
Dear Mr. Homero Villarreal),
Thanks for speaking with me today. I am sure you will be interested in my responses to the comments you published. Thank you very much for agreeing to POST my response to the blog of Defenzor.
Here are my comments.
Thanks for listening...
(Signed) Wayne Wright
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My name is Wayne Wright, and I am responding to your comments about me and my law firm on your recent Defenzor Blog entries You do not know me or our reputable law firm, so I would like to give you factual information that will change your opinion of me and my law firm.
I am glad that you fight for the underdog and that you fight to stop illegal lawyer case solicitation and case running in all of its ugly forms. So do I.
And so does my law firm, Wayne Wright Injury Lawyers. In fact, our firm leads Texas legal communities who are committed to stamp out all forms of illegal case running.
Our law firm was the lead contributor and underwriter in forming and supporting the Society of Ethical Attorneys at Law(SEAL), a not-for-profit, anti-solicitation organization dedicated to stopping illegal case running in Texas. This organization’s final mission is to stop, once and for all, illegal solicitation and case running in Texas. Visit them at http://www.societyofethicalattorneys.org/
Our firm was the underwriter for SEAL posting a $25,000 reward for information leading to any attorney’s arrest for case running or other illegal case solicitations.
Our firm was voted among the best personal injury attorneys in San Antonio in the annual San Antonio Scene Magazine.
We contribute tens of thousands of dollars each year for non-profit television ads, sponsored by SEAL, to warn the public about illegal case running and unethical lawyer activities.
Additionally, each year our law firm purchases hundreds of Public Service Announcements on television stations warning the public to avoid case runners. We work closely with SEAL, local police departments, and the State Bar of Texas to put case runners and unethical attorneys out of business, including committing numerous resources to support new state-wide legislation to stop illegal case running.
We are the only law firm in Corpus Christi who underwrites more than 40 TV commercials each month warning of the dangers of illegal lawyer solicitation and case running.
I seriously doubt that any law firm in Texas does more to stop these types of illegal activities. And we continue in this fight daily.
Let me point out a few other facts about our respected law firm and its lawyers.
* We never accept clients with any intention of working with outside counsel or other law firms. Lawyers on our payroll, working in our offices, work on every case we take. On some occasions we are ethically and legally required to engage other counsel to assist in a case such as retaining guardian ad litems, trustee attorneys, lien resolution expert attorneys, and other similar examples. And, we have, like all ethical law firms, on occasion partnered with outside counsel to add our significant law firm expertise and financial muscle to maximize case results for the client.
* I am a full-time member of our attorney roster, a working personal injury lawyer with over 30 years experience in personal injury law and consumer law. I am available 24/7 to assist clients and meet personally with clients who need my personal legal attention. That means that I travel to all of our offices, in every city, when needed. Obviously I cannot solely represent every single client in our firm. That is why we hire only the best and most competent lawyers with varied specialized talents to work with me to provide the highest quality of legal services to our clients.
* Our clients have direct access, 24 hours a day--in person or on the phone--to their own personal lawyer, who is in charge of their case. Unlike some less reputable firms, we hire only competent, licensed lawyers to take responsibility on injury cases. We also hire Board Certified Personal Injury Lawyers to help train and assist any of our lawyers, as needed.
* Our lawyers are the best trained lawyers in their field. Through our personally funded Wayne Wright University, each lawyer has access to more than 4 times the minimum annual continuing legal education and ethics training classes required by the State Bar of Texas. My son Wyatt and I are committed and involved members of the College of the State Bar of Texas. Our firm is dedicated to hiring only the most ethical attorneys in the country. Our track record proves that.
* You will never find a single instance in the history of our law firm where a referral fee was paid to a non-lawyer or where we solicited a case illegally. We have no “referral sources” and only occasionally accept a case from a fellow lawyer. That is usually when we are asked to help an under-funded sole practitioner or small law firm--drained of resources by a big insurance company or defense law firm. We thrive on representing the underdog. We believe in old fashioned ethics--earn your clients by hard work, ethical conduct and great results.
* Unlike many small law firms, our firm has the monetary and staff resources to meet any challenge. We currently employ more than 30 lawyers and nearly 125 paralegals and other staff support personnel. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with small law firms. I once had a small firm and did a competent job of representing clients. But times have changed since the local one-person law firm could be all things to all people. I learned, over almost 30 years of practicing law, that doing the best job for an injured client means having the resource muscle to get the job done.
* Today’s big insurance companies and big defense law firms are committed to burying small law firms in paper work and draining their financial resources. They do it because it works. Unfortunately, the poor, underdog client is the ultimate loser. But, we have the financial ability and staff resources to compete against big corporations and big defense law firms by giving them back some of their own medicine. Our law firm cannot be intimidated or forced into settling a case too early because of inadequate funds to continue in the case. Our lawyers have carte blanche to do whatever it takes to get the best result for our clients.
* Clients come first at our law firm. We may be the only law firm in Texas that guarantees same day return calls to clients from their personal lawyer team. If we fail to live up to the guarantee we voluntarily pay the client $10.00 for inconvenience in not getting a prompt return call. In the last 10 years we have paid out a total of less than $300.00 to clients on this guarantee. Not such a bad track record.
* We are the only law firm in Texas that operates an internal Ombudsman Program. We guarantee to each client an independent advocate who assists in solving any problem on any subject matter associated with the case.
* We may be the only law firm in Texas that publishes a Client Bill of Rights that always puts the client first.
* Yes, we have many clients. Some fellow lawyers don’t like that, especially those lawyers in direct competition with our firm. But, even among those competitors, we expect the truth to be told. Anything less is libelous. The truth is, we earn our clients one client at a time. Most of our clients come from word-of-mouth referrals from satisfied clients. Others come from our many advertisements. And, when you view our commercials you see the facts…our clients speak in their own words how they feel about our services.
* Yes, I am proud to be a lawyer who advertises his law firm’s special and unique benefits as guaranteed by the United States Constitution. We all know some people dislike advertising lawyers. However, I am personally more concerned about watching closely those lawyers who never advertise but somehow seem to get a lot of cases by paying referral fees to non-lawyer runners. We know who they are. They run rampant throughout Texas. My firm has been fighting against them for years.
So now I challenge you. If you really are committed to stopping case running and all forms of illegal conduct and solicitation by lawyers, meet with me to discuss positive ways to stop it. Speak with the many dedicated investigators working on this problem for SEAL, the local police departments, and the State Bar of Texas. These are dedicated folks committed to their mission. To the extent that information does not compromise an on-going criminal or ethical investigation, all of us will share the atrocities that are happening every day. Together we can make a difference.