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About Us - Our Background & History

Who is behind Serious Injury Legal Group?

Personal injury attorneys John Page (myself) and Aaron Smith are the founders of Serious Injury Legal Group. We are both running powerful personal injury practices in Missouri. Aaron operates the A.W. Smith Law Firm in Columbia, MO and I am a senior partner at Page Law in St. Louis, MO.

Aaron and I have each been honored with Martindale Hubbell's AV® Peer Review Rating. This AV Rating is one of the highest honors you can achieve as a lawyer. The rating is based on our reputation with lawyers and judges in our legal communities. The AV® certification mark is a significant rating accomplishment - a testament to the fact that a lawyer's peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.

Why did we create Serious Injury Legal Group?

We started Serious Injury Legal Group to help change the negativity that surrounds personal injury attorneys and personal injury law firms. Aaron and I met in 2009 at a personal injury seminar and began talking about the significant road blocks we both face in our profession. We have devoted our lives to helping people during their time of need and despite these massive efforts, the media and others are constantly slapping the personal injury profession in its face. Aaron and I have agreed to do everything we can to change the perception of the general public as it relates to personal injury lawyers and personal injury law firms.

How was Serious Injury Legal Group created?

We had a basic understanding of the public's view regarding personal injury lawyers and their firms. Unfortunately, a lot of the public's views were coming from media outlets that slanted their stories significantly. Therefore, we began conducting focus groups with the general public on why personal injury attorneys were so often associated with negativity. We spent a tremendous amount of time and resources figuring out “why” our profession draws so much negativity. We both agreed that once we knew the reasons, we would react accordingly and begin changing the public's perception one person at a time.

After each focus group, Aaron and I analyzed the issues facing personal injury lawyers and their firms today. We began taking massive action immediately. We agreed that we could not sit idle and watch the negativity engulf our profession. There are two types of people in this world, doers and sayers. We are both doers and we are firm believers that negativity breeds negativity and the only way to beat negativity, is to trump it with positive energy. We are working on this project with the same aggressiveness we represent our personal injury clients with.

What is a focus group?

You may be asking, what is a focus group? And why are these guys conducting focus groups on what the general public thinks about personal injury lawyers? These are both great questions. Aaron advertised in newspapers and on the internet that we were looking for people to help us with some issues related to our law practices. Many of you reading this website probably participated in the some of the focus groups. We thank you immensely for that. We rented out different facilities that had enough tables and chairs to satisfy our entire group. We brought in refreshments and we talked to the groups for a couple of hours to get their input and ideas regarding things we could do, as personal injury lawyers, to change the negative vibe surrounding our profession. We then compensated the focus group members for their willingness to participate and giving up part of their weekend to help us find a solution to this growing problem.

How did focus groups help get Serious Injury Legal Group started?

After we conducted all of the focus groups, we watched the videos, read the surveys, repeated the process and came to some conclusions. We uncovered numerous generalities that were causing negativity. The focus groups helped us conclude the following generalizations:

  1. People don't like fine print;
  2. People think some cases are frivolous;
  3. Injury lawyers do not explain their fees very well;
  4. Injury attorneys fail to keep their clients informed;
  5. Injury lawyers fail to return phone calls;
  6. Injury attorneys fail to explain the process of a personal injury case; and
  7. Personal injury lawyers only care about money.

Obviously, these generalizations are a bit concerning to personal injury lawyers that care deeply for their clients and fight hard for their best interests and well being. Without our countless hours of focus groups and research, Aaron and I would not have been able to pinpoint these exact issues. We certainly know these are all important, but we were not aware of the significant impact these seven issues are having on our profession. Now that we know the main concerns of the general public, we can focus on addressing these concerns immediately and up front.

What actions has Serious Injury Legal Group taken as a result of the general public's views?

Serious Injury Legal Group has created "The 7 Client Commandments". These will each be covered before a personal injury client signs a contract for employment. They are as follows:

  1. No Fine Print! Serious Injury Law Group has a "No Fine Print Guarantee". Nothing in our business will have fine print. Not in contracts, advertisements, or anything else.
  2. We will not take frivolous case. It is important to note the media often "sensationalizes" specific cases. It is apparent the old adage is true, "a few bad apples spoils the bunch".
  3. No Hidden Fees or costs! Fees and costs are explained up front and in detail. The client will NOT be asked to sign a contract until the client completely understands the fees and costs;
  4. Keep The Client Informed! Clients will be kept informed on an ongoing basis and they are encouraged to call with any questions;
  5. Return Calls Immediately! All phone calls and emails will be returned immediately. Every client will have the personal cell phone of the attorney working on their case;
  6. Explain The Process! We will go over the process from case intake through settlement or trial at the start of the case;
  7. Give Back! We donate regularly to charities, the community, and little league ball teams.

Conclusion

We believe Serious Injury Legal Group is setting an example for others to follow. We will continue to fight the good fight and protect those that need protection. This website contains material the focus groups indicated they would find helpful when searching for a personal injury lawyer. We do list some of our past cases and results, not to brag about our outstanding accomplishments, but because after much research, we learned that people looking for injury attorneys are genuinely concerned about the types of cases an attorney has handled and the types of results they have achieved. We look forward to hearing from you and Aaron and I will be honored to work with you side by side in your personal injury case.