Board Certified Accident Lawyer versus Superlawyer

If you are hurt in any kind of accident, be it a car wreck with a drunk driver, a highway accident with a semi tractor-trailer, a motorcycle-car accident, a trucking accident or a large truck crash, even a construction accident, you will want to hire the best accident attorney or the best injury attorney you can find.  Why you ask?  Simple, a serious injury such as a brain injury, a spinal cord injury leading to paralysis including paraplegia and quadriplegia, amputation, back injury, blindness, deafness and even wrongful death can put your family in economic danger.  Your accident attorney or injury attorney may be the only person who stands between you and financial ruin.

Do you choose a Superlawyer?  Well, to answer that question it is important to know how one becomes a Superlawyer.  It is a popularity contest.  It has nothing to do with qualifications.  There is no test, no background check, and no jury trial experience required.  I have actually received letters from substandard lawyers asking me to nominate them to be a Superlawyer.  I have also seen mass mailing letters from terrible lawyers asking me, and all the other lawyers in town, to vote for them as a Superlawyer.  I refused to do so because I knew they were not good lawyers, just someone who does not have the experience and knowledge to be a board certified lawyer.  Once these people get the Superlawyer label, they put it on their website as if it means anything.  I tell you now, we have two lawyers in this firm who have been named Superlawyers, but we don’t tell anyone that because we know it means nothing.  In fact the first thing that happens when you are named a Superlawyer is you get a call from the company that publishes the magazine asking you to take a full page ad to publicize the fact that you are a Superlawyer.  It is an advertising scheme, the magazine made up the label to make money and to fool the public, nothing more.

To become a Board Certified Trial Lawyer, a lawyer must meet rigorous standards. The public needs to know who is qualified to represent their interests when the injury is serious and the consequences important. Anyone can buy a title and put it in their advertising, but not everyone can pass the requirements to become Board Certified and that is what separates a good accident lawyer from Superlawyer.  That is why, when the injury is serious and your families well being is on the line, you need a Board Certified Trial Lawyer on your side.

A Board Certified Trial Attorney must do what doctors must do in order to qualify for the right to be called board certified.  We must have the proper experience, including conducting a minimum number of jury trials, conducting a minimum number of Court hearings, and conducting a minimum number of depositions (sworn statements taken under oath).  If you meet these minimum requirements (being a Superlawyer is not one of the requirements) you must go through a background check for criminal record and for disciplinary history.  If you are cleared by the background check, then you are eligible to take the exam for certification.  The exam is an eight hour exam covering topics relevant to your specialty.  In my case, as an accident and injury attorney, I was tested over injury law.  If you pass the exam, your EARN the right to be a Board Certified Trial Lawyer.  Your appointment must be renewed every five years.  In order to qualify, you must have a minimum number of jury trials and other legal experience to remain certified.

At Young and Young, John P. Young and Fred Crow have been Board Certified Trial Lawyers for nearly ten years.  The National Board of Legal Specialty Certification is accredited by the American Bar Association.  An experienced accident attorney is what you need, leave the Superlawyer to those whose injuries are not serious.