My Qualifications

My name is Phil Santa Maria. I am a lawyer who concentrates on plaintiff’s personal injury cases. That means that I help people who have been injured in car accidents, in falls and because of defective products. On a very selective basis, I also handle medical malpractice claims. However, I have handled far more car accident cases than any other kind.

What does that last paragraph mean? Not much. That just tells you where I am authorized to practice. It only tells you that I have met the minimum qualifications for practice in those jurisdictions and in those courts. Sometimes, the minimum qualifications are as little as filling out an application and paying a small fee. This list of admissions doesn’t even tell you that I have ever practiced in those courts.

If you are ever looking for a car accident lawyer, take note of the lawyers admissions, but give more weight to the lawyer’s experience and accomplishments.

What are my experience and accomplishments as a car accident lawyer?

During my career, I have handled thousands of car accident claims. I’ve handled seven figure cases and small cases where the recovery was only a few thousand dollars . . . and all size cases in between.

I have been given the highest possible rating for legal skill and ethics by the prestigious Martindale Hubbell Law Directory peer rating system. It’s nice to know that your peers – other lawyers and judges – respect your ability and your ethics. I’ve also appeared for many years in Who’s Who in American Law which honors about 2 1/2 percent of American lawyers. Earlier, I was honored with a listing in Outstanding Young Men in America. Unfortunately, I’m no longer eligible for that listing because of the “young” requirement. I’ve been a lawyer for more than 25 years.

I'm also a lifetime member of The Million Dollar Advocates Forum, a group of lawyers who have successfully handled million dollar cases. Currently, the Forum includes less than 1% of American lawyers.

In writing this web site, I have drawn on the experience that I’ve told you about. But I have also done research where necessary so that you will have the benefit of the best available information. I intend to add new information to the site frequently, so stop back regularly and browse.

My goal is to provide valuable, free information for people involved in car accidents.

Why? To even the battle between claimants and insurance companies. I want to give you the information that you need to defend yourself against the tactics of the insurance company behemoths and to represent yourself in small cases, if that’s what you decide to do. Even if you decide to hire a lawyer to handle your car accident case, I want you to have the information that you need to wisely choose the lawyer and to work efficiently with your lawyer.

At this point, this site is not commercial in any way. Nothing for sale here. I am not soliciting cases through this website and I won’t accept any.

Maybe later I’ll create some information products that I can sell, or maybe I’ll add affiliate links to products and services that I think are valuable. For now, though, it’s just a public service.

If you have any ideas for information products about car accidents that you would like to have, contact me with your suggestions. If you have questions, comments or even criticisms about this site, you should also contact me. I promise to use your input to make the site better.

Click here to return from this discussion of my qualifications to our home page.