in the metro may belong in Fort Bend, Waller, Montgomery, Galveston or Chambers County, and federal admissions matter where a case is removed or where federal law governs — as it does in Jones Act and Longshore Act claims out of the Ship Channel and the Gulf.

Most obviously where liability is disputed or the injury is severe, because those are the cases that are tried rather than settled early. It is also a useful signal at the point of choosing a firm: it is one of the few claims a law firm makes that is independently awarded and publicly verifiable. It is not a guarantee of outcome and should never be presented as one — Texas rules restrict what attorneys may claim about results for exactly that reason.

Because a date on its own predicts nothing. Licensed in 1996 tells you the length of the public record available for inspection, not what will happen in your case. The credentials worth weighing are the ones awarded by someone other than the firm — board certification by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, admission to specific courts, and a clean disciplinary record at the State Bar. All three are checkable, and the checking takes a couple of minutes.

Search the State Bar of Texas member directory for Bar No. 00796832. That record shows licence status, the admission date and any public disciplinary history. Board certification status is maintained by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is separately verifiable. Court admissions are held by the courts themselves. We publish the number precisely so that this is a two-minute exercise rather than a matter of trust.

Nothing, and there is no obligation. If the firm takes the matter on, representation is on a contingency fee — a percentage of the recovery, no fee if there is no recovery — with the percentage and the treatment of case expenses set out in a written agreement before you sign anything. Ask for that in writing at any firm you are considering, and read the expense provisions as carefully as the percentage.