How Pumpkin Pies Are Made!

Happy Thanksgiving! Special thanks to attorney Dana Roberts for sending me this.

CNN Runs Story on Arizona Malpractice Case

CNN recently ran a story on the alarming rate of medical mistakes in this Country. The story featured Kerry Higuera, a Peoria resident and client of the Patton Law Practice. When Kerry was three months pregnant she was experiencing bleeding and went to the ER. Confusing her with another patient, the hospital mistakenly administered a CT scan of her abdomen. This tragic case underscores the need for improved patient safety measures and a Strong civil justice system.

The full story can be found here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/11/hospital.mistakes/index.html

Should an Attorney or Law Firm BLOG?

"Attorney at Law" Releases 2nd Issue

This week every private practice attorney in Maricopa County should be receiving their 2nd issue of "Attorney at Law" Magazine. The cover story is on former Arizona Attorney General, Grant Woods. The online edition can be accessed here.

As always I will be running an ad for Findlaw on the back cover and writing an article on Internet marketing. This month the ad features a screen shot of http://www.clarklawaz.com/ along with a testimonial from Mari Jo Clark, the founder of the Clark Law Offices.


For this month's article I write about one of my favorite topics - Blogging. Special thanks to my friend Sue O'Donnell for editing the article.

Should an Attorney or Law Firm Blog?

Should you start a blog? Yes, that’s a great idea, but it does take thought and commitment. When used correctly, a blog can be a great differentiator for your firm. It can show you and your firm as actively engaged in not simply practicing law, but in making the law relevant to the everyday lives of individuals, families and businesses.

A blog is an online journal that offers attorneys the chance to write on current events, changes in the law, specific cases, politics and just about anything else that is relevant to themselves and their clients. Before you post a blog, however, give it one more read to determine if what you wrote can stand the scrutiny of anyone in the world who might read it.

Which blog platform should I use?
When selecting which blog platform to use, there are four main considerations: ease of use, cost, search engine optimization and branding. For a new blogger, I recommend starting with one of the free blogs such as Blogger or Wordpress.

While Wordpress offers some SEO (search engine optimization) benefits, I find that, for most of my clients, a Blogger blog is elegantly simple to use. Most of my clients are posting within 15 minutes of starting a Blogger blog. Another advantage of Blogger is that, since it’s owned and operated by Google, you can be confident that your posts will be indexed by the world’s largest search engine. And since it is by far the world’s most popular blogging platform, there is no shortage of blogging tips and technical support online.

One drawback to the free blogging platform options (Wordpress and Blogger) is that you are limited in terms of design. You will be forced to select from one of their rather staid template designs. For branding purposes, it might be important for your blog to have the same look and feel as your main website. This was the case for Solomon & Relihan who had Lexblog design the firm’s nursing home neglect blog (http://www.theguardianblog.com/). Most of the major legal marketing firms (FindLaw, Lawyers.com, Justia) all build custom designed blogs, but I usually recommend Lexblog. Lexblog focuses solely on legal blogs and therefore has developed substantial expertise in the area. They also offer fantastic customer support along with a national attorney blog network.

What Should I Say?
A huge challenge for any blogger is finding the time to write consistently. Until you prove to yourself that you are serious about blogging, it is far better to learn the ropes on something that doesn’t cost you anything.

The best tip for attorney blogging I ever heard came from Joseph McDaniel, an accomplished bankruptcy attorney here in Phoenix. Joe maintains an extraordinarily helpful and entertaining bankruptcy blog — http://www.arizonabankruptcyblog.info/. Joe regularly produces around 50 informative blog posts each month.

When I asked him how he does it, he said, “Every client question I have ever gotten is a blog post.” Great idea! When you blog with this principle in mind, your blog becomes an amazing communication tool. You already know that this is a blog potential clients will be interested in, and, instead of responding to a prospective client’s inquiry on your rates, for example, you can simply point them to your blog post on the subject. That has the added value of a prospect looking through your other posts.

Another approach is to use your blog to respond to current events and changes to the law. Chris Zachar, a local personal injury attorney, uses his blog to do just that. Chris’ blog educates the public on how to avoid an accident and what to do if they are in an accident. He uses news stories and other sources to illustrate the points he is trying to make.

Blogs and the Search Engines
The search engines really like blogs for two reasons: they offer a diverse search experience, and they offer a great source of fresh custom content. This is why, if you do have a blog, it’s important that you post regularly and often. The search engine spiders will start to realize that your blog is a source of new custom content, and they will get into a habit of indexing your blog often. If you post quite regularly, your posts will eventually begin to rank.

Posting 3-5 times a week is ideal, but once a week is effective, too. Like a snowball rolling downhill, the more you post, the more keywords will be indexed and ranked by the search engines.

