Have a Texas injury case you need to refer?

Three ways to work together

Refer it. We take the matter start to finish and you receive a referral fee under Rule 1.04(f). You stay informed and you keep the relationship with your client.

Co-counsel. We work the file together, with responsibilities divided at the outset according to what each firm is best placed to do. Fees divide in proportion to services performed or on assumption of joint responsibility.

Consult. You keep the case and remain lead counsel. We work behind the scenes on strategy, expert selection, briefing, or trial preparation.

You choose. Firms that have referred once often use a different arrangement the second time, and that is fine.

What we commit to

Every arrangement is memorialized in writing before we begin, and complies with Rule 1.04 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, including the requirement that your client consent in writing after being told who is sharing the fee and how.

Referral fees are paid promptly on disbursement, not when it is convenient. You will hear from us at each substantive development rather than when we need something. Your client remains your client, and we will not solicit their other work.

If we conclude the case is not viable, we tell you that quickly and explain why, so you can decide what to do with it while there is still time to do something.

• We protect your client relationship.
• We evaluate referred cases quickly.
• We communicate clearly.
• We put fee agreements in writing.
• We are selective about case fit.
• We are built for serious injury litigation, not high-volume sign-and-send.

Cases we accept

Serious motor vehicle collisions, including commercial vehicle and eighteen-wheeler cases. Catastrophic injury and wrongful death. Premises liability. Product defect claims. Workplace and industrial injuries, including Texas nonsubscriber claims. Nursing home neglect.

We are a small firm by design and we take a limited number of matters at a time. That means we say no to cases we could technically handle, and it means the cases we accept get attention rather than a place in line.

Who will be working your file

Jacob Cukjati manages the firm’s injury docket and will be your point of contact.

Behind him the firm carries a bench unusual for its size. Curtis Cukjati has tried Texas civil cases since 1989, holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell that he has maintained since 2011, and is admitted before the Fifth Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. Trey Martin has litigated complex civil matters in Texas for more than thirty years and is admitted in the Western and Southern Districts and the Fifth Circuit.

That combination is the reason we can take a referred case that needs to be tried rather than settled at whatever the carrier offers.

Texas law you will want to know

If you practice elsewhere, several Texas rules will affect what your client’s case is worth and how it must be handled. The two-year limitations period. Proportionate responsibility and the fifty-one percent bar. Paid-or-incurred, which limits recovery of medical expenses to amounts actually paid or owed rather than billed. Short notice deadlines against governmental defendants.

We have set them out in full in a guide written for out-of-state counsel.

Common questions