If you want your blog to rank in search engines, it is best to focus your message and stay disciplined. I have tried to do that with my own blog, http://www.azlawyermarketing.com/. Just about every post is in some way related to legal Internet marketing in Arizona. Because of that focus and the fact that I post regularly, my blog shows up on the first page for most “arizona attorney marketing” searches.

Twitter and Micro Blogging
By now you have probably heard about the Twitter phenomenon. Twitter, in a nutshell, is a form of micro blogging. Limited to just 140 characters, Twitter was developed to answer the basic question, “What are you doing now?” To me this concept seemed horribly self indulgent and boring — particularly for lawyers. “Hey, I am working on a brief!” However, when used in concert with an actual blog — Twitter does have some utility for attorneys.

Twitter can be a great way to promote new and substantive blog content by letting Twitter followers know when a new blog post is available. In addition, following a Twitter feed can be a source of great blog material. For example, a personal injury attorney may want to follow the Twitter account from one of our local news stations. Doing so would allow them access to accident information as it happens.

Want to sample some super attorney blogs in Arizona? Try these:Bankruptcy http://www.arizonabankruptcyblog.info/ Personal Injury http://www.zacharinjuryblog.blogspot.com/ Nursing Home Abuse http://www.theguardianblog.com/ DUI http://duiblog.arizonaduicenter.com/
Family Law: http://www.bishopandmartinfamilylawblog.com/

Now, are you ready to blog? I hope so. It’s good business.

Growing Firm Seeks Experienced Litigator

Righi Hernandez, a boutique litigation and insurance defense firm is expanding.

The firm is looking for associate attorney with four to seven years of experience in civil litigation, preferably with significant experience in insurance defense and/or construction defect defense. This position requires someone who is innovative and self motivated with excellent writing and people skills. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.

Please send resumes directly to Beth Fitch at Beth@rhfirm.com

Zachar Law Firm Wins $235,000 Arbitration Award

Chris Zachar - $235,000 Arbitration Award Against State Farm Insurance

On December 2, 2004, Selena Hutchens was the restrained driver of a 1995 Jeep Cherokee traveling northbound on Price Road in Mesa, Arizona. At the same time, Avelino Sandoval was driving his vehicle northbound on Price Road, directly behind Selena, and Dong Van Nguyen was driving northbound on Price Road, directly behind Sandoval. As the vehicles approached Southern Avenue, an unknown vehicle (phantom motorist) exited the 101 off-ramp and veered across three lanes of traffic into Selena’s lane, causing her to hit her brakes hard to stop suddenly. Thereafter, she was rear-ended by Sandoval, who was hit Nguyen and again pushed into Selena.

As a result of the refusal of the insurance carriers to accept appropriate responsibility, Selena Hutchens hired Christopher Zachar of the Zachar Law Firm to represent her. Through the course of litigation, paltry offers to settle were made, but none sufficient to properly compensate Mrs. Hutchens. The case proceeded to trial in December 2008. After presentation of the evidence, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Selena Hutchens and against the Defendants, in the amount of $115,000. The jury founds that the phantom motorist was 80% at fault, and Sandoval and Nguyen 10% each. At that point, the case was resolved with the carriers for Sandoval (Allstate) and Nguyen (State Farm).

Thereafter, Selena Hutchens presented a claim for her Uninsured Motorist benefits with State Farm Insurance Company. (Under Arizona law, a phantom motorist falls within the purview of an uninsured driver, so long as the claimant can establish both the presence and fault of the unknown driver.) Selena had a $50,000 Uninsured/Underinsured benefits) policy with State Farm, and she demanded the Uninsured Motorist policy limits of $50,000. State Farm refused to accept the findings of the jury, and instead offered Selena $2,000 as payment in full. Selena rejected this offer, and pursuant to the policy terms demanded arbitration under the policy.
In the course of discovery, Selena’s attorney determined that Selena not only had a claim for Uninsured Motorist benefits for any fault of the phantom motorist, but also, Underinsured Motorist claims for any additional fault of Sandoval and Nguyen. There claims were stated to State Farm and their counsel. Again, State Farm offered $2,000 to settle her claims.

On October 21, 2009, an Arbitration Hearing was held before an Arbitrator mutually agreed upon by the parties. Witness testimony and evidence were presented, as well as arguments for each position. Shortly thereafter, the Arbitrator returned a Decision in favor of Selena Hutchens and against State Farm in the amount of $235,000, finding that the phantom motorist was 50% at fault and Sandoval/Nguyen were a combined 50% at fault. Per the Arbitrator’s findings, it was ordered that State Farm pay Selena Hutchens the full limit of both her Uninsured Motorist and Underinsured Motorist policies, for a combined total of $100,000. The Decision was not appealed by State Farm, and the Award is now final